- his article will discuss and demonstrate how polymorphic malware use self-modification to hide its inner workings, In my previous post , I explained how to write a malware with metamorphism features. So what is it, Well, Polymorphic malware is an old idea basically “is being able to assign a different behavior or value to something” which make it tricky to detect and protect against, Polymorphic malware takes advantage of encryption to obfuscate its original code effectively evading detection by traditional signature-based detection mechanisms.
encrypting the code, However, The effectiveness of AV has improved over time In the early days detection relied heavily on signature-based scanning which programs would compare files and system components against a database of known malware signatures. which a malware can still be deadly until they’re detected and signed by antivirus companies, Now AV focuses more on using A.I and implementing more sophisticated algorithms such as behavior-based detection (monitoring the actions and activities of running programs) Still, There are plenty of examples of malware ignored by everyone because they are silent enough not to attract the attention of the guards.Background- I’m assuming you’re familiar with Encryption techniques, XOR encryption, memory access and protection – before continuing, it’s recommended you read up on these topics.
- Overview
- The malware designed to be simple in the way it behave but complex enough to not attract attention, The idea behind the malware is not about executing payload but only about obfuscation and self-modification we will explore code snippets that demonstrate the implementation of obfuscation. These snippets will provide insights into the specific techniques and mechanisms employed to evade detection, Finally I’ll provide a detailed explanation of each code segment, shedding light on the inner workings of the malware.
- Execution flow
- The malware scans the current directory and overwrites all executable files that have not been previously infected each propagation uses a unique version of the code, The original executable is run from a hidden file it was copied to during the propagation to disguise the fact that the actual executable was infected. Finally, the malware spawns a child process, which creates a reverse shell that allows an attacker to execute commands on a remote host.