Linux Malware Incident Response: A Practitioner's Guide to Forensic Collection and Examination of Volatile Data: An Excerpt from Malware Forensic Field Guide for Linux Systems

Eoghan Casey · Cameron H. Malin · James M. Aquilina

Apr 2013 · Elsevier

About this ebook

Linux Malware Incident Response is a "first look" at the Malware Forensics Field Guide for Linux Systems, exhibiting the first steps in investigating Linux-based incidents. The Syngress Digital Forensics Field Guides series includes companions for any digital and computer forensic investigator and analyst. Each book is a "toolkit" with checklists for specific tasks, case studies of difficult situations, and expert analyst tips. This compendium of tools for computer forensics analysts and investigators is presented in a succinct outline format with cross-references to supplemental appendices. It is designed to provide the digital investigator clear and concise guidance in an easily accessible format for responding to an incident or conducting analysis in a lab.

• Presented in a succinct outline format with cross-references to included supplemental components and appendices
• Covers volatile data collection methodology as well as non-volatile data collection from a live Linux system
• Addresses malware artifact discovery and extraction from a live Linux system

About the author

Eoghan Casey is an internationally recognized expert in data breach investigations and information security forensics. He is founding partner of CASEITE.com, and co-manages the Risk Prevention and Response business unit at DFLabs. Over the past decade, he has consulted with many attorneys, agencies, and police departments in the United States, South America, and Europe on a wide range of digital investigations, including fraud, violent crimes, identity theft, and on-line criminal activity. Eoghan has helped organizations investigate and manage security breaches, including network intrusions with international scope. He has delivered expert testimony in civil and criminal cases, and has submitted expert reports and prepared trial exhibits for computer forensic and cyber-crime cases. In addition to his casework and writing the foundational book Digital Evidence and Computer Crime, Eoghan has worked as R&D Team Lead in the Defense Cyber Crime Institute (DCCI) at the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3) helping enhance their operational capabilities and develop new techniques and tools. He also teaches graduate students at Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute and created the Mobile Device Forensics course taught worldwide through the SANS Institute. He has delivered keynotes and taught workshops around the globe on various topics related to data breach investigation, digital forensics and cyber security. Eoghan has performed thousands of forensic acquisitions and examinations, including Windows and UNIX systems, Enterprise servers, smart phones, cell phones, network logs, backup tapes, and database systems. He also has information security experience, as an Information Security Officer at Yale University and in subsequent consulting work. He has performed vulnerability assessments, deployed and maintained intrusion detection systems, firewalls and public key infrastructures, and developed policies, procedures, and educational programs for a variety of organizations. Eoghan has authored advanced technical books in his areas of expertise that are used by practitioners and universities around the world, and he is Editor-in-Chief of Elsevier's International Journal of Digital Investigation.

Cameron H. Malin is a Behavioral Profiler with over 20 years of experience investigating, analyzing and profiling cyber adversaries across the spectrum of criminal to national security. He is the founder of the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit’s (BAU) Cyber Behavioral Analysis Center (CBAC) and the longest serving FBI Cyber Profiler. He is a co-author of the authoritative cyber deception book, Deception in the Digital Age: Exploiting and Defending Human Targets Through Computer-Mediated Communications (published by Academic Press, an imprint of Elsevier, Inc.) and co-author of the Malware Forensics book series: Malware Forensics: Investigating and Analyzing Malicious Code, Malware Forensics Field Guide for Windows Systems, and Malware Forensics Field Guide for Linux Systems (all published by Syngress, an imprint of Elsevier, Inc.). Cameron is the creator of Digital Behavioral Criminalistics – a combined application of numerous forensic disciplines—digital forensics, criminalistics, and behavioral sciences—to meaningfully uncovering offender thoughts and actions in digital artifacts—as well as the Cyber Pathway to Intended Violence (CPIV)—a model for assessing violent offenders who have engaged computer systems, devices, and/or online resources before, during, and/or after a premeditated, violent act. These important emerging topics were published in his book chapter Digital Behavioral Criminalistics to Elucidate the Cyber Pathway to Intended Violence in the International Handbook of Threat Assessment, 2nd Edition (Oxford University Press, 2021). Prior to working for the FBI, Cameron was an Assistant State Attorney (ASA) and Special Assistant United States Attorney in Miami, Florida, where he specialized in computer crime prosecutions. During his tenure as an ASA, he was also an Assistant Professorial Lecturer in the Computer Fraud Investigations Master’s Program at George Washington University.

James M. Aquilina, Esq. is the Managing Director and Deputy General Counsel of Stroz Friedberg, LLC, a consulting and technical services firm specializing in computer forensics; cyber-crime response; private investigations; and the preservation, analysis and production of electronic data from single hard drives to complex corporate networks. As the head of the Los Angeles Office, Mr. Aquilina supervises and conducts digital forensics and cyber-crime investigations and oversees large digital evidence projects. Mr. Aquilina also consults on the technical and strategic aspects of anti-piracy, antispyware, and digital rights management (DRM) initiatives for the media and entertainment industries, providing strategic thinking, software assurance, testing of beta products, investigative assistance, and advice on whether the technical components of the initiatives implicate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and anti-spyware and consumer fraud legislation. His deep knowledge of botnets, distributed denial of service attacks, and other automated cyber-intrusions enables him to provide companies with advice to bolster their infrastructure protection.