Kernel mode API spectroscopy for incident response and digital forensics

  • Authors:
  • Viviane Zwanger;Felix C. Freiling

  • Affiliations:
  • Friedrich-Alexander-University, Erlangen, Germany;Friedrich-Alexander-University, Erlangen, Germany

  • Venue:
  • PPREW '13 Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGPLAN Program Protection and Reverse Engineering Workshop
  • Year:
  • 2013

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Abstract

A (kernel mode) API spectrum of binary code is a histogram of the (kernel) API calls made by that code. When API calls are grouped into functional classes, an API spectrum can give a compact insight into the possible functionality of an unknown piece of code and therefore is useful in IT incident response and digital forensics. We present the design and implementation of an API spectroscope for the Windows operating system. One main feature of our system is its use of the Windows kernel debugger as a translator of binary code to API names used in our spectrum.