Malware: Fighting Malicious Code

Summary

Throughout this book, we've looked at how malware works. In this chapter, we discussed how you can build a lab and analyze your own specimens of malware. To build a lab, you'll need between one and four machines that you don't use for production purposes. These don't have to be fast machines. Surplus equipment or cheap systems from Internet auctions should suffice. Connect the systems with an inexpensive switch or hub. I prefer a hub, so I can easily gather all traffic from the LAN for analysis. I install the Windows, Linux, and OpenBSD operating systems on my lab analysis machines. With tools like VMware and VirtualPC, you can also virtualize the entire lab, installing it on a single hardware box with multiple guest operating systems. ...