Membrane: A Posteriori Detection of Malicious Code Loading by Memory Paging Analysis

In this paper, we design and implement Membrane, a memory forensics tool to detect code loading behavior by stealthy malware. Instead of trying to detect the code loading itself, we focus on the changes it causes on the memory paging of the Windows operating system. As our method focuses on the anomalies caused by code loading, we are able to detect a wide range of code loading techniques. Our results indicate that we can detect code loading malware behavior with 86–98 % success in most cases, including advanced targeted attacks. Our method is generic enough and hence could significantly raise the bar for attackers to remain stealthy and persist for an extended period of time.