Malware & Reverse Engineering

By the end, you can

• Classify a described malware sample by how it spreads (virus, worm, trojan) and by its payload (ransomware, spyware, rootkit, botnet).
• List the seven stages of the cyber kill chain in order and explain the asymmetry between attacker and defender.
• Contrast static and dynamic analysis — what each examines and what each misses.
• Explain how packing, polymorphism, and metamorphism defeat static signatures.
• Distinguish the weaknesses of signature-based versus behavior-based detection.
• Describe the undecidability argument that proves no perfect malware detector can exist.
• Explain why malware analysis must be conducted in an isolated, networkless lab environment.