8. Stephan Berger: From Zero to a Moderately Skilled MacOS Forensic Analyst

Video Description

Learn the essentials of macOS forensic analysis, from foundational concepts to advanced techniques, in this comprehensive journey into the world of macOS security. 1. Introduction Brief overview of macOS forensic analysis. Why macOS forensics is essential in today’s security landscape. What you’ll gain by the end of this talk: practical skills, tools, and tricks to analyze macOS threats effectively. 2. What Are Plists? Definition and significance: Plist (Property List) files are core to macOS, storing configuration data for apps and system settings. Types of plists: Binary vs. XML formats. How to analyze plists: native tool vs third party tools Practical examples 3. Most Important Logs ASL (Apple System Logger) logs: Historical relevance and tools for access. Unified Audit Logs: Comprehensive, centralized logging introduced in macOS Sierra. Third-party log analyzers. 4. Cool Tricks: Metadata as a Forensic Goldmine File metadata and its importance: Extended attributes and macOS-specific metadata (e.g., Finder tags, Spotlight comments). Quarantine metadata: Detecting downloads and origin sources. Practical demonstration: Using tools like mdls and xattr to extract metadata. 5. Setting Up Your macOS Forensics Lab Hardware considerations: Using Macs or virtualized environments. Analysis tools: Open-source and commercial options. Reverse engineering and debugging tools. 6. Common Infection Vectors Understanding macOS attack surfaces Exploiting macOS-specific features (e.g., AppleScript, launchd). Real-world examples of infection campaigns: Highlighting patterns in infection methods. 7. Persistence Vectors After a Successful Infection Key persistence techniques attackers use: Launch agents and daemons, Login items and kernel extensions, Cron jobs and at jobs. Identifying malicious persistence mechanisms. Using tools like KnockKnock and Autoruns for macOS. 8. Let’s Analyze the Bad Code AppleScript: What is AppleScript, and why is it used by attackers? Common malicious AppleScript scenarios. Tools for analyzing and deobfuscating scripts. Introduction to Mach-O binaries: The native macOS executable format. Tools like otool and MachOView. Analyzing suspicious behavior during runtime. 9. Disassembling, Decompiling, and Debugging Disassembling: Hopper, Ghidra, and IDA Pro. Breaking down Mach-O binaries into assembly code. Decompiling: Extracting higher-level representations of code. Debugging: Using LLDB for runtime inspection and manipulation. Practical debugging strategies for malware. 10. Anti-Analysis Tricks Common anti-analysis techniques used by macOS malware: Obfuscation techniques in scripts and binaries. How to counteract anti-analysis tricks