System and method for detecting exfiltration content

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9565202-B1
Application number	US-201313801573-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Mar 13, 2013
Priority date	Mar 13, 2013
Publication date	Feb 7, 2017
Grant date	Feb 7, 2017

Abstract

Techniques for detecting exfiltration content are described herein. According to one embodiment, a malicious content suspect is executed within a virtual machine that simulates a target operating environment associated with the malicious content suspect. A packet inspection is performed on outbound network traffic initiated by the malicious content suspect to determine whether the outbound network traffic matches a predetermined network traffic pattern. An alert is generated indicating that the malicious content suspect should be declared as malicious, in response to determining that the outbound network traffic matches the predetermined network traffic pattern.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for detecting exfiltration content, comprising:
executing, by a processor, a malicious content suspect within a virtual machine that simulates a target operating environment associated with the malicious content suspect;
prior to outbound network traffic initiated by the malicious content suspect leaving the virtual machine, performing a packet inspection, by a packet inspector executed by the processor and running within the virtual machine, on the outbound network traffic, the packet inspection to determine whether a portion of the outbound network traffic matches one or more portions of predetermined network traffic patterns or signatures;
responsive to determining the portion of the outbound network traffic matches the one or more portions of predetermined network traffic patterns or signatures, determining whether the outbound network traffic includes at least one environmental property of the virtual machine that is unique to the virtual machine;
responsive to determining the outbound network traffic includes the at least one environmental property of the virtual machine that is unique to the virtual machine, precluding migration of the outbound network traffic outside of the virtual machine to avoid the malicious content suspect from (i) gaining access to other components or (ii) signaling that the packet inspection is being conducted; and
generating an alert by a module executed by the processor, the alert indicating that the malicious content suspect is attempting to perform an exfiltration of data based on determining that the outbound network traffic includes the at least one unique environmental property of the virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining whether the outbound network traffic includes the at least one unique environmental property of the virtual machine comprises matching the at least one unique environmental property to any of a set of patterns that is based on a virtual machine selected to process the malicious content suspect.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one unique environmental property of the virtual machine comprises an identifier of an electronic device represented by the virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the identifier comprises a NetBIOS name associated with the virtual machine.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the performing of the packet inspection comprises performing a content search of the outbound network traffic based on a predetermined signature that was generated by encoding, using a predetermined encoding algorithm, a text string representing a unique identifier of an electronic device represented by the virtual machine comprising the at least one environmental property.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one environmental property of the virtual machine is unique when an encoded or compressed form of data of the at least one environmental property fails to match generic network traffic.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a destination of the outbound network traffic is represented by a virtual network interface presented by the virtual machine, without allowing the outbound network traffic to reach an actual destination outside of a data processing system that hosts the virtual machine.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one unique environmental property of the virtual machine comprises identifying information associated with hardware included in an electronic device that is represented by the virtual machine.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the identifying information comprises a serial number for a processor associated with the electronic device.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the identifying information comprises a serial number for one or more of a motherboard, a basic input/output system (BIOS), a network interface or a storage device associated with the electronic device.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the outbound network traffic comprises a network data transmitted in accordance with Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the packet inspection is performed by capturing the outbound network traffic upon detecting a callback made by the malicious content suspect.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one environmental property comprises an identifier that is encoded and used to scan subsequent outbound network traffic.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations for detecting exfiltration content, comprising:
executing a malicious content suspect within a virtual machine that simulates a target operating environment associated with the malicious content suspect;
prior to outbound network traffic initiated by the malicious content suspect leaving the virtual machine, performing a packet inspection within the virtual machine on the outbound network traffic, the packet inspection to determine whether a portion of the outbound network traffic matches one or more portions of predetermined network traffic patterns or signatures;
responsive to determining the portion of the outbound network traffic matches the one or more portions of predetermined network traffic patterns or signatures, determining whether the outbound network traffic includes at least one environmental property of the virtual machine that is unique to the virtual machine;
responsive to determining the outbound network traffic includes the at least one environmental property of the virtual machine that is unique to the virtual machine, precluding migration of the outbound network traffic outside of the virtual machine to avoid the malicious content suspect from (i) gaining access to other components or (ii) signaling that the packet inspection is being conducted;
generating an alert indicating that the malicious content suspect is attempting to perform an exfiltration of data based on determining that the outbound network traffic includes the at least one unique environmental property of the virtual machine; and
transmitting the alert via an external network.

15. The medium of claim 14 , wherein the determining whether the outbound network traffic includes the at least one unique environmental property of the virtual machine comprises matching the at least one unique environmental property to any of a set of patterns that is based on a virtual machine selected to process the malicious content suspect.

16. The medium of claim 14 , wherein the at least one unique environmental property of the virtual machine comprises an identifier of an electronic device represented by the virtual machine.

17. The medium of claim 16 , wherein the identifier comprises a NetBIOS name associated with the virtual machine.

18. The medium of claim 14 , wherein the performing of the packet inspection comprises performing a content search of the outbound network traffic based on a predetermined signature that was generated by encoding, using a predetermined encoding algorithm, a text string representing a unique identifier of an electronic device represented by the virtual machine.

19. The medium of claim 14 , wherein the at least one environmental property of the virtual machine is unique when an encoded or compressed form of data of the at least one environmental property fails to match generic network traffic.

20. The medium of claim 14 , wherein a destination of the outbound network traffic is represented by a virtual net

Assignees

• Fireeye Inc

Inventors

• Kindlund Darien
• Wolf Julia
• Bennett James

Classifications

• G06F21/567

  using dedicated hardware · CPC title

• G06F21/561

  Virus type analysis · CPC title

• G06F21/53

  by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine · CPC title

• H04L63/1425

  Traffic logging, e.g. anomaly detection · CPC title

• H04L63/1441 Primary

  Countermeasures against malicious traffic (countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002) · CPC title