In this lab, we'll dive into the fascinating world of memory forensics to investigate a suspected security breach at AllSafeCybersec. The incident began when an employee reported that their machine started behaving strangely after receiving a suspicious email about a security update. In response, the incident response team captured memory dumps from several suspected machines for forensic analysis. Memory forensics is a powerful investigative technique that allows us to examine the volatile state of a system at the time of the incident. Unlike disk forensics, memory analysis can reveal active processes, network connections, open files, and other volatile artifacts that would be lost upon system shutdown. This approach is particularly valuable for investigating advanced threats that may employ fileless malware techniques or anti-forensic capabilities to evade traditional detection methods.
Throughout this walkthrough, we'll use the Volatility Framework, a robust open-source memory forensics tool, to analyze the captured memory dumps. We'll follow the attacker's trail from the initial infection vector through lateral movement and privilege escalation to their ultimate objectives. Our investigation will cover three key systems: the front desk machine where the initial compromise occurred, a security administrator's workstation that was later compromised through lateral movement, and finally a Point of Sale system that appears to have been targeted for data theft.
As we progress through this analysis, we'll apply various memory forensics techniques to recover evidence of malicious activity, including examining running processes, network connections, registry modifications, comm