Open Access

ARTICLE

MMALE—A Methodology for Malware Analysis in Linux Environments

by José Javier de Vicente Mohino¹, Javier Bermejo Higuera¹, Juan Ramón Bermejo Higuera¹, Juan Antonio Sicilia Montalvo^1,*, Manuel Sánchez Rubio¹, José Javier Martínez Herraiz²

1 Escuela Superior de Ingeniería y Tecnología, Universidad Internacional de La Rioja, Logroño, 26006, La Rioja, Spain
2 Departamento de Ciencias de la Computación de la Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain

* Corresponding Author: Juan Antonio Sicilia Montalvo. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Current trends and Advancements for next-generation secure Industrial IoT)

Computers, Materials & Continua 2021, 67(2), 1447-1469. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmc.2021.014596

Received 01 October 2020; Accepted 28 November 2020; Issue published 05 February 2021

Abstract

In a computer environment, an operating system is prone to malware, and even the Linux operating system is not an exception. In recent years, malware has evolved, and attackers have become more qualified compared to a few years ago. Furthermore, Linux-based systems have become more attractive to cybercriminals because of the increasing use of the Linux operating system in web servers and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Windows is the most employed OS, so most of the research efforts have been focused on its malware protection rather than on other operating systems. As a result, hundreds of research articles, documents, and methodologies dedicated to malware analysis have been reported. However, there has not been much literature concerning Linux security and protection from malware. To address all these new challenges, it is necessary to develop a methodology that can standardize the required steps to perform the malware analysis in depth. A systematic analysis process makes the difference between good and ordinary malware analyses. Additionally, a deep malware comprehension can yield a faster and much more efficient malware eradication. In order to address all mentioned challenges, this article proposed a methodology for malware analysis in the Linux operating system, which is a traditionally overlooked field compared to the other operating systems. The proposed methodology is tested by a specific Linux malware, and the obtained test results have high effectiveness in malware detection.

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Keywords

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