Security Training
Security Certification
Internet Storm Center
Cyber Security Graduate School
Security Awareness Training
ICS/SCADA
Penetration Testing
Cyber Defense Foundations
IT Audit
Computer Forensics
Software SecurityFOR508: Advanced Computer Forensic Analysis and Incident Response
- Contents | Additional Info
- Delivery Methods:
Live | Online
NEW FOR508!
-This course focuses on providing incident responders with the necessary skills to hunt down and counter a wide range of threats within enterprise networks, including economic espionage, hactivism, and financial crime syndicates. The completely updated FOR508 addresses today's incidents by providing real-life, hands-on response tactics. Don't miss the NEW FOR508!
Overview
DAY 0: A 3-letter government agency contacts you to say that critical information was stolen from a targeted attack on your organization. Don't ask how they know, but they tell you that there are several breached systems within your enterprise. You are compromised by an Advanced Persistent Threat, aka an APT - the most sophisticated threat you are likely to face in your efforts to defend your systems and data.
Over 90% of all breach victims learn of a compromise from third party notification, not from internal security teams. In most cases, adversaries have been rummaging through your network undetected for months or even years. Gather your team - it's time to go hunting.
FOR508: Advanced Computer Forensic Analysis and Incident Response will help you determine:
- How did the breach occur?
- What systems were compromised?
- What did they take? What did they change?
- How do we remediate the incident?
The updated FOR508 trains digital forensic analysts and incident response teams to identify, contain, and remediate sophisticated threats-including APT groups and financial crime syndicates. A hands-on lab-developed from a real-world targeted attack on an enterprise network-leads you through the challenges and solutions. You will identify where the initial targeted attack occurred and which systems an APT group compromised. The course will prepare you to find out which data was stolen and by whom, contain the threat, and provide your organization the capabilities to manage and counter the attack.
During a targeted attack, an organization needs the best incident responders and forensic analysts in the field. FOR508 will train you and your team to be ready to do this work.
Course Will Prepare You To:
- Detect unknown live, dormant, and custom malware in memory across multiple windows systems in an enterprise environment
- Find malware beaconing outbound to its command and control (C2) channel via memory forensics, registry analysis, and network connection residue
- Identify how the breach occurred by identifying the beach head and spear phishing attack mechanisms
- Target anti-forensics techniques like hidden and time-stomped malware, along with utility-ware that the attackers uses to move in your network and maintain their presence
- Use memory analysis and forensic tools in the SIFT Workstation to detect hidden processes, malware, attacker command-lines, rootkits, network connections, and more
- Track user and attacker activity second by second on the system you are analyzing through in-depth timeline and super-timeline analysis
- Recover data cleared using anti-forensic techniques via Volume Shadow Copy and Restore Point analysis
- Learn how filesystems work and discover powerful forensic artifacts like NTFS $I30 indexes, journal parsing, and detailed Master File Table analysis
- Identify lateral movement and pivoted within your enterprise and show how attackers transition from system to system without being detected
- Understand how the attacker can acquire legitimate credentials, including domain administrator rights in a locked down environment
- Track data movement as the attackers collect critical data and shift it to exfiltration systems
- Recover and analyze rar archive files used by APT-like attackers to exfiltrate sensitive data from the enterprise network
Course Topics
- Advanced Use of the SIFT Workstation in Incident Response and Digital Forensics
- Responding to an APT group, Organized Crime Hackers, and Hackivists
- Incident Response and Intrusion Forensics Methodology
- Threat and Security Intelligence
- Remote and Enterprise IR System Analysis
- Windows Live Incident Response
- Memory Analysis
- Timeline Analysis
- System Restore Points and Volume Shadow Copy Exploitation
- File System Analysis
- In-depth Windows NTFS File System Examination
- Advanced File Recovery and Data Carving
- Recovering Key Windows Files
- Discovering Unknown Malware on a System
- Adversary Threat Intelligence Development, Indicators of Compromise, and Usage
- Step-by-Step Methodologies to Respond to and Investigate Intrusion Cases
| Course Contents |
|---|
| FOR508.1: Enterprise Incident Response |
OverviewIncident responders should be armed with the latest tools, memory analysis techniques, and enterprise scanning methodologies in order to identify, track and contain advanced adversaries, and remediate incidents. Incident response and forensic analysts responding must be able to scale their examinations from the traditional one analyst per system toward one analyst per 1,000 or more systems. Enterprise scanning techniques are now a requirement to track targeted attacks by an APT group or crime syndicate groups which propagate through thousands of systems. This is simply something that cannot be accomplished using the standard "pull the hard drive" forensic examination methodology. Such an approach will in fact alert the adversary that you are aware and may allow them to quickly exfiltrate sensitive information. In this section, the six-step incident response methodology is examined as it applies to response in an enterprise during a targeted attack. We will show how important development of security intelligence is in affecting the adversaries "kill chain." We will also demonstrate live response techniques and tactics that can be applied on a single system and across the entire enterprise. CPE/CMU Credits: 6 TopicsSIFT Workstation Overview
Incident Response Methodology
Threat and Adversary Intelligence
Intrusion Digital Forensics Methodology
Remote and Enterprise IR System Analysis
Windows Live Incident Response
|
| FOR508.2: Memory Forensics |
OverviewCritical to many IR teams detecting advanced threats in the organization, memory forensics has come a long way in just a few years. It can be extraordinarily effective at finding evidence of worms, rootkits, and advanced malware used by an APT group of attackers. While traditionally solely the domain of Windows internals experts, recent tools now make memory analysis feasible for anyone. Better interfaces, documentation, and built-in detection heuristics have greatly leveled the playing field. This section will introduce some of the newest free tools available and give you a solid foundation in adding core and advanced memory forensic skills to your incident response and forensics armory. CPE/CMU Credits: 6 TopicsMemory Acquisition
Memory Forensics Analysis Process
Memory Forensics Examinations
|
| FOR508.3: Timeline Analysis |
OverviewTimeline Analysis will change the way you approach digital forensics and incident response... forever. Learn advanced analysis techniques uncovered via timeline analysis directly from the developers that pioneered timeline analysis tradecraft. Temporal data is located everywhere on a computer system. Filesystem modified/access/creation/change times, log files, network data, registry data, and, internet history files all contain time data that can be correlated into critical analysis to successfully solve cases. Pioneered by Rob Lee in 2001, timeline analysis has become a critical investigative technique to solve complex cases. New timeline analysis frameworks provide the means to conduct simultaneous examinations of a multitude of time based artifacts. Analysis that once took days now takes minutes. This section will step you through the two primary methods of creating and analyzing timelines created during advanced incidents and forensic cases. Exercises will not only show each analyst how to create a timeline, but introduce key methods to use them effectively in your cases. CPE/CMU Credits: 6 TopicsTimeline Analysis Overview
Filesystem Timeline Creation and Analysis
Super Timeline Creation and Analysis
|
| FOR508.4: Deep Dive Forensics And Anti-Forensics Detection |
OverviewA major criticism of digital forensic professionals is that many tools simply require a few mouse clicks to have the tool automatically recover data as evidence. This "push button" mentality has led to many inaccurate case results in the past few years including high profile cases such as the Casey Anthony murder trial. You will stop being reliant on "push button" forensic techniques as we cover how the engines of digital forensic tools really work. To understand how to carve out data, it is best to understand how to do it by hand and then show how automated tools should be able to recover the same data. You will learn how to perform string searches looking for specific residue from a file and learn multiple ways to recover the file data across the layers of the filesystem. If a file or registry key has been wiped or deleted, this section shows how to use Windows historical artifacts to still recover key pieces of the data that no longer exist on the system. This knowledge will allow you to see beyond most anti-forensic techniques allowing you to gain the advantage while responding to breaches in your organization where an adversary is actively attempting to hide from you. CPE/CMU Credits: 6 TopicsWindows XP Restore Point Analysis
VISTA , Windows 7, Server 2008 Shadow Volume Copy Analysis
Deep Dive Forensics Analysis
|
| FOR508.5: Intrusion Forensics |
OverviewPART 1 - INTRUSION FORENSICS - THE ART OF FINDING UNKNOWN MALWARE The adversaries are good, we must be better. Over the years, we have observed that many incident responders have a challenging time finding malware without effective indicators of compromise (IOCs) or threat intelligence gathered prior to a breach. This is especially true in APT group intrusions. This advanced session will demonstrate techniques used by first responders to discover malware or forensic artifacts when very little information exists about their capabilities or hidden locations. We will discuss techniques to help funnel possibilities down to the candidates most likely to be evil malware trying to hide on the system. The section concludes with a step-by-step approach on how to handle some of the most difficult types of investigations. You will learn the best ways to approach intrusion and spear phishing attacks. You will understand locations you can examine to determine if file wiping occurred. You will discover techniques to prove that privacy clearing software was utilized. Regardless of the actions hackers might take, they will always leave something that can be traced. This discussion will solidify your new skills into a working attack plan to solve these difficult cases. PART II - COMPUTER INVESTIGATIVE LAW FOR ANALYSTS AND RESPONDERS Legal issues, especially liability, remain foremost in the minds of an incident handler or forensic investigator. Therefore, this section has more discussion than any other we offer. Learn to investigate incidents while minimizing the risk for legal trouble. This course is designed not for management, but for the Digital Forensic and Incident Response team leaders in charge of an investigation. The content focuses on challenges that every lead investigator needs to understand before, during, and post investigation. Since many investigations can end up in a criminal or civil courtroom, it is essential to understand how to perform a computer-based investigation legally and ethically. We will confront many of the legal myths that have caused you to hesitate when developing your incident handling procedures and pursuing incidents. You will also gain a realistic perspective on the strengths and limitations of law enforcement assistance in the investigation of incidents and the prosecution of attackers. Written by one of the foremost computer crime lawyers, the information presented provides an essential legal foundation for professionals managing or working in incident handling teams around the world. CPE/CMU Credits: 6 TopicsPART 1 - INTRUSION FORENSICS - THE ART OF FINDING UNKNOWN MALWARE Step-by-Step Finding Unknown Malware On A System
Anti-Forensics Detection Methodologies
Methodology to Analyze and Solve Challenging Cases
PART II - COMPUTER INVESTIGATIVE LAW FOR ANALYSTS AND RESPONDERS Who Can Investigate and Investigative Process Laws
Evidence Acquisition/Analysis/Preservation Laws and Guidelines
Laws Investigators Should Know
Forensic Reports and Testimony Legal Testimony Address Scientific Process, Audience, and Legal Utility How To Document Work So It Is Repeatable Scientific Methods That Show Clear Conclusions Based In Factual Evidence |
| FOR508.6: The Incident Response and Forensic Challenge |
OverviewThis brand new exercise created in 2012 brings together some of the most exciting techniques learned earlier in the week and tests your newly acquired skills in a case that simulates an attack by an advanced adversary such as an APT. This challenge brings it all together using a simulated intrusion into a real enterprise environment consisting of multiple Windows systems. You will be asked to uncover how the systems were compromised in the initial intrusion, find other systems the adversary moved to laterally, and identify intellectual property stolen via data exfiltration. You will walk out of the course with hands-on experience investigating realistic scenarios, which were put together by a cadre of individuals with many years of experience fighting advanced threats such as an APT group. CPE/CMU Credits: 6 TopicsThe Intrusion Forensic Challenge will have each Incident Response team analyzing multiple systems in the Enterprise network. Each Incident Response team will be asked to answer the following key questions during the challenge just like they would during a real-breach in their organizations: IDENTIFICATION AND SCOPING:
CONTAINMENT AND SECURITY INTELLIGENCE GATHERING:
REMEDIATION AND RECOVERY
|
| Additional Information |
| Laptop Required |
|
!!IMPORTANT - BRING YOUR OWN SYSTEM CONFIGURED USING THESE DIRECTIONS!! Download the latest version of the SIFT Workstation here: http://computer-forensics.sans.org/community/downloads. You can use any 64-bit version of Windows, MAC OSX, or Linux as your core operating system that also can install and run VMware virtualization products. It is critical that your CPU and operating system support 64-bit so that our 64-bit guest virtual machine will run on your laptop. VMware provides a free tool for Windows and Linux that will detect whether or not your host supports 64-bit guest virtual machines. For further troubleshooting, this article also provides good instructions for Windows users to determine more about the CPU and OS capabilities. For Macs, please use this support page from Apple to determine 64-bit capability.
Please download and install VMware Workstation 8, VMware Fusion 5.0, or VMware Player 5.0 or higher versions on your system prior to class beginning. If you do not own a licensed copy of VMware Workstation or Fusion, you can download a free 30-day trial copy from VMware. VMware will send you a time-limited serial number if you register for the trial at their Web site. VMware Player is a free download that does not need a commercial license. Most students find VMware Player adequate for the course. MANDATORY FOR508 SYSTEM HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS:
MANDATORY FOR508 SYSTEM SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS (Please install the following prior to the beginning of the class):
OPTIONAL ITEMS TO BRING TO CLASS
If you have additional questions about the laptop specifications, please contact laptop_prep@sans.org. |
| Who Should Attend |
|
| Prerequisites |
FOR508 (Advanced Forensics and Incident Response) and FOR408 (Computer Forensic Investigations - Windows In-Depth) are designed to be companion courses with skills that build upon one another. While we suggest taking FOR408 prior to FOR508, students will benefit from taking the courses in any order. |
| HANDS-ON APT Enterprise Intrusion Lab |
|
One of the biggest complaints that many have in the digital forensics and incident response community is the lack of realistic intrusion data. Most real-world intrusion data is simply too sensitive to be shared. Starting a year ago, course authors created a realistic scenario based on experiences surveyed from panel of responders who regularly respond to targeted APT attacks. They helped review and guide the targeted attack "script" used to create the scenario. As a result, the authors created an incredibly rich and realistic attack scenario across multiple enterprise systems. This APT attack lab forms the basis for training during the week. The network was setup to mimic a standard "protected" enterprise network using standard compliance checklists.
This exercise and challenge will be used to show real adversary traces across host systems, system memory, hibernation/pagefiles and more.
In the end, we will have created authentic memory captures on each box, network captures, malware samples, in addition to full disk images w/Restore Points (XP) and VSS for (Win7 and Win2008) systems |
| Why Take This Course? |
What you Will Learn
|
| What You Will Receive |
|
| You Will Be Able To |
|
| Press & Reviews |
"THE SANS508 COURSE EXCEEDED MY EXPECTATIONS IN EVERY WAY. IT PROVIDED ME THE SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE, AND TOOLS TO EFFECTIVELY RESPOND TO AND HANDLE APTS AND OTHER ENTERPRISE WIDE THREATS." -Josh Moulin NSTEC/NNSA/DOE "THE EXAMPLES IN THE COURSE RELATE TO WHAT I NEED TO KNOW TO DEAL WITH REAL WORLD THREATS." -Tim Weaver, Digital Mtn. Inc. "I WAS SURPRISED AND AMAZED AT HOW EASY IT IS TO DO MEMORY ANALYSIS AND HOW HELPFUL IT IS." - Brian Dugay, Apple "THE LEVEL OF DETAIL IS AMAZING. THE METHODOLOGY IS CLEARLY EFFECTIVE AT FINDING PERTINENT ARTIFACTS." - no name FULL REVIEW AND WRITE UP OF FOR508 BY DAVID NIDES, KPMG- PRESS ARTICLES ABOUT THE NEW FOR508 COURSE:
Should I take SANS 408 or 508? (part 1) - http://digitalforensicstips.com/category/training_reviews/ SANS 508 Compared to 408 Part Two (part 2) - http://digitalforensicstips.com/2013/04/sans-508-compared-to-408-part-two-plus-a-side-of-610/ |
Additional Resources
Take your learning beyond the classroom. Explore our site network for additional resources related to this course's subject matter.
*CPE/CMU credits not offered for the SelfStudy delivery method
