| name | conducting-memory-forensics-with-volatility |
| description | Performs memory forensics analysis using Volatility 3 to extract evidence of malware execution, process injection, network connections, and credential theft from RAM dumps captured during incident response. Covers memory acquisition, process analysis, DLL inspection, and malware detection. Activates for requests involving memory forensics, RAM analysis, Volatility framework, memory dump investigation, volatile evidence analysis, or live memory acquisition.
|
| domain | cybersecurity |
| subdomain | incident-response |
| tags | ["memory-forensics","volatility","RAM-analysis","process-injection","DFIR"] |
| mitre_attack | ["T1055","T1003.001","T1014","T1059.001","T1620"] |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| author | mahipal |
| license | Apache-2.0 |
| nist_csf | ["RS.MA-01","RS.MA-02","RS.AN-03","RC.RP-01"] |
Conducting Memory Forensics with Volatility
When to Use
- An endpoint has been contained during an active incident and volatile evidence must be preserved
- EDR alerts suggest process injection or fileless malware that only exists in memory
- Encryption keys need to be recovered from a ransomware-infected system before shutdown
- Credential theft (Mimikatz, LSASS dumping) is suspected and evidence must be confirmed
- A rootkit or kernel-level compromise is suspected and disk-based analysis is insufficient
Do not use for analyzing disk images or file system artifacts; use disk forensics tools (Autopsy, FTK) for those tasks.
Prerequisites
- Memory acquisition tool deployed or available: WinPmem, Magnet RAM Capture, DumpIt, or AVML (Linux)
- Volatility 3 installed with Python 3.8+ and required symbol tables
- Sufficient storage for memory dumps (equal to system RAM size, typically 8-64 GB)
- YARA rules for malware detection in memory (Florian Roth's signature-base, custom rules)
- Reference baseline of normal processes and DLLs for the OS version being analyzed
- Chain of custody documentation for evidence handling
Workflow
Step 1: Acquire Memory Image
Capture RAM from the target system using a forensically sound method:
Windows (WinPmem):
winpmem_mini_x64.exe output.raw
Windows (Magnet RAM Capture):
MagnetRAMCapture.exe
# GUI-based, select output path, generates .raw file
Windows (DumpIt):
DumpIt.exe
# Creates memory dump in current directory automatically
Linux (AVML - Acquire Volatile Memory for Linux):
./avml output.lime
Document acquisition metadata:
Acquisition Record:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Target Host: WKSTN-042
RAM Size: 16 GB
Dump File: WKSTN-042_20251115_1445.raw
Dump Size: 16,843,612,160 bytes
SHA-256: a4b3c2d1e5f6...
Acquisition Tool: WinPmem 4.0
Acquired By: [Analyst Name]
Timestamp: 2025-11-15T14:45:00Z
Step 2: Identify the Operating System and Profile
Volatility 3 automatically identifies the OS, but verify:
vol -f WKSTN-042_20251115_1445.raw windows.info
