CAPE, derived from Cuckoo v1, is a sophisticated malware sandbox designed to execute malicious files in an isolated environment while capturing their dynamic behavior and collecting forensic artifacts.
This platform enhances Cuckoo’s capabilities by incorporating automated dynamic malware unpacking, classification based on YARA signatures of unpacked payloads, and static & dynamic malware configuration extraction.
CAPE’s advanced features include a programmable debugger that allows for custom unpacking and configuration extractors, enabling researchers to bypass anti-sandbox techniques dynamically.
Enhanced Capabilities and Features
CAPE’s core capabilities include behavioral instrumentation via API hooking, capturing files created, modified, or deleted during execution, and network traffic capture in PCAP format.
It also supports malware classification through behavioral and network signatures, screenshots of the desktop during malware execution, and full memory dumps of the target system.
The platform’s debugger allows for dynamic anti-evasion bypasses, enabling it to counter modern malware’s evasion techniques, such as timing traps and API hook detection.
According to the researchers, this is achieved by integrating debugger actions within YARA signatures to detect evasive malware and manipulate its control flow.
Community and Development
The CAPE project has seen significant contributions from the community, including a massive port to Python 3 by Andriy ‘doomedraven’ Brukhovetskyy.
The community repository contains hundreds of signatures developed by contributors, which can be integrated into the core project.
CAPEv2, the latest iteration, continues to evolve with advancements in malware and operating systems, incorporating features like interactive desktops and AMSI payload capture.
The platform is highly customizable, allowing users to create new signatures, parsers, and bypasses for various malware families.
CAPE is optimized for installation on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with Windows 10 21H2 as the target operating system.
It recommends using KVM as the hypervisor and executing scripts from a tmux session to prevent OS issues.
Configuration is crucial, with modifications made to files in the conf folder and services restarted to apply changes.
The project encourages community involvement in developing new features and signatures, contributing to its robustness and versatility in malware analysis.
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