Microsoft's Project Freta aims to eliminate Linux malware

Last week, Microsoft unveiled Projection Freta, a cloud-based malware detection service (via Bleeping Computer). The project aims to observe malware that previously went undetected on Linux deject VM images. It's a gratis service from Microsoft Research that can observe Bone and sensor sabotage. Microsoft Research breaks down Project Freta in a contempo blog post.

Malware that'southward difficult to detect is significantly more than valuable than malware that's been detected earlier. Microsoft explains that undetected malware won't appear on assail reporting and can be reused several times. Once a slice of malware is detected, it becomes easier to detect in the future and is therefore less successful, and valuable, to attackers. Microsoft's Project Freta aims to brand it more costly and hard to make malware that can go undetected.

Projection Freta utilizes snapshot-based memory forensics. This means that it can sweep memory for unknown malware by comparison images of virtual machines. These techniques are already used in the tech industry, but Microsoft explains that Project Freta intends to "automate and democratize VM forensics to a point where every user and every enterprise can sweep volatile memory for unknown malware with the push of a button—no setup required."

Projection Freta uses four properties to sense malware. Here are the properties every bit outlined by Microsoft:

Observe. No program can:

Detect the presence of a sensor prior to installing itself

Hide. No plan tin can:

Reside in an area out of view of the sensor

Burn. No programme can:

Detect operation of the sensor and erase or modify itself prior to acquisition

Demolition. No program can:

Modify the sensor in a way that can prevent the program'due south conquering

Almost forms of malware detection rely on sensors that look for specific threats. Project Freta reverses that approach and looks for things that are missing. It does this by creating snapshots of thousands of Linux cloud virtual machines. To start, Project Freta supports over four,000 kernel versions.

If implemented successfully, Projection Freta will force attackers to re-invent malware to go undetected, which should reduce the number of viable attack methods.

Right now, Project Freta is only available for Linux images simply support for Windows is on Microsoft'south roadmap.

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