What is Volatility?

Volatility is an advanced, open-source framework for analyzing RAM dumps (memory forensics). When a security incident occurs, the “hard” drive is only part of the story. RAM contains a volatile but extremely valuable snapshot of what was happening on the system at the time of the attack.

Volatility allows analysts to “enter” a frozen state of memory and reconstruct running processes, open network connections, loaded kernel modules, and even recover data fragments that were never written to disk. It is one of the most important tools in the field of Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR).

Why is Memory Analysis So Important?

After a system reboot, the entire contents of RAM are irretrievably lost. And that’s where you can find:

  • The list of running processes (even those hidden by rootkits).
  • Active network connections (e.g., to an attacker’s C&C server).
  • Passwords and encryption keys stored in memory.
  • Fragments of decompressed malware.
  • Commands executed in the shell.

Without memory analysis, investigating an incident is like trying to solve a crime scene with only an empty room, not the scene of the crime with evidence.

How Does Volatility Work?

The analysis process consists of two main elements:

  1. Memory Dump: First, we need to get a “copy” of the entire contents of RAM. This can be done with tools like LiME (Linux Memory Extractor) or by taking a snapshot of a virtual machine.
  2. System Profile: Volatility needs to know how to interpret the raw data. Each version of the Linux kernel has a slightly different data structure in memory. A “profile” is a set of information that tells Volatility how to find processes, network connections, etc., in a dump from a specific system version (e.g., Linux_5_4_0-42-generic_x64).

Basic Commands (Plugins)

Volatility works based on plugins. The examples below use Volatility 2 syntax. The newer Volatility 3 has a different command-line interface (e.g., vol -f dump.raw linux.pslist) and does not use profiles. Here are some of the most important Volatility 2 plugins:

  • imageinfo: Tries to automatically identify the system profile from the dump. The first step in any analysis.
  • pslist: Displays a list of processes running at the time of the dump (similar to ps -ef).
  • pstree: Shows processes in a tree format, making it easier to find parent processes.
  • netscan: Scans for active network connections.
  • cmdline: Shows the arguments with which a given process was launched.
  • filescan: Tries to find open files in memory.
  • linux_bash: Recovers the history of commands typed in the bash shell.

Practical Example

Imagine your server has been compromised. You managed to get a memory dump to a file dump.raw.

  1. System Identification:

    volatility -f dump.raw imageinfo

    Volatility suggests the profile Linux_5_15_0-generic_x64.

  2. Listing Processes:

    volatility -f dump.raw --profile=Linux_5_15_0-generic_x64 pslist

    On the list, you notice a suspicious process kworkerds, which looks like a typo meant to imitate the legitimate kworker process.

  3. Checking Network Connections:

    volatility -f dump.raw --profile=Linux_5_15_0-generic_x64 netscan

    It turns out that the kworkerds process is maintaining an active connection to an IP address in China.

  4. Checking the Command Line:

    volatility -f dump.raw --profile=Linux_5_15_0-generic_x64 cmdline

    You see that the process was launched with suspicious arguments: /tmp/kworkerds -o stratum+tcp://pool.example.com:1234 -u ... - this looks like a crypto miner!

Summary

Volatility is a powerful microscope that allows you to look into the deepest corners of a running system. Although its use requires knowledge and practice, it is an absolutely essential tool for anyone serious about security, incident response, and malware analysis in Linux environments.