Unit 10: Malware, Social Engineering, and Defensive Awareness
Lesson at a glance
| Item | Detail | | --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Suggested length | 5 × 60 minutes | | Recommended placement | Week 16 | | Prerequisite | Units 1–9 | | Materials | Isolated analysis VM (no internet), sample benign + EICAR + teacher-prepared training samples (only), strings/PEview/Detect-It-Easy, Process Monitor, FakeNet-NG or INetSim, GoPhish (lab) |
Safety: Malware analysis is performed only on samples the teacher has issued. Students do not download samples from VirusShare, MalwareBazaar, etc., during this unit. The analysis VM has no shared folders and no internet - full isolation. Snapshot before, revert after.
Social engineering exercises target a fictional company. No phishing of real people, classmates, faculty, or family.
Standards & credential alignment
- EHE - System hacking + malware analysis fundamentals.
- NIST SP 800-83 - Malware Incident Prevention and Handling.
Learning objectives
By the end of this unit, students can:
- Distinguish static and dynamic analysis with concrete examples.
- Perform safe static analysis on a teacher-issued sample (PE info, strings, hashes, imports).
- Run dynamic analysis in an isolated sandbox and observe network + filesystem + registry behavior.
- Articulate the social engineering taxonomy (phishing, vishing, smishing, pretexting, baiting, tailgating, BEC).
- Run an authorized internal phishing simulation against a fictional target with GoPhish in the lab.
- Design an awareness program that doesn't blame users.
Vocabulary
- Static analysis - Examining a sample without executing it.
- Dynamic analysis - Examining behavior while running.
- Sandbox - Isolated environment for safe execution.
- PE / ELF / Mach-O - Windows / Linux / macOS executable formats.
- IOC - Indicator of Compromise.
- C2 - Command-and-control infrastructure.
- Phishing / vishing / smishing - Email / voice / SMS.
- Pretext - Fabricated scenario used in social engineering.
- BEC - Business Email Compromise.
Pacing
| Day | Focus | Deliverable | | --- | ---------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | | 1 | Sandbox setup + static analysis basics | Static analysis report on benign sample | | 2 | Static analysis on teacher-issued sample | Static report with IOCs | | 3 | Dynamic analysis | Dynamic report with network + FS + registry observations | | 4 | Social engineering deep dive | Phishing template + indicators worksheet | | 5 | GoPhish lab + awareness program design | Awareness plan |
Day 1 - Sandbox setup + static basics
Set up the analysis VM:
- Snapshot baseline.
- Disable shared folders.
- Disconnect networking (or attach to fake-internet via INetSim/FakeNet-NG).
- Install: PEview / Detect-It-Easy, strings, sigcheck, Process Monitor, Process Explorer, Wireshark.
Static analysis on a benign file (e.g., notepad.exe copy):
sha256sum sample.exe
file sample.exe
strings sample.exe | head -50
# Windows: sigcheck.exe / PEview / DIE
Day 2 - Static on teacher-issued training sample
Teacher issues an analysis-safe sample (e.g., a packed test binary). Students:
- Hash it (MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256).
- Identify file type and architecture.
- Note compile timestamp.
- Inspect imports -
WinHTTP.*?ws2_32.*?CryptAcquireContext? Build a hypothesis. - Pull strings; note URLs, IPs, registry paths, mutex names.
- Document IOCs.
Day 3 - Dynamic analysis
In the isolated VM:
- Snapshot.
- Start Process Monitor (filter by process name once known).
- Start Wireshark on the lab interface.
- Start FakeNet-NG (it answers DNS + serves fake responses).
- Detonate.
- Observe for 60–120 seconds.
- Stop. Save Procmon log + PCAP.
- Revert.
Document: files written, registry keys created, processes spawned, DNS lookups, HTTP requests, mutexes.
Day 4 - Social engineering taxonomy
Walk through each:
- Phishing - broad email lure.
- Spear phishing - targeted with personal context.
- Whaling - targeting executives.
- Vishing - phone calls (sometimes deepfake voice now).
- Smishing - SMS / iMessage.
- Pretexting - invented scenario, often paired with vishing.
- Baiting - physical (USB drops) or digital lures.
- Tailgating / piggybacking - physical access by following someone.
- BEC - fraudulent wire transfer requests, vendor invoice swaps.
Indicators worksheet: 10 sample emails (provided), students mark indicators (sender mismatch, urgency, link mismatch, unusual ask, attachment type, generic greeting, etc.).
Day 5 - GoPhish + awareness design
Lab GoPhish runs against fictional acmewidgets.example mailboxes (no real recipients).
- Build campaign: template, landing page, sending profile.
- Send.
- Observe campaign metrics.
- Discuss: what does a 35% click rate actually mean? What's the right metric (reporting rate, time-to-report, repeat offender rate)?
Awareness program design (1 page):
- Goals (specific behaviors).
- Methods (training, simulations, just-in-time prompts).
- Reporting workflow that's easy and stigma-free.
- Metrics that matter.
- Things you will not do (publicly shame, surprise-test high-stress roles, fire on first click).
Common misconceptions
- "Users are the problem." - Users are the last layer of defense after the system failed to block the email. Design for human factors.
- "Detonating is the analysis." - Detonating without isolation is "infecting yourself." Isolation is the lab's job.
Assessment
- Day 2 static report.
- Day 3 dynamic report with IOCs.
- Day 4 phishing indicators worksheet.
- Day 5 awareness plan.
Career connection
Malware analysts $90K–$150K. Threat intel analysts $80K–$140K. Awareness program leads $80K–$120K with broad latitude.
Homework
Read one MITRE ATT&CK technique under the Initial Access tactic that wasn't covered in class. Bring 3 detection ideas.