Golden G. Richard III, "Memory Analysis, Meet GPU Malware"
Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) have evolved from very specialized,idiosyncratic hardware intended to execute specialized graphics workloadsto semi-autonomous "supercomputers" that can be programmed easily usingcommon programming languages and powerful, portable APIs. GPUs also formthe basis for an emerging threat, GPU malware, which offloads importantaspects of malicious computations onto the GPU. The benefits of executingmalicious computations on the GPU include abundant compute power, a largeamount of semi-non-volatile memory, and perhaps most importantly, isolationfrom host-based security measures. While memory analysis offers powerfultools to detect and analyze traditional host-based malware, there areessentially no equivalent tools for analyzing GPU malware. Furthermore,existing general-purpose tools for debugging GPU applications arecompletely ineffective if a large number of conditions are not establishedbefore a GPU application is executed, all of which will certainly beviolated by weaponized GPU malware. This talk explores GPU malware indetail, identifies why it's hard to analyze, and also discusses measuresthat can easily employed to make analysis even more difficult. A primarymotivation for this research is the 2015 DFRWS Digital Forensics Challenge,under development by Dr. Richard, the aim of which is to increase interestin GPU malware analysis and foster the development of powerful tools toanalyze and combat this threat. About the speaker: Golden G. Richard III is Professor of Computer Science, University ResearchProfessor and Director of the Greater New Orleans Center for InformationAssurance (GNOCIA) at the University of New Orleans. Prof. Richardreceived his Ph.D. in Computer Science from The Ohio State University in1995 and has 35 years of experience in computer systems and computersecurity. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, amember of the United States Secret Service Cybercrime Task Force, andChairman of the Board of Directors for DFRWS, a conference devoted todigital forensics research. His research interests mirror his teachinginterests: digital forensics, reverse engineering, offensive computing,operating systems internals, and malware analysis. In private practice, Dr.Richard owns Arcane Alloy, LLC, and to further his agenda of absolutely notime for sleep, Golden is also a professional music photographer--you cancheck out his work at HighISOMusic.com.
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