Optimizing Away JavaScript Obfuscation

TL;DR

This paper introduces SAFE-Deobs, a static analysis tool designed to automatically deobfuscate malicious JavaScript, aiding analysts in quickly understanding malware scripts by overcoming common obfuscation techniques.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel static analysis tool, SAFE-Deobs, specifically tailored for deobfuscating JavaScript malware, enhancing analysis efficiency.

Findings

Successfully deobfuscated real-world JavaScript malware

Improved malware analysis speed and accuracy

Demonstrated utility as a malware analyst tool

Abstract

JavaScript is a popular attack vector for releasing malicious payloads on unsuspecting Internet users. Authors of this malicious JavaScript often employ numerous obfuscation techniques in order to prevent the automatic detection by antivirus and hinder manual analysis by professional malware analysts. Consequently, this paper presents SAFE-Deobs, a JavaScript deobfuscation tool that we have built. The aim of SAFE-Deobs is to automatically deobfuscate JavaScript malware such that an analyst can more rapidly determine the malicious script's intent. This is achieved through a number of static analyses, inspired by techniques from compiler theory. We demonstrate the utility of SAFE-Deobs through a case study on real-world JavaScript malware, and show that it is a useful addition to a malware analyst's toolset.