Making A Virtual Machine Look Like Real Hardware To Malware

Making A Virtual Machine Look Like Real Hardware To Malware

Running suspicious software in a virtual machine seems like a basic precaution to figure out whether said software contains malicious code.

Unfortunately, it's generally rather easy to detect whether or not one's software runs inside a VM. A list of ways that a VirtualBox VM can be detected from inside the guest OS is available.

There are obvious naming issues, such as the occurrence of the word 'VirtualBox' everywhere, as well as many more subtle ways.

A PoC 'malware' application called Al-Khaser can be used to verify one's anti-malware systems, such as when trying to unleash a debugger on a piece of malware, run it inside a VM, along with many more uses.

Al-Khaser can be used to verify one's anti-malware systems.

Author's summary: Virtual machines are easily detectable by malware.

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Hackaday Hackaday — 2025-10-28

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