Volatility is a powerful open-source memory forensics framework used extensively in incident response and malware analysis. This guide will walk you through the installation process for both Volatility 2 and Volatility 3 on an Linux system.
Volatility is a comprehensive toolset for analyzing volatile memory (RAM) dumps. It is used to extract digital artifacts from memory images, which can be crucial in understanding the state of a system at the time of an incident. Volatility supports various file formats, including raw dumps, crash dumps, and hibernation files.
This guide will cover the installation steps for both versions of Volatility. Volatility 2 is based on Python 2.7 and offers a wide range of plugins for memory analysis. Volatility 3 is the latest version, written in Python 3, and includes several improvements and new features.
Before starting the installation, ensure your system meets the following requirements:
You can install the necessary prerequisites using the following commands:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install python2.7 python2.7-dev python3 git -y
To install Volatility 2, you first need to clone its repository from GitHub:
git clone https://github.com/volatilityfoundation/volatility.git
Install the required dependencies:
curl <https://bootstrap.pypa.io/pip/2.7/get-pip.py> --output get-pip.py
sudo python2.7 get-pip.py
pip2 install distorm3 yara-python pycrypto
To confirm that Volatility 2 is installed correctly, run the following command:
cd volatility/
python2 vol.py -h OR python2.7 vol.py -h
If the installation was successful, you should see the help menu for Volatility 2.
If you want to learn Linux Memory Forensics details, you can check this hands-on course.
Next, clone the Volatility 3 repository from GitHub:
git clone https://github.com/volatilityfoundation/volatility3.git
Navigate to the cloned directory and install the necessary dependencies:
sudo apt install -y python3-pip
cd volatility3
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
To verify the installation of Volatility 3, run the following command:
python3 vol.py -h
This should display the help menu for Volatility 3, confirming the installation was successful.
You have successfully installed both Volatility 2 and Volatility 3 on your Ubuntu system. With these tools, you can perform in-depth memory forensics to aid in incident response and malware analysis. For further information on using Volatility, refer to the official Volatility documentation.
Happy analyzing!
