When an incident occurs, some of the most critical evidence resides in a system’s volatile memory (RAM). Learning how to perform basic memory forensics is key to uncovering this data, which is lost forever once a machine is powered off. The Volatility Framework, a powerful tool in Kali Linux, allows you to analyze a memory dump to find hidden processes, network connections, and other transient artifacts that disk forensics would miss.
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💾 What is Memory Forensics and Why Does It Matter?
Memory forensics is the analysis of a computer’s memory dump (a snapshot of its RAM). This is crucial because RAM contains a wealth of runtime information, such as active network connections, running processes, loaded kernel modules, and even encryption keys. Advanced malware often runs exclusively in memory to avoid leaving traces on the hard drive, making memory analysis the only way to detect its presence.
🔍 How to Analyze Processes with pslist and psscan
Once you have a memory dump, your first step in Volatility is to identify the correct profile (the operating system version), which is critical for accurate analysis. After that, a common task is to examine the running processes. The `pslist` plugin shows you the processes that the operating system itself reports as active. However, malware often uses techniques to hide from this list. That’s where the `psscan` plugin comes in. It scans the entire memory dump for process structures, allowing it to find processes that have been hidden or even terminated but not yet cleared from memory. Comparing the output of `pslist` and `psscan` is a classic technique for uncovering stealthy malware.
🌐 How to Uncover Network Connections with netscan
Another vital piece of evidence in RAM is network activity. The `netscan` plugin (or `netscan` for Windows 10+) examines memory for TCP and UDP socket structures, revealing all network connections that were active at the time the dump was taken. The output will show you local and remote IP addresses, ports, and the process ID (PID) associated with each connection. This is invaluable for identifying command-and-control (C2) channels, data exfiltration activity, or unauthorized services listening on the machine.
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Johnson, Richard. Kali Linux Essentials. NOBTREX LLC, 2025.
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