In this project, an in-depth analysis of the Denebola.exe malware was conducted to uncover its behavior, capabilities, and potential impact. The investigation followed a rigorous methodology employing various tools and techniques to dissect the malware's activities. Through a comprehensive analysis, this project aimed to provide insights into the malware's functionality, identify potential threats, and suggest mitigation strategies. The following is the insight of the malware analysis report.

Methodology and Investigation Process:
The investigation began with an exploration of the malware's contained sections, where it was discovered that the file was UPX packed. Despite challenges posed by the packed file, the investigation persevered by utilizing tools such as PE Explorer to successfully unpack and gain access to the malware's internal structure. Multiple tools were employed in the analysis process, including strings, PEView, CFF Explorer, IDA, and VirusTotal. Strings extracted from the malware revealed significant function calls, such as GetProcessWindowStation. Further insights were gleaned from CFF Explorer, highlighting extensive imports from KERNEL32.dll and USER32.dll libraries.

Malware Analysis:
The examination of the malware's behavior revealed intriguing patterns. VirusTotal scans uncovered communication with domains such as api.ipify.org and lukkeze.best, while also identifying instances of dropped and deleted files. In-depth examination with IDA provided valuable insights into the malware's imported functions. Collective analysis indicated that the malware appeared to query system artifacts through API calls. That suggested a potential focus on acquiring system information and manipulating files. Moreover, the malware's reliance on API calls implied dynamic DLL loading, contributing to its stealthiness. The malware's code exhibited attempts to read, create, and write files, along with time-based interactions. It seemed to seek location information from the system while engaging in deletion activities. Consequently, the investigation inferred that the malware was primarily focused on querying artifacts and employed dynamic DLL loading.

Anti-Debugging Techniques and Cuckoo Analysis:
Notably, the malware demonstrated an anti-debugging technique. This indicated a deliberate strategy to evade debugging and conceal its true functionality. Cuckoo analysis unveiled the malware's ability to generate its mutex, enabling self-launching capabilities. The presence of key API calls like RegOpenKeyExW, and RegCloseKey, suggested a potential mechanism for achieving persistence through registry manipulation.

Conclusion and Mitigation:
In conclusion, the Denebola.exe malware exhibited traits of artifact querying, dynamic DLL loading, anti-debugging tactics, and potential persistence mechanisms. Given its complexity and potential threat, recommended mitigation strategies encompassed a complete system wipe and OS reinstallation, or a meticulous removal of all created files and registries. Additionally, proactive blocking of IP addresses and domains identified in the malware's communication was proposed.