How To Run Yara on Windows?

To run Yara on a Windows system, you will need to have the Yara software installed. You can download and install Yara from the Yara website (https://github.com/VirusTotal/Yara/releases). Once Yara is installed, you can use the following syntax to run it from the command prompt:

Yara32 [options] <rule_file> <target_file>

The <rule_file> parameter specifies the path to the Yara rule file that you want to use, and the <target_file> parameter specifies the path to the file that you want to scan.

Here are a few examples of how you might use this syntax:

To scan a single file for malware using a Yara rule file called “malware rules.Yara”:

Yara32 malware_rules.Yara C:\myfile.exe

To scan a directory and all of its subdirectories for malware using a Yara rule file called “malware rules.Yara”:

Yara32 -r malware_rules.Yara C:\mydirectory

Scan the file and print the names of all the rules that match:

Yara32 -g malware_rules.Yara C:\myfile.exe

There are many other options and parameters that you can use with Yara, including options for specifying multiple rule files, modifying the output format, and using multiple threads for scanning. You can refer to the Yara documentation or use the ‘Yara32 –h’ command for a complete list of options and syntax.

Rules:

In the above screenshot I create a rule called “creds.ru” after that I added I description of the malware using the “meta” tag, then after declaring three strings named $a, $b, and  $c. These strings are important strings associated with the malware that we are trying to detect. And at the end, we applied a condition. The above condition statement specifies that the rule will match if either of these strings is found in the software being analyzed.

Now we have two files.

1. The first one is the Yara rule which we just created.
2. And the second one is a sample malware file. you can take any malware as your wish or for the practice you can just write the strings and paste it into a text file. The output will be the same

Output :

Threat hunting is a proactive approach to identifying and mitigating cyber threats that have already entered an organization’s network. It involves actively searching for indicators of compromise (IOC) and signs of malicious activity that may not have been detected by traditional security measures such as antivirus software or firewalls. Threat hunters use a variety of techniques to detect and analyze potential threats, including analyzing log files, network traffic, and system configurations. They may also use tools such as threat intelligence feeds, security incident and event management (SIEM) systems, and malware analysis tools to help identify potential threats. The goal of threat hunting is to detect and mitigate threats as early as possible in the attack life cycle before they can do significant damage. It is an important part of an organization’s overall cybersecurity strategy and can help reduce the risk of successful attacks and data breaches.