Building a Malware Analysis Lab: Best Practices for Containment

Mitigating Malicious Application Escapes in a Malware Analysis Lab

Question

A security analyst is building a malware analysis lab.

The analyst wants to ensure malicious applications are not capable of escaping the virtual machines and pivoting to other networks.

To BEST mitigate this risk, the analyst should use __________.

Answers

Explanations

Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer

A. B. C. D.

B.

The BEST way to mitigate the risk of malware escaping virtual machines and pivoting to other networks in a malware analysis lab is to use a firewall to isolate the lab network from all other networks.

Option A, using an 802.11ac wireless bridge to create an air gap, is not a suitable solution since air gaps rely on physical isolation, and wireless signals can still penetrate air gaps.

Option B, using a managed switch to segment the lab into a separate VLAN, can provide some level of isolation, but it may not be sufficient since VLAN hopping attacks can allow an attacker to escape the VLAN.

Option D, using an unmanaged switch to segment the environments from one another, is not a recommended approach since an unmanaged switch lacks the ability to configure access control lists and other security features needed to restrict access.

Using a firewall to isolate the lab network from other networks provides a robust defense against malicious applications escaping virtual machines and spreading to other networks. The firewall can be configured to enforce strict access control policies that block unauthorized traffic from entering or leaving the lab network. Additionally, the firewall can be configured to monitor traffic for suspicious behavior and alert the security analyst in case of any security incidents.