Individual skill
collecting-volatile-evidence-from-compromised-host
Collect volatile forensic evidence from a compromised system following order of volatility, preserving memory, network connections, processes, and system state before they are lost.
internal/tools/skills/data/incident-response/collecting-volatile-evidence-from-compromised-host/SKILL.md
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- Last checked
- Nov 9, 2026
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- Repository last updated
- Nov 9, 2026
- License
- Apache-2.0
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- cybersecurity Repository topic
- security Repository topic
- bug-bounty Repository topic
- automation Repository topic
- autonomous-pentesting Repository topic
- ai-agent Repository topic
- ai-security Repository topic
- ethical-hacking Repository topic
- golang Repository topic
- penetration-testing Repository topic
- incident-response Declared skill tag
- dfir Declared skill tag
- forensics Declared skill tag
- volatile-evidence Declared skill tag
- memory-forensics Declared skill tag
- chain-of-custody Declared skill tag
- engineering Derived category
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# Collecting Volatile Evidence from Compromised Hosts
## When to Use
- Security incident confirmed and compromised host identified
- Before system isolation, shutdown, or remediation begins
- Memory-resident malware suspected (fileless attacks)
- Need to capture network connections, running processes, and system state
- Legal proceedings may require forensic evidence preservation
- Incident requires root cause analysis with volatile data
## Detection Gaps & Validation
- **Order of volatility is non-negotiable (RFC 3227):** registers/cache → RAM → network state → running processes → disk → archival. Capturing `netstat`/`tasklist` *before* the memory image is the classic mistake — every command you run allocates memory and overwrites freed pages, smearing the very RAM you need for fileless malware. Image memory FIRST, then collect live state.
- **RAM smear / page inconsistency:** acquisition is not atomic, so the kernel keeps running and structures shift mid-dump (process lists vs. actual). Acquire as fast as possible, record start/end timestamps, and treat single-pass dumps of a live host as inherently slightly inconsistent — corroborate findings (a netscan connection) against a second source (Zeek/firewall).