The Impact of GPU-Assisted Malware on Memory Forensics: A Case Study

In this paper we assess the impact of GPU-assisted malware on memory forensics. In particular, we first introduce four different techniques that malware can adopt to hide its presence. We then present a case study on a very popular family of Intel GPUs, and we analyze in which cases the forensic analysis can be performed using only the host's memory and in which cases it requires access to the GPU's memory. Our analysis shows that, by offoading some computation to the GPUs, it is possible to successfully hide some malicious behavior. Furthermore, we provide suggestions and insights about which artifacts could be used to detect the presence of GPU-assisted malware.