Virustotal analysis plugin

Notes on how to use the virustotal analysis plugin.

Getting an API key

The virustotal analysis plugin uses the public Virustotal API, and requires an API key to operate. The process for obtaining an API key is here.

Running plaso

First run log2timeline to hash files and extract events:

log2timeline.py timeline.plaso image.raw

Note that hashing must be turned on for the virustotal plugin to work correctly. This is default setting for log2timeline.py.

Next run psort to tag events:

psort.py --analysis virustotal --virustotal-api-key $API_KEY -o dynamic -w timeline_with_virustotal_tags.csv timeline.plaso

If a file processed by Plaso is present in virustotal and has been detected as malicious by one more detection engines, it will be tagged with virustotal_detections_$NUMBER_OF_DETECTIONS. If the file is in Virustotal, but it hasn’t been fully analyzed yet, it will be tagged with virustotal_analysis_pending. If the file is in Virustotal, but has not been detected as malicious, it will be tagged with virustotal_no_detections. If the file isn’t in Virustotal, it will be tagged as virustotal_not_present.