Volatility 3: The volatile memory extraction framework

Volatility is the world’s most widely used framework for extracting digital
artifacts from volatile memory (RAM) samples. The extraction techniques are
performed completely independent of the system being investigated but offer
visibility into the runtime state of the system. The framework is intended
to introduce people to the techniques and complexities associated with
extracting digital artifacts from volatile memory samples and provide a
platform for further work into this exciting area of research.

In 2019, the Volatility Foundation released a complete rewrite of the
framework, Volatility 3. The project was intended to address many of the
technical and performance challenges associated with the original
code base that became apparent over the previous 10 years. Another benefit
of the rewrite is that Volatility 3 could be released under a custom
license that was more aligned with the goals of the Volatility community,
the Volatility Software License (VSL). See the LICENSE file for more details.

Requirements

Python 3.5.3 or later. http://www.python.org
Pefile 2017.8.1 or later. https://pypi.org/project/pefile/

Optional Dependencies

yara-python 3.8.0 or later. https://github.com/VirusTotal/yara-python
capstone 3.0.0 or later. https://www.capstone-engine.org/download.html

Downloading Volatility

The latest stable version of Volatility will always be the master
branch of the GitHub repository. You can get the latest version of
the code using the following command:

git clone https://github.com/volatilityfoundation/volatility3.git

Quick Start

Clone the latest version of Volatility from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/volatilityfoundation/volatility3.git
To see available options, run "python vol.py -h"
To get more information on a Windows memory sample and to make sure Volatility supports that sample type, run 'python -f windows.info’

Example:

$ python vol.py —f /home/user/samples/stuxnet.vmem windows.info
Run some other plugins. The -f or —-single-location is not strictly required, but most plugins expect a single sample. Some also require/accept other options. Run "python vol.py -h" for more information on a particular command.

Symbol Tables

Symbol table packs for the various operating systems are available for download at:

https://downloads.volatilityfoundation.org/volatility3/symbols/windows.zip
https://downloads.volatilityfoundation.org/volatility3/symbols/mac.zip
https://downloads.volatilityfoundation.org/volatility3/symbols/linux.zip

Symbol tables zip files must be placed, as named, into the volatility/symbols
directory (or just the symbols directory next to the executable file).
Window symbols that cannot be found will be queried, downloaded, generated and
cached. Mac and Linux symbol tables must be manually produced by a tool such
as dwarf2json.

Please note: These are representative and are complete up to the point of
creation for windows and mac. Due to the ease of compiling linux kernels and
the inability to uniquely distinguish them, an exhaustive set of linux symbol
tables cannot easily be supplied.

Documentation

The framework is documented through doc strings and can be built using sphinx.

The latest generated copy of the documentation can be found at:
https://volatility3.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Licensing and Copyright

https://www.volatilityfoundation.org/license/vsl-v1.0

Bugs and Support

If you think you've found a bug, please report it at:

https://github.com/volatilityfoundation/volatility3/issues

In order to help us solve your issues as quickly as possible, please include the following information when filing a bug:

The version of Volatility you're using
The operating system used to run Volatility
The version of Python used to run Volatility
The suspected operating system of the memory sample
The complete command line you used to run Volatility

For community support, please join us on slack:

https://www.volatilityfoundation.org/slack

Contact

For information or requests, contact:

Volatility Foundation

Web: http://www.volatilityfoundation.org
http://volatility-labs.blogspot.com

Email: volatility (at) volatilityfoundation (dot) org

Twitter: @volatility

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