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    Giorgio Bernardinetti - Dodging the EDR Bullet: A Training on Malware Stealth Tactics - DCTLV2025
    Giorgio Bernardinetti - Dodging the EDR Bullet: A Training on Malware Stealth Tactics - DCTLV2025
    Giorgio Bernardinetti - Dodging the EDR Bullet: A Training on Malware Stealth Tactics - DCTLV2025
    Giorgio Bernardinetti - Dodging the EDR Bullet: A Training on Malware Stealth Tactics - DCTLV2025

    Giorgio Bernardinetti - Dodging the EDR Bullet: A Training on Malware Stealth Tactics - DCTLV2025

    Las Vegas 2025

    Name of Training: Dodging the EDR Bullet: A Training on Malware Stealth Tactics
    Trainer(s): Giorgio Bernardinetti and Dimitri Di Cristofaro 
    Dates: August 11-12, 2025
    Time: 8:00 am to 5:00 pm PT
    Venue: Las Vegas Convention Center
    Cost: $2,200

    Course Description:

    "Dodging the EDR bullet" Training is an intensive, hands-on course designed to equip cybersecurity professionals with cutting-edge skills in malware evasion techniques. Dive deep into Windows security components, antivirus systems, and EDRs while mastering the full malware lifecycle—from initial access to advanced in-memory evasion and kernel-level persistence. Through a systematic approach to memory management and process manipulation, participants will learn how to bypass modern detection strategies and build stealthy malware components. The course focuses on cultivating a research-driven mindset, enabling attendees to understand and analyze detection strategies provided by the Windows OS and then craft their own techniques to evade them.

    By the end of the training, participants will have gained a solid foundation in malware analysis and development, enabling them to craft sophisticated command-and-control (C2) payloads and maintain persistence while remaining undetected.

    ** All students are expected to sign an NDA with the trainer to avoid unauthorized sharing of training materials **

    Course Outline: 

    DAY 1:

    Advanced Windows internals:

    • What happens when Windows executes a PE file?

    • Windows internals: TEB/PEB

    • Windows loader structure

    • Write your custom PE loader

    Background on detection techniques:

    • State of the art detection strategies

    • Static/Dynamic, Kernel Callbacks, ETW-Ti, minifilters, AMSI, API hooking, call stack analysis, memory scan

    Evasion part 1:

    • The goal of "code execution"

    • Memory allocation, Memory writing, Memory execution

    • Local/Remote code execution

    • Memory allocation vs EDRs

      • Overview of basic/advanced existing techniques + IoCs

      • Module Overloading + PEB + avoid kernel callbacks

    • Exercise: module overloading

    • Memory writing vs EDRs

    • Memory execution vs EDRs

      • Overview of basic/advanced existing techniques + IoCs

      • Advanced techniques + implementation in exercises

    • Exercise: threadless inject

    DAY 2: 

    Evasion part 2:

    • Underlying issues: kernel callbacks, call stack analysis, API hooking

    • API unhooking 

      • + exercise

    • Direct/Indirect syscalls 

      • + exercise

    • Advanced stack spoofing 

      • + exercise

    • Final user-space demo 

      • + exercise

    • Combine memory allocation, writing and execution + unhooking, syscalls and stack spoofing for a fully-stealth user-space PoC

    Kernel evasion & persistence:

    • Kernel space evasion & persistence

    • Kernel drivers vs DSE

    • Bring your own Driver

    • How to disable DSE with Administrator privileges

      • + exercise + environment configuration

    • Disable DSE with VBS enabled

    • Install your own driver

    • Agent Killer - PPL tampering

      • + exercise

    • Kernel callbacks tampering

      • + exercise 

    • ETW-Ti tampering

    • Write your own rootkit for C2 & Evasion

    Difficulty Level:

    Intermediate/Advanced

    Students requirements:

    • Previous knowledge of Windows internals is required (processes, threads, virtual memory, ...)

    • C/C++ knowledge. It is required to have knowledge on direct memory manipulation (e.g. pointers, casting, endianess, etc...).

    • Basic x86 ASM knowledge

    • Familiarity with debuggers is preferred

    • 1/2 years of experience in malware development or analysis is preferred

    Suggested Prerequisites:

    What Students Should Bring: 

    Laptop with virtualization software compatible with .ova (e.g. VMWare workstation, VirtualBox). It is recommended to use VMWare.

    Minimum requirements:

    • CPU cores: 4 (8 recommended)

    • RAM: 16 GB (32 GB recommended)

    • Disk: 500 GB (1 TB recommended)

    Please note that M* ARM Mac processors are not supported. We are going to delve into x86 assembly, so please make sure to have an x86 laptop.

    During the training, students will be provided with:

    • A Virtual Machine with the development environment configured

    • Templates for exercises

    • Existing open-source tools used for the training

    Trainer(s) Bio:

    Giorgio "gbyolo" Bernardinetti is lead researcher at the System Security division of CNIT. His research activities are geared towards Red Teaming support activities, in particular design and development of advanced evasion techniques in strictly monitored environments, with emphasis on (but not limited to) the Windows OS, both in user-space and kernel-space. He has been a speaker for DEFCON32 Workshops and Red Team Village HacktivityCon 2021. 

    Dimitri "GlenX" Di Cristofaro is a security consultant and researcher at SECFORCE LTD where he performs Red Teams on a daily basis. The main focus of his research activities is about Red Teaming and in particular on identifying new ways of attacking operating systems and looking for cutting edge techniques to increase stealthiness in strictly monitored environments. He enjoys malware writing and offensive tools development as well as producing electronic music in his free time.

    Registration Terms and Conditions: 

    Trainings are refundable before July 8, 2025, minus a non-refundable processing fee of $250.

    Trainings are non-refundable after July 8, 2025.

    Training tickets may be transferred. Please email us at training@defcon.org for specifics.

    If a training does not reach the minimum registration requirement, it may be cancelled. In the event the training you choose is cancelled, you will be provided the option of receiving a full refund or transferring to another training (subject to availability).

    Failure to attend the training without prior written notification, will be considered a no-show. No refund will be given.

    By purchasing this ticket you agree to abide by the DEF CON Training Code of Conduct and the registration terms and conditions listed above.

    Several breaks will be included throughout the day. Please note that food is not included.

    All courses come with a certificate of completion, contingent upon attendance at all course sessions.

    $2,200.00