How Does IAST Help Detect Malware?

IAST (interactive application security testing) tools can help detect malware in a few key ways:

Monitoring Runtime Behavior
Since IAST tools monitor applications in runtime, they can identify behaviors that indicate potential malware threats, such as:

Exfiltrating sensitive data
Injecting code
Making insecure network requests
Abusing privileges
Any of these behaviors could indicate the presence of malware. IAST tools monitor the actual execution flow of the application to detect these behaviors.

Identifying Known Malicious Patterns
Many IAST tools come with a library of known malware behaviors and patterns that they can flag, such as:

Injecting shellcode
Creating unauthorized processes
Accessing restricted APIs
Modifying sensitive files
If an IAST tool detects any of these known malware patterns in an application, it can alert security teams to potential issues.

Providing Context into Application Flow
Since IAST tools have visibility into the actual execution flow of an application, they can provide valuable context into how potential malware is functioning.

This can help security teams pinpoint:

The exact location of the suspicious code
What data it is accessing
What system resources it is using
How it is propagating
This context can help speed up malware analysis and remediation.

Offering Remediation Guidance
Once IAST tools identify potential malware, they can often provide guidance on how to fix or mitigate the issue. This could include:

Removing malicious code
Restricting system privileges
Disabling insecure APIs
Isolating compromised components
The remediation guidance from IAST tools can accelerate the malware removal process.

In summary, while IAST tools are not designed specifically for malware detection, their capabilities like runtime behavior monitoring, known pattern matching, context into application flow, and remediation guidance give them the potential to detect and assist with remediating malware threats.

Used in conjunction with other malware detection tools and techniques, IAST tools can improve an organization's overall security posture by detecting malware earlier in the development lifecycle.