What's Happening in the World of Volatility?

Volatility is not just an advanced open-source memory forensics framework for Windows, Linux, Mac, and Android. Its a community, an attitude, a lifestyle, and every day it grows in popularity, maturity, and integrity. This post will summarize some of the upcoming excitement involving Volatility, its developers, and its users.

First and foremost, Volatility 2.3 will enter its Beta mode this week. It has been a long time coming and we're proud to finally be nearly finished with the code base. To introduce you to what's new in 2.3, we'll be commencing the second MoVP (Month of Volatility Plugins) this week as well. That's one post every day for four weeks winding down to the final release of 2.3. The posts will be categorized like this:

Week 1: New Address Spaces
Week 2: New and Improved Windows Plugins
Week 3: Linux and Android Capabilities
Week 4: Mac OSX Support

If you're interested in our Malware and Memory Forensics training course, we now have three options that are open for registration. This is a 5-day class taught directly by core Volatility developers. We'll be by your side, at your computer, giving you individualized attention and helping you work through hands-on assignments that teach you how to apply memory forensics to your jobs in malware analysis and incident response.

June 10th in Reston, VA (act fast, this one is nearly sold out)
September 9th in The Netherlands (act fast, this one is nearly sold out)
November 11th in Vermont

To inquire about an event, email us at voltraining@memoryanalysis.net. The next events are expected to be in San Francisco and New York, so stay tuned.

We also want to remind you of the active plugin contest that awards over $2250 in cash, a free seat at a training event in the future, and other prizes such as Volatility swag (T-shirts, stickers, etc). If you're thinking of developing an extension to the Volatility framework that you think is creative and worthwhile, submit it for a chance to win. Based on the ideas we've seen so far, this is going to be a very exciting contest with some awesome submissions.

This year's OMFW (Open Memory Forensics Workshop) will take place in Chantilly, VA on November 4th 2013; alongside OSDFC (Open Source Digital Forensics Conference). Some of the field's most ground-breaking research has been presented at OMFW over the past few years, so we're excited to see what this year brings. Stay tuned for the OMFW Call For Papers. Also, it looks like OSDFC received submissions of at least 4 talks that plan to cover Volatility in some way. If you want to see them, vote to get them a space in the lineup.

Speaking of voting, Volatility or Volatility developers were nominated for almost every category of this year's Forensic 4cast Awards, besides the ones that deal with phone forensics or books. If you have not done so yet, cast your vote!

Stay tuned for more exciting news on Volatility coming later this summer. You may also want to join the Volatility Users mailing list and follow @volatility on Twitter if you don't already.