The Malbian Project

Malbian is a debian-based GNU/Linux distribution focusing on Malware Analysis and Reverse Engineering.

Malbian uses the Xfce Desktop Environment even though there’s an extra light-weight ISO that runs with dwm (dynamic window manager) from Suckless which will be the main flavor of the distribution. But don’t worry, XFCE4 ISO will continue to be maintained.

This little project started as a quick way for me to setup a usable linux ISO in order to analyze malware but my friends encouraged me to begin a distribution, so here it is.

So, Why Malbian?

To begin with, Malbian is a distribution aimed towards Malware Analysis and Reverse Engineering, with speed and light-weight focus to provide a good experience out of the box.

It’s built towards stability because it’s based in Debian and it has built-in tools to aid the the analyst. It offers a Tmux session with scripts that would show stuff like host connectivity status, internet connection status, VPN connection status, IP address of both local and target machines.

Keep in mind that Malbian was made as an alternative to Remnux which is based on Ubuntu. In addition, Malbian has ISOs to run live or install on disk at any time, while Remnux has OVA files which restricts a little more the hypervisors where you can use it.

Since Malbian is in an Alpha state, we are open to changes and modifications to best suit our needs. You can actually participate, ask or suggest for tools to be added into Malbian’s images in our Discord Server.

Finally, I’m not trying to convince or persuade anyone to use Malbian. I strongly believe that everyone should pick a distribution that fits their needs, workflow and allows anyone to get the job done. What I’m trying to do is build a distribution with qualities that would allow a simple, fast and safe way to analyze malware samples.

If you decide to Give it a Try, I sure with you like it!

Don’t forget to Vote for Malbian at Distrowatch!