# Packed and Obfuscated Malware

### Obfuscated and Packed Malware

* Obfuscated programs are ones whose execution the malware author has attempted to hide.
* Packed programs are a subset of obfuscated programs in which the malicious program is compressed and cannot be analyzed.

### Packing Files

* The code is compressed, like in Zip file
* This makes the strings and instructions unreadable
* All you'll see is the wrapper – small code that unpacks the file when it is run

![](https://1094113337-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-M3hoduT4ByoNaznkzhG%2F-MF7ycU3cObu0jPquLCd%2F-MF8-h9-vd_GCjbf2gEA%2Fpacking-files.png?alt=media\&token=942215d2-39a4-4d39-ab51-57adffbfca37)

![Detecting Packers with PEiD](https://1094113337-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-M3hoduT4ByoNaznkzhG%2F-MF7ycU3cObu0jPquLCd%2F-MF8-jUR_ffdmmXjEyNm%2Fdetecting-packers.png?alt=media\&token=0f004271-2a54-4d93-aec9-1890bf0ebb9b)