Malware Analysis Of Malicious Documents (Udemy.com)
A Beginner's Course on Analyzing Malicious PDF and Microsoft Office Documents Using Remnux and Windows Virtual Machines
Created by: Paul Chin, PhD
Last updated July 2026
What you will learn
- Analyzing Malicious Documents
- Analyzing Malicious PDF documents
- Analyzing Malicious Microsoft documents
- Install Remnux Virtual Machine
- Extracting document Meta-Data
- Basic Linux Commands Used in Malware Analysis
- Extracting Embedded Objects and Javascript from PDF documents
- Extracting VBA Macro Scripts from Office Documents
- De-obfuscating Javascript and VBA scripts
- Automating Analysis of Documents
- Viewing and Debugging Malicious Office Macros
- Identifying Maker and Origin of Malicious Documents
- Using Yara to Identify Malicious Patterns and Signatures
- Analyzing Open Office XML Format Documents
- Analyzing Structured Storage Format Documents
- Estimating age and date of document creation
- Analyzing powershell scripts
- Detecting Malware Artifacts and Indicators of Compromise
- and more...
How it compares
Against the other 523 rated Udemy courses in Hacking on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.5 out of 5higher than 51% of them
- Reviews389#318 of 524 by number of reviews
- Length4.5 hoursshorter than 52% of them
- Last updatedJuly 2026more recently than 78% of them
Course Description
Did you know that you could infect your computer just by opening a pdf or microsoft office document? If that came as a shocker for you then you need to take this course. Documents are one of the main vector of attacks for malware authors because of their widespread use. Everyone uses documents to create reports, memos and articles. In fact everything we do for communication involves the use of documents. That is why this is a very popular way to infect computers. Documents are used as the first stage of a malware attack. Embedded in documents are scripts that will download a second stage payload consisting of additional malware, eg ransomware, remote access tools and more.
In this course, you will learn how to check and analyze malicious pdf and office documents for signs of malicious artifacts and indicators of compromise. This is a beginners course and targeted to those who are absolutely new to this field. I will take you from zero to proficient level in analyzing malicious documents. You will learn using plenty of practical walk-throughs. We will learn the basic knowledge and skills in analyzing documents. All the needed tools and where to download them will be provided. By the end of this course, you will have the fundamentals of malware analysis of documents under your belt to further your studies in this field. Even if you do not intend to take up malware analysis as a career, still the knowledge and skills gained would enable you to check documents for dangers and protect yourself from these attacks.
We will use remnux and windows virtual machine. Remnux is a Debian-based linux distribution that contains all the necessary tools for malware analysis. Some background on linux would be helpful but not strictly necessary. We will also install document debuggers in a windows virtual machine. Then, I will show you how to get started with the very basic tools in remnux and windows. All the essential theory will be covered but kept to the minimum. The emphasis is on practicals and lab exercises.
Go ahead and enroll now and I will see you inside.
Instructor Details
- 4.5 Rating
389 Reviews
Paul Chin, PhD
I am a semi-retired college lecturer with a PhD in Computer Science and over 30 years of experience in teaching computing and information technology. My passion for knowledge spans various fields, including reverse engineering, coding, music, health, spirituality, and well-being. In my free time, I enjoy playing the piano, which adds a creative balance to my technical pursuits. Whether teaching face-to-face or online, I find fulfillment in inspiring students to succeed and achieve their dreams through practical skills and personal growth.
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Reviews
By Joe F. on 9/6/2025
Thanks Paul! Overall a great intro course on the topic. Some less-technical users may experience hangups on using Windows 7, as Microsoft is aggressively pushing technology to garbage Windows 11. As such, ssl certificate, and other errors need a bit of work around. All in all, after a few hangups, I was still able to follow along completely in 2025.
By Yosef Cohen on 8/19/2025
It was an alright course but could have a bit more interaction like quizzes or more technical stuff on how to actually action some things, for example, he has showed many tools and methods that are effective and can be used but barely gave any instructions or more technical steps on how a course taker could apply those themselves in their own time without getting stuck.
By Emmanuel Debra on 5/22/2025
The course provided me with a great personal experience in learning how analyse malicious documents. It was definitely a good match for me and would highly recommend the course.
By Leonardo Santos da Silva on 8/4/2024
The course was awesome! Paul is an amazing instructor and has and incredible didactics. He can teach complex things in such a simple way that all the students, new commers and veterans in malware analisys, can understand and execute. 1000/10, i really love it!
By Pedro Viñaya Cruz on 6/10/2024
La verdad que ha sido un curso muy revelador y práctico. La experiencia y resiliencia del profesor para resolver determinada situaciones ha servido de ejemplo para saber sobre ponerse a los obstáculos. Sin dudas seguiré tomando sus cursos para volverme un gran analizador de malware. Un cordial saludo desde Argentina.
By Venkateshbabu G on 12/30/2022
The course gives information on Malware analysis on PDF files and Office documents. The zipdump tool was used in the video. I would recommend the author add zip dump-related information to the course and guide beginners on downloading and analyzing real-time malware. It would give more clarity.
By Shine Francis on 10/10/2022
Good one!! It is very good especially for beginners in malware analysis, well explained. Already the second purchase from the author. Thanks a lot Paul for the worthy courses !!
By Jason98 on 5/10/2022
It is a great course especially for beginners, well explained and instructor was responsive. Might purchase other courses from similar instructor in near future. This is my first course on Udemy that I completed. Perhaps, could add more complexed lab lessons like another 2 or 3 more exercises with walkthrough. But other than that, really amazing things learn. Thanks, Paul
By Christoph jdlfdsjlfg on 11/23/2021
I wished all my teachers would have been as commited as Paul Chin. Professor Paul Chin answered all my questions in detail within very short time. Therefore I give the best possible rating.
By Ahmed Mohamed Abdel Aziz on 10/6/2021
This course offers a lot of great value because it is more hands-on, instead of just explaining security concepts
Quality Score
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Overall Score : 90 / 100












