Disclosed are systems and methods for emulating execution of a file. An image of a file is formed, which is comprised of instructions read from the file. An analysis module detects at least one known set of instructions in a portion read from the file, and inserts a break point into a position in the generated image of the file corresponding to a start of the detected set of instructions. An emulation module emulates execution of the file by emulating execution of instructions from the generated image of the file and adding corresponding records to an emulation log associated with the emulated execution of the at least one known set of instructions.