January issue of VB published

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Jan 1, 2013

The January issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.

The January 2013 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or download in PDF or PRC (Kindle) format.

Some of the things this month's issue has in store are:

• Ransomware for fun and profit: 'The people behind these scams are making significant amounts of money, and they are infecting users all over the world.' David Jacoby, Kaspersky Lab

• Talk to you later: Thousands of unsuspecting chat users clicked on a malicious link a few months ago. A spam message contained a link that led to a worm being downloaded, which, in turn, downloaded a component that sent more copies of the spam message. Variously dubbed 'Phopifas', 'Dorkbot' and 'Rodpicom', Raul Alvarez looks into the detail of the malicious executable that sent the spam messages.

• Surf's up: The 010 Editor is a powerful tool for analysing files. The editor can also alter files, and it supports a scripting language to automate certain tasks. Who would have guessed that one of those tasks would be to infect files? Peter Ferrie describes how {W32/1SC}/Toobin demonstrates a case of 'when tools attack'.

• Shellcoding ARM: With recent studies reporting a dramatic increase in the usage of mobile devices, a decrease in sales of PCs and notebooks, and 'BYOD' being the hot trend of the moment, it is no longer possible to ignore non-x86 architectures. Aleksander Czarnowski provides a basic starting point for understanding how to write shellcode on ARM-based CPUs.

• Writing a static unpacker for XPXAXCXK: Sebastian Eschweiler describes a static unpacker for the 'XPACK' packer - outlining each step of the unpacking process and looking at how weaknesses in vital steps can efficiently be exploited to produce a generic unpacker.

• A change in the toolkit/exploit kit landscape: Recently, there has been a change in the toolkit/exploit kit landscape, with bad guys dedicating more time and resources to securing their creations and the servers on which their software will be installed. Loucif Kharouni explains why we need to adapt and adjust our ways of working to keep up with these changes.

Note: The January 2013 VBSpam comparative review will be published as standalone article later in the month. As with all new VB100 and VBSpam reviews, the report will be available for non-subscribers to purchase as a standalone item (Virus Bulletin subscribers will be notified by email when the comparative is available to download). Non-subscribers can purchase VB100 reports here and VBSpam reports here.

Subscribers click here to access the issue.

If you are not already a subscriber why not take the chance to subscribe now.

Posted on 9 January 2013 by Virus Bulletin

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