July issue of VB published

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Jul 1, 2013

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

The July 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:

• On the cusp of evolutionary change: 'A series of new factors ... are placing unprecedented evolutionary pressure on the virus/anti virus/operating system triad.' Catalin Cosoi, Bitdefender.

• Alipime makes a comeback with Fujacks.CB: The Alipime trojan was very active in China in 2011, before vanishing for a period of time, but recently a new Alipime threat has been discovered, being shipped with the W32.Fujacks.CB worm. Ke Zhang takes a look at the trojan that monitors web browsing and hijacks online payments.

• Not drowning, WAV-ing: The W32/Mammer virus attempts to record ambient sound as a source of true random numbers. Peter Ferrie explains how it does so - and why the implementation is flawed.

• Who's bad? NgrBot or SkyBot?: The SkyBot and NgrBot worms have very similar methods of spreading. However, the two are very distinct in terms of the channels they use for spreading. Neo Tan and colleagues take a detailed look at the two IM worms - from their hijack methods and spreading channels, to the other malicious files they are trying to deliver - and give a brief comparison of the two.

• Unlocking LockScreen: During their analysis of LockScreen, Walter Kong and Kyle Yang found that this piece of malware uses more anti-debug tricks than a lot of other the malware. Here, they will detail the anti-debug tricks before shedding light on the communication protocol and encryption algorithm between the bot and the C&C server.

• Apktool set-up for Android lab: With a wide variety of e-crime-related threats being discovered every day for Android, the analysis of suspect Android packages is becoming an ever more important task for security researchers. John Foremost introduces Apktool, a very powerful freeware tool for analysing APK files.

• Greetz from academe: ethical quandaries: In the latest of his 'Greetz from Academe' series, highlighting some of the work going on in academic circles, John Aycock looks at the thorny issue of ethics in academic security research.

Note: The July 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 1 July 2013 by Virus Bulletin

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