VB2018 paper: Now you see it, now you don't: wipers in the wild

Posted by    on   Nov 1, 2018

Early computer viruses were often destructive in nature, but once criminals learned about the money they could make from malware, they realised that destructiveness hurt their goals. Destructive malware, however, has made a comeback in recent years, most importantly in nation-sponsored attacks.

Some of these malware variants literally wipe all data off disks (hence the name 'wiper'), while others merely encrypt the data in a way that doesn't allow for recovery, often masquerading as ransomware: the notorious 2017 attacks of WannaCry and NotPetya are examples of the latter.

In a paper presented at VB2018 in Montreal last month, BAE Systems researcher Saher Naumaan looked at the various kinds of malware that contain a wiper variant, including their goals, propagation methods, and how the wiper functionality worked.

Naumaan-fig1.pngMajor targeted attacks employing wipers and classifications.

We have now published Saher's paper in both HTML and PDF format. We have also uploaded the video of her presentation to our YouTube channel.

twitter.png
fb.png
linkedin.png
hackernews.png
reddit.png

 

Latest posts:

VBSpam tests to be executed under the AMTSO framework

VB is excited to announce that, starting from the Q3 test, all VBSpam tests of email security products will be executed under the AMTSO framework.

In memoriam: Prof. Ross Anderson

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of Professor Ross Anderson a few days ago.

In memoriam: Dr Alan Solomon

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of industry pioneer Dr Alan Solomon earlier this week.

New paper: Nexus Android banking botnet – compromising C&C panels and dissecting mobile AppInjects

In a new paper, researchers Aditya K Sood and Rohit Bansal provide details of a security vulnerability in the Nexus Android botnet C&C panel that was exploited in order to gather threat intelligence, and present a model of mobile AppInjects.

New paper: Collector-stealer: a Russian origin credential and information extractor

In a new paper, F5 researchers Aditya K Sood and Rohit Chaturvedi present a 360 analysis of Collector-stealer, a Russian-origin credential and information extractor.

We have placed cookies on your device in order to improve the functionality of this site, as outlined in our cookies policy. However, you may delete and block all cookies from this site and your use of the site will be unaffected. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to Virus Bulletin's use of data as outlined in our privacy policy.