VB Blog

VB2018 paper: Fake News, Inc.

Posted by Helen Martin on Apr 25, 2019

A former reporter by profession, Andrew Brandt's curiosity was piqued when he came across what appeared at first glance to be the website of a small-town newspaper based in Illinois, but under scrutiny, things didn’t add up. At VB2018 he presented a paper in which he shared the results of his investigation of the site. Today, we publish his paper and the recording of his presentation.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Apr 24, 2019

In a new paper published today, independent researcher Nikolaos Tsapakis writes about the possibilities of malware using NTP as a covert communication channel and how to stop this.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Apr 5, 2019

VB is excited to reveal the details of an interesting and diverse programme for VB2019, the 29th Virus Bulletin International Conference, which takes place 2-4 October in London, UK.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Mar 27, 2019

Car hacking has become a hot subject in recent years, and at VB2018 in Montreal, Argus Cyber Security's Inbar Raz presented a paper that provides an introduction to the subject, looking at the complex problem, examples of car hacks, and the challenges ahead. Today, we publish both Inbar's paper and the recording of his presentation.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Mar 20, 2019

Static analysis and dynamic analysis each have their shortcomings as methods for analysing potentially malicious files. Today, we publish a VB2018 paper by Check Point researchers Yoni Moses and Yaniv Mordekhay, in which they describe a method that combines static and dynamic analysis to defeat app obfuscation in Android binaries. We also publish the video of their presentation.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Mar 15, 2019

The call for papers for VB2019 closes on 17 March, and while we've already received many great submissions, we still want more!

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Mar 13, 2019

Registration for VB2019, the 29th Virus Bulletin International Conference, is now open, with an early bird rate available until 1 July.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Mar 8, 2019

When we are calling for papers for the Virus Bulletin conference as we are doing now, we really mean a written paper. But don't worry if you've never written a paper - we can help!

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Mar 8, 2019

Amit Serper first analysed the OSX/Pirrit adware in 2016, highlighting some of its malware-like techniques, and soon afterwards started receiving legal threats from the company behind it. At VB2018 Amit gave a presentation in which he discussed both the adware and the legal threats he received for calling it malware. Today, we publish the video of Amit's presentation.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Mar 5, 2019

In December 2016, the CRASHOVERRIDE malware framework was used to cause a blackout in Ukraine. At VB2018 in Montreal, Dragos researcher Joe Slowik presented a detailed paper on the framework, explaining how the malware works and how it targets various protocols used to operate the electric grid. Today we publish both Joe's paper and the recording of his presentation.

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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.
Nexus Android banking botnet – compromising C&C panels and dissecting mobile AppInjects Read the paper (HTML) Download the paper (PDF) Android botnets are a formidable… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2023/10/new-paper-nexus-android-banking-botnet-compromising-cc-panels-and-dissecting-mobile-appinjects/

New paper: LokiBot: dissecting the C&C panel deployments

First advertised as an information stealer and keylogger when it appeared in underground forums in 2015, LokiBot has added various capabilities over the years and has affected many users worldwide. In a new paper researcher Aditya Sood analyses the URL st…
If you have some research you'd like to share with the security community, we'd love to hear from you: the call for papers for VB2020 (Dublin, 30 Sept to 2 Oct 2020) remains open… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2020/02/new-paper-lokibot-dissecting-cc-panel-deployments/

VB2018 paper: Tracking Mirai variants

Today, we publish the VB2018 paper by Qihoo 360 researchers Ya Liu and Hui Wang, on extracting data from variants of the Mirai botnet to classify and track variants.
The leaking or publishing of malware source code often leads to multiple spin-off families based on the code. Never has this been more clear than in the case of the Mirai Internet… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2018/12/vb2018-paper-tracking-mirai-variants/

VB2018 paper: Hide'n'Seek: an adaptive peer-to-peer IoT botnet

2018 has seen an increase in the variety of botnets living on the Internet of Things - such as Hide'N'Seek, which is notable for its use of peer-to-peer for command-and-control communication. Today, we publish the VB2018 paper by Bitdefender researchers A…
Until recently IoT botnets mostly consisted of Mirai and its many descendants. However, during 2018 we have seen an increase in the variety of botnets living on the Internet of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2018/12/vb2018-paper-hidenseek-adaptive-peer-peer-iot-botnet/

New paper: Botception: botnet distributes script with bot capabilities

In a new paper, Avast researchers Jan Sirmer and Adolf Streda look at how a spam campaign sent via the Necurs botnet was delivering the Flawed Ammyy RAT. As well as publishing the paper, we have also released the video of the reseachers' VB2018 presentati…
The Necurs botnet has been active for some time. In 2014, Virus Bulletin published a 3-part article by Peter Ferrie (1, 2, 3) who had studied the botnet in great detail. And… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2018/12/new-paper-botception-botnet-distributes-script-bot-capabilities/

VB2018 preview: IoT botnets

The VB2018 programme is packed with a wide range of security topics featuring speakers from all around the world. Today we preview two of them: one by Qihoo 360 researchers on tracking variants of Mirai and one by researchers from Bitdefender on the peer-…
For a long time IoT-botnets were just one of those things security professionals warned about. Then, with the appearance of Mirai in 2016, they became a reality. Mirai's… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2018/09/vb2018-preview-iot-botnets/

Necurs update reminds us that the botnet cannot be ignored

The operators of the Necurs botnet, best known for being one of the most prolific spam botnets of the past few years, have pushed out updates to its client, which provide some important lessons about why malware infections matter.
If, at some point in the past few years, you have looked at a spam campaign in which a lot of emails were being sent from Vietnam or India, there's a good chance the spam was sent… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2018/07/necurs-update-reminds-us-botnet-cannot-be-ignored/

Tendency for DDoS attacks to become less volumetric fits in a wider trend

CDN provider Cloudflare reports an increase in DDoS attacks targeting layer 7 and focusing on exhausting server resources rather than sending large volumes of data. This fits in a wider trend.
A current trend sees DDoS attacks focusing less on large volume attacks and more on attacks that exhaust server resources, Cloudflare reports. The number of layer 7 attacks per… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2018/05/tendency-ddos-attacks-become-less-volumetric-fits-wider-trend/

Hide'n'Seek IoT botnet adds persistence

The Hide'n'Seek IoT botnet has received an update to make its infection persist on infected devices beyond a restart.
The Hide'n'Seek IoT botnet has received an update to make its infection persist on infected devices beyond a restart, Bitdefender reports. Though persistence is fairly common… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2018/05/hidenseek-iot-botnet-adds-persistence/

Security-focused routers may help to mitigate IoT threats

Various security companies are offering security-focused routers. This is a good trend and may help mitigate a lot of the issues that come with the IoT.
Walking around the RSA show floor last week, it was clear that the Internet of Things, or IoT, is a hot topic in security. Indeed, the number of connected devices continues to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2018/04/security-focused-routers-may-help-mitigate-iot-threats/

New paper: A review of the evolution of Andromeda over the years

The Andromeda botnet (aka Gamarue or Wauchos) has plagued Internet users for more than half a decade but, following a takedown effort and the arrest of the suspected botnet owner in December 2017, it is likely we have seen the end of it. In a new paper by…
In December last year, a joint operation involving law enforcement agencies and many security firms led to the dismantling of the Andromeda botnet, also known as Gamarue or… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2018/02/new-paper-review-evolution-andromeda-over-years/

Necurs pump-and-dump spam campaign pushes obscure cryptocurrency

A Necurs pump-and-dump spam campaign pushing the lesser known Swisscoin botnet is mostly background noise for the Internet.
Cryptocurrencies have attracted the attention of cybercriminals for many years: as a relatively anonymous payment channel, as a target of their digital theft, and as a way to turn… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2018/01/necurs-pump-and-dump-spam-campaign-pushes-obscure-cryptocurrency/

Spamhaus report shows many botnet controllers look a lot like legitimate servers

Spamhaus's annual report on botnet activity shows that botherders tend to use popular, legitimate hosting providers, domain registrars and top-level domains when setting up command-and-control servers.
Of all the annual security reports and blog posts that look back at the previous year, that of Spamhaus is one I particularly look forward to, as it always comes with good and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2018/01/spamhaus-reports-shows-many-botnet-controllers-look-lot-legitimate-servers/

Conference review: Botconf 2017

Virus Bulletin researchers report back from a very interesting fifth edition of Botconf, the botnet fighting conference.
Since its first edition in 2013, the Virus Bulletin team have been big fans of Botconf, the botnet fighting conference held every year in France. This year, Virus Bulletin sent… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/12/conference-review-botconf-2017/

Vulnerability disclosure and botnet takedown not to be hindered by Wassenaar Arrangement

Clarification in the language of the Wassenaar Arrangement, a multilateral export control regime for conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies, means those involved in vulnerability disclosure or botnet takedown won't have to worry about acqui…
I have never been too keen on making comparisons between (advanced) cyber attacks and conventional war, as such comparisons tend to ignore the enormous human cost that comes with… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/12/vulnerability-disclosure-and-botnet-takedown-not-be-hindered-wassenaar-arrangement/

VB2017 paper: Peering into spam botnets

At VB2017 in Madrid, CERT Poland researchers Maciej Kotowicz and Jarosław Jedynak presented a paper detailing their low-level analysis of five spam botnets. Today we publish their full paper.
Spam continues to be an important infection vector for many malware campaigns, but while a lot of attention is paid to the payloads delivered by these campaigns – Andrew Brandt's… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/12/vb2017-paper-peering-spam-botnets/

VB2017 paper: Beyond lexical and PDNS: using signals on graphs to uncover online threats at scale

At VB2017 in Madrid, Cisco Umbrella (OpenDNS) researchers Dhia Mahjoub and David Rodriguez presented a new approach to detecting infected machines using graphs to detect botnet traffic at scale. Today we publish both Dhia and David's paper and the recordi…
Malicious Internet traffic, such as botnet C&C traffic, is easily recognized if it uses known bad domain names, or known bad IP addresses. This is why botnets constantly change… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/11/vb2017-paper-beyond-lexical-and-pdns-using-signals-graphs-uncover-online-threats-scale/

Ebury and Mayhem server malware families still active

Ebury and Mayhem, two families of Linux server malware, about which VB published papers back in 2014, are still active and have received recent updates.
Whether it is to send spam or to redirect web traffic to malicious payloads, compromised (Linux) web servers are the glue in many a malware campaign. Two such networks of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/10/ebury-and-mayhem-server-malware-families-still-active/

Despite the profitability of ransomware there is a good reason why mining malware is thriving

Though ransomware is far more profitable than using a compromised PC to mine bitcoins, the global distribution of malware means that there are many botnets for which mining is the most efficient way to extract money out of a PC.
When, a few years ago, a friend and I were analysing a rather large botnet and we saw some network traffic indicating that it was engaged in Bitcoin mining, we felt rather… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/09/despite-profitability-ransomware-there-good-reason-why-mining-malware-thriving/

Massive data breach confirms what you already knew: you are getting spam

A security researcher found more than 700 million email addresses stored on a server used by a spam botnet, which gives us some insight into what the email lists used by spammers look like.
The security community spends a lot of time and effort researching the infrastructure used by spammers to send billions of unwanted and often malicious emails every day – but… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/09/massive-data-breach-confirms-what-you-already-knew-you-are-getting-spam/

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