VB Blog

VB2017: a wide ranging and international conference programme

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 13, 2017

We are proud to announce a very broad and very international programme for VB2017, which will take place in Madrid, 4-6 October 2017.

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John Graham-Cumming and Brian Honan to deliver keynote addresses at VB2017

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 10, 2017

Virus Bulletin is excited to announce John-Graham Cumming and Brian Honan as the two keynote speakers for VB2017 in Madrid.

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Virus Bulletin says a fond farewell to John Hawes

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 31, 2017

As VB's COO John Hawes moves on to new challenges, the team wish him a fond farewell and good luck in his future endeavours.

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VB2016 paper: One-Click Fileless Infection

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 28, 2017

Symantec researchers Himanshu Anand and Chastine Menrige explain how a single click can lead to a compromised machine, without malware ever being stored on disk.

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Mostly blocked, but still good enough: Necurs sending pump-and-dump spam

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 22, 2017

The Necurs botnet has started sending pump-and-dump spam. Almost all of these emails are blocked by spam filters, yet the stock price still increased.

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Why the SHA-1 collision means you should stop using the algorithm

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 10, 2017

Realistically speaking, if your software or system uses the SHA-1 hashing algorithm, it is unlikely that it will be exploited in the foreseeable future. But it is also extremely difficult to be certain that your system won't be the exception.

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VB2017 Call for Papers: frequently asked questions

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 10, 2017

The call for papers for VB2017, which takes place 4 to 6 October in Madrid, Spain, is currently open. We're always on the look out for new speakers and new content, so to help anyone who's unfamiliar with the VB conference, we've prepared a list of answers to some frequently asked questions about the event, and about how to submit a paper.

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Throwback Thursday: Michelangelo - Graffiti Not Art

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Mar 9, 2017

This week marked the 25th anniversary of the trigger date of the infamous Michelangelo virus. In January 1992, VB published an analysis of the boot sector virus that captured the imagination of the press and kicked up a media storm.

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How are you defending your network? Come and tell us at VB2017!

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 8, 2017

Is it your job to defend your company’s network? Are you defending a government’s systems? Do you help secure the devices used by activists operating in less open societies? Do you work with abuse victims targeted by spyware? Share your experiences with the security community at VB2017.

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Quick impressions from BSides Budapest

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Mar 8, 2017

At Virus Bulletin, we love the BSides concept and we have attended several of the BSides events around the world. So when Peter Karsai, who is soon to join the VB team, offered to write about his experience at BSides Budapest, we jumped at the chance to publish his post.

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Paper: Windows 10 patching process may leave enterprises vulnerable to zero-day attacks

Aryeh Goretsky gives advice on how to adapt to Windows 10's patching strategy.
Aryeh Goretsky gives advice on how to adapt to Windows 10's patching strategy. Patching is hard, especially when the code base is old and the bugs are buried deeply. This was… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/paper-windows-10-patching-process-may-leave-enterprises-vulnerable-zero-day-attacks/

Will DIME eventually replace email?

Protocol has all the advantages of email, yet is orders of magnitude more secure.
Protocol has all the advantages of email, yet is orders of magnitude more secure. In the current Internet era sometimes referred to as 'post-Snowden', it is often said that email… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/will-dime-eventually-replace-email/

The ghost of Stuxnet past

Microsoft patches .LNK vulnerability after 2010 patch was found to be incomplete.
Microsoft patches .LNK vulnerability after 2010 patch was found to be incomplete. Mention Stuxnet and you'll have many a security researcher's attention. The worm, which was… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/ghost-stuxnet-past/

Canadian firm fined $1.1m for breaching anti-spam law

First success story for long-awaited CASL.
First success story for long-awaited CASL. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the agency responsible for enforcing Canada's anti-spam law… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/canadian-firm-fined-1-1m-breaching-anti-spam-law/

Virus Bulletin seeks hackers, network researchers for VB2015

One week left to submit an abstract for the 25th Virus Bulletin conference.
One week left to submit an abstract for the 25th Virus Bulletin conference. A few weeks ago, I made a short visit to the Clarion Congress Hotel in Prague, where VB2015 will take… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/seeks-hackers-network-researchers/

VB2014 paper: Leaving our ZIP undone: how to abuse ZIP to deliver malware apps

Gregory Panakkal explains that there are different ways of looking at APK files - and that sometimes that can have unintended consequences.
Gregory Panakkal explains that there are different ways of looking at APK files - and that sometimes that can have unintended consequences.Since the close of the VB2014 conference… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/paper-leaving-our-zip-undone-how-abuse-zip-deliver-malware-apps/

FREAK attack takes HTTPS connections back to 1990s security

Golden keys from the (first) crypto wars have come back to haunt us.
Golden keys from the (first) crypto wars have come back to haunt us. When a web client makes a secure connection to a web server (using HTTPS), it starts by sending a 'Hello'… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/freak-attack-takes-https-connections-back-1990s-security/

TorrentLocker spam has DMARC enabled

Use of email authentication technique unlikely to bring any advantage.
Use of email authentication technique unlikely to bring any advantage. Last week, Trend Micro researcher Jon Oliver (who presented a paper on Twitter abuse at VB2014) wrote an… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/torrentlocker-spam-has-dmarc-enabled/

Paper: Script in a lossy stream

Dénes Óvári explains how to store code in lossily compressed JPEG data.
Dénes Óvári explains how to store code in lossily compressed JPEG data. Malformed PDFs have become a common way to deliver malware. Naturally, when this started to happen,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/paper-script-lossy-stream/

March

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/

VB2014 paper: Caphaw - the advanced persistent pluginer

Micky Pun and Neo Tan analyse the banking trojan that is best known for spreading through Skype.
Micky Pun and Neo Tan analyse the banking trojan that is best known for spreading through Skype.Since the close of the VB2014 conference in Seattle in October, we have been sharing… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/paper-caphaw-advanced-persistent-pluginer/

M3AAWG releases BCP document on dealing with child sexual abuse material

Subject may make many feel uncomfortable, but it is essential that we know how to deal with it.
Subject may make many feel uncomfortable, but it is essential that we know how to deal with it. The mere mention of "child pornography" on the Internet makes many a security expert… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/m3aawg-releases-bcp-document-dealing-child-sexual-abuse-material/

Coordinated action takes down Ramnit botnet infrastructure

Malware remains present on infected machines; 2012 Virus Bulletin paper worth studying.
Malware remains present on infected machines; 2012 Virus Bulletin paper worth studying. A coordinated action from Anubisnetworks, Microsoft and Symantec, together with Europol has… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/coordinated-action-takes-down-ramnit-botnet-infrastructure/

Hacker group takes over Lenovo's DNS

As emails were sent to wrong servers, DNSSEC might be worth looking into.
As emails were sent to wrong servers, DNSSEC might be worth looking into. Although, after some initial hesitation, Lenovo was rather frank in its admission of messing up regarding… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/hacker-group-takes-over-lenovo-s-dns/

Almost 50% increase in reported vulnerabilities as non-Windows operating systems lead the table

Each discovered vulnerability is actually a good news story.
Each discovered vulnerability is actually a good news story. Last week, security firm GFI published some research in which it looked at the number of vulnerabilities reported last… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/almost-50-increase-reported-vulnerabilities-non-windows-operating-systems-lead-table/

Vawtrak trojan spread through malicious Office macros

Users easily tricked, but plenty of opportunity for the malware to be blocked.
Users easily tricked, but plenty of opportunity for the malware to be blocked. Researchers at Trend Micro report that the 'Vawtrak' banking trojan now also spreads through Office… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/vawtrak-trojan-spread-through-malicious-office-macros/

Lenovo laptops pre-installed with software that adds its own root CA certificate

Shared root certificate makes for easy man-in-the-middle attacks.
Shared root certificate makes for easy man-in-the-middle attacks.What is Superfish?Superfish is a product that offers 'Visual Search'. Say, for example, you are looking at cat… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/lenovo-laptops-pre-installed-software-adds-its-own-root-ca-certificate/

Google relaxes disclosure policy following criticism

Grace period added for vulnerabilities that are about to be patched.
Grace period added for vulnerabilities that are about to be patched. Last year, Google announced a new disclosure policy, where details of a vulnerability discovered by the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/google-relaxes-disclosure-policy-following-criticism/

VB2014 video: .NET malware dynamic instrumentation for automated and manual analysis

Hexiang Hu used tool to detect Bladabindi backdoor.
Hexiang Hu used tool to detect Bladabindi backdoor. The .NET framework is a popular way to write software. As applications built with the framework compile into a Common… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/video-net-malware-dynamic-instrumentation-automated-and-manual-analysis/

Facebook launches platform for sharing of threat intelligence

Twitter, Yahoo! amongst early participants in 'ThreatExchange'.
Twitter, Yahoo! amongst early participants in 'ThreatExchange'. When I took my first steps in the security industry, I was surprised by just how much information was shared between… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/facebook-launches-platform-sharing-threat-intelligence/

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