VB Blog

VB2017 video: Turning Trickbot: decoding an encrypted command-and-control channel

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Nov 3, 2017

Trickbot, a banking trojan which appeared this year, seems to be a new, more modular, and more extensible malware descendant of the notorious Dyre botnet trojan. At VB2017, Symantec researcher Andrew Brandt presented a walkthrough of a typical Trickbot infection process, and its aftermath, as seen through the lens of a tool used to perform man-in-the-middle decryption. Today, we publish both Andrew's slides and the recording of his presentation.

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Paper: FAME - Friendly Malware Analysis Framework

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Nov 2, 2017

Today, we publish a short paper in which CERT Société Générale presents FAME, its open source malware analysis framework.

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Ebury and Mayhem server malware families still active

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Oct 31, 2017

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.

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VB2017 paper: Crypton - exposing malware's deepest secrets

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Oct 27, 2017

Crypton, a tool developed by F5 Networks researchers Julia Karpin and Anna Dorfman, aims to speed up the reverse engineering process by decrypting encrypted content found in a (malicious) binary. The researchers described the tool in a paper which they presented at VB2017 in Madrid. Today, we publish both the paper and the recording of their presentation.

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VB2017 paper: The sprawling market of consumer spyware

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Oct 25, 2017

For many people, the threat of an abusive partner or ex-partner is very real - and the market for consumer spyware worryingly large. Today, we publish the recording of a presentation on the subject of consumer spyware given at VB2017 by The Daily Beast reporter Joseph Cox.

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Gábor Szappanos wins fourth Péter Szőr Award

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Oct 23, 2017

At the VB2017 gala dinner, the fourth Péter Szőr Award was presented to Sophos researcher Gábor Szappanos for his paper "AKBuilder – the crowdsourced exploit kit".

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VB2017 paper: Walking in your enemy's shadow: when fourth-party collection becomes attribution hell

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Oct 20, 2017

We publish the VB2017 paper and video by Kaspersky Lab researchers Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade and Costin Raiu, in which they look at fourth-party collection (spies spying on other spies' campaigns) and its implications for attribution.

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Didn't come to VB2017? Tell us why!

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Oct 11, 2017

Virus Bulletin is a company - and a conference - with a mission: to further the research in and facilitate the fight against digital threats. To help us in this mission, we want to hear from those who didn't come to Madrid. What is your impression of the VB Conference? What did you think of this year's programme? And why couldn't you come to Madrid?

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Montreal will host VB2018

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Oct 10, 2017

Last week, we announced the full details of VB2018, which will take place 3-5 October 2018 at the Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth hotel in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

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VB2017 preview: Beyond lexical and PDNS (guest blog)

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Oct 5, 2017

In a special guest blog post, VB2017 Silver sponsor Cisco Umbrella writes about a paper that researchers Dhia Mahjoub and David Rodriguez will present at the conference this Friday.

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'Mobile Thursday' at the VB conference

Record number of presentations dedicated to threats affecting smartphones.
Record number of presentations dedicated to threats affecting smartphones. The significant increase in mobile threats is reflected in the VB2013 programme, which includes seven… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/09/mobile-thursday-vb-conference/

VB2013 last-minute papers and keynote announced

Hot topics to be covered at VB conference in Berlin.
Hot topics to be covered at VB conference in Berlin. We thought that the 45 previously announced VB2013 papers, together with the panel discussion, already made for a really… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/09/last-minute-papers-and-keynote-announced/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenter Sergey Golovanov about business-to-government malware.
We speak to VB2013 presenter Sergey Golovanov about business-to-government malware. The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4 October) in Berlin, with an exciting… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/09/speaker-spotlight-golovanov/

Backdoored standards show we desperately need more cryptographers

Too few currently possess the skills to verify standards.
Too few currently possess the skills to verify standards. Recent revelations of the NSA's crypto-breaking capabilities have led to calls for better cryptography. But we need more… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/09/backdoored-standards-show-we-desperately-need-more-cryptographers/

Syrian conflict used in pump-and-dump spam

Short campaign could have had desired effect.
Short campaign could have had desired effect.Pump-and-dump spam is almost as old as spam itself: emails are sent out promoting worthless 'penny stocks', which have been purchased… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/09/syrian-conflict-used-pump-and-dump-spam/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenter Andrei Serbanoiu about Facebook ad spam and scams, and what he aims to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenter Andrei Serbanoiu about Facebook ad spam and scams, and what he aims to bring to VB2013.The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4 October) in… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/09/speaker-spotlight-serbanoiu/

Box-ticking mentality leads to insecurity

Credit card company fails to understand how authentication works.
Credit card company fails to understand how authentication works. Security experts often bemoan a 'box-ticking' mentality and argue that in many cases ticking boxes doesn't address… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/09/box-ticking-mentality-leads-insecurity/

Updated botnet likely cause of surge in Tor traffic

New Tor version should help the network deal with increased traffic.
New Tor version should help the network deal with increased traffic. Sometimes a picture says more than a thousand words: The graph shows the daily number of users of the Tor… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/09/updated-botnet-likely-cause-surge-tor-traffic/

Malware spoofing HTTP Host header to hide C&C communication

Traffic appears as requests to Google or Yandex.
Traffic appears as requests to Google or Yandex. There have been several recent examples of malware using a spoofed HTTP Host header to hide communucation with its control servers.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/09/malware-spoofing-http-host-header-hide-c-amp-c-communication/

Phone support scams: an old scam with some new tricks

Files in Prefetch directory supposedly show malware infections.
Files in Prefetch directory supposedly show malware infections. Telephone support scams have been going on for quite a long time, and have received a fair amount of publicity,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/09/phone-support-scams-old-scam-some-new-tricks/

September issue of VB published

The September issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.
The September issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download. The September 2013 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/09/september-issue-vb-published/

September

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/09/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to Joe Blackbird and Bill Pfeifer about how anti-malware protection states affect infection rates.
We speak to Joe Blackbird and Bill Pfeifer about how anti-malware protection states affect infection rates. The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4 October) in Berlin,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/speaker-spotlight-blackbirdpfeifer/

Kelihos checks machines' IP addresses against DNS blacklists

Role of node in a botnet dependent on whether the IP address is blacklisted.
Role of node in a botnet dependent on whether the IP address is blacklisted. Whenever I look at the results of the VBSpam tests, it always amazes me how large a percentage of spam… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/kelihos-checks-machines-ip-addresses-against-dns-blacklists/

New email header attempts to prevent damage of reissued email addresses

Transactional emails not delivered if the account's owner has changed in the meantime.
Transactional emails not delivered if the account's owner has changed in the meantime. When in June, Yahoo announced it would free up inactive user IDs, it received fierce… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/new-email-header-attempts-prevent-damage-reissued-email-addresses/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to Gunter Ollmann about the growing need to assess corporate security defences from a hacker's perspective.
We speak to Gunter Ollmann about the growing need to assess corporate security defences from a hacker's perspective. The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4 October) in… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/speaker-spotlight-ollmann/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to Roman Unuchek about malicious redirection of mobile users, his research interests, and what he aims to bring to VB2013.
We speak to Roman Unuchek about malicious redirection of mobile users, his research interests, and what he aims to bring to VB2013. The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/speaker-spotlight-unuchek/

DNSSEC glitch causes .gov sites to become inaccessible

Name servers unable to distinguish faulty from rogue responses.
Name servers unable to distinguish faulty from rogue responses. A glitch at VeriSign yesterday led to DNSSEC-aware name servers being unable to verify responses on the .gov… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/dnssec-glitch-causes-gov-sites-become-inaccessible/

Researchers demonstrate how IPv6 can easily be used to perform MitM attacks

Many devices simply waiting for router advertisements, good or evil.
Many devices simply waiting for router advertisements, good or evil. When early last year I was doing research for an article on IPv6 and security, I was surprised to learn how… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/researchers-demonstrate-how-ipv6-can-easily-be-used-perform-mitm-attacks/

ATM manufacturer pays respects to hacker who broke into its systems

Both Barnaby Jack and Triton showed how white-hat hacking should be done.
Both Barnaby Jack and Triton showed how white-hat hacking should be done. A tribute to the late Barnaby Jack by the company whose systems he hacked shows how hackers can really… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/atm-manufacturer-pays-respects-hacker-who-broke-its-systems/

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