VB Blog

VB2016 preview: Smart Outlets. Why We Need Responsible Disclosure!

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 9, 2016

At VB2016, four researcher from Bitdefender will present a paper in which they look at vulnerabilities in four "smart" power outlets.

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VB2016 preview: Uncovering the Secrets of Malvertising

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 7, 2016

Malvertising, in which legitimate ad networks are abused to silently infect users with malware, has become a real plague in recent years. A VB2016 paper by Malwarebytes researchers Jérôme Segura and Chris Boyd will look at the issue.

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VB2016: Important Information About the Hotel

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 6, 2016

Many people have already registered for VB2016 and the conference hotel is rapidly filling up - registration for the event will remain open right up until the start of the conference, but here, we provide some advice about booking accommodation.

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VB2016 preview: Detecting Man-in-the-Middle Attacks With Canary Requests

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 6, 2016

At VB2016, Cylance researcher Brian Wallace will reveal a multi-platform tool that runs on the endpoint and uses various techniques to detect ongoing man-in-the-middle attacks.

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A look at the VB2016 sponsors

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 5, 2016

More than a dozen companies and organizations are lending their support to VB2016 as conference sponsors and supporting organizations.

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Guest blog: Nemucod ransomware analysis

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Sep 2, 2016

In a guest blog, Webroot researcher Jesse Lopez looks at another variant in the massive crop of malware that takes users’ files hostage: Nemucod ransomware.

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VB2016 preview: Mobile Applications: a Backdoor into Internet of Things?

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 1, 2016

At VB2016 in Denver, Fortinet researcher Axelle Apvrille will discuss how analysing a device's complementary mobile app can help a great deal in understanding the architecture of a smart device.

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VB2016 preview: Wild Android Collusions

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Aug 31, 2016

Full technical details of the first in-the-wild Android app 'collusion' attack, where multiple apps perform an attack in collaboration, will be shared with the public in at VB2016 in Denver on 5 October.

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Small Talks return to the Virus Bulletin Conference

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Aug 26, 2016

Following their success last year, this year a series of "Small Talks" return to the VB2016 conference programme. We are pleased to announce the details of six of these talks, covering subjects that range from the Chinese cybercriminal underground to Android security, the Tor Project, and exploit kits.

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Research shows web security products perform well against exploit kits

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Aug 24, 2016

Research by Virus Bulletin, in which five web security products were served 54 live exploit kits, shows that the products blocked between 87 and 100 per cent of the kits.

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Search blog

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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