VB Blog

Subtle change could see a reduction in installation of malicious Chrome extensions

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 13, 2018

Google has made a subtle change to its Chrome browser, banning the inline installation of new extensions, thus making it harder for malware authors to trick users into unwittingly installing malicious extensions.

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Paper: EternalBlue: a prominent threat actor of 2017–2018

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 11, 2018

We publish a paper by researchers from Quick Heal Security Labs in India, who study the EternalBlue and DoublePulsar exploits in full detail.

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'North Korea' a hot subject among VB2018 talks

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Jun 1, 2018

Several VB2018 papers deal explicitly or implicitly with threats that have been attributed to North Korean actors.

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Expired domain led to SpamCannibal's blacklist eating the whole world

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 31, 2018

The domain of the little-used SpamCannibal DNS blacklist had expired, resulting in it effectively listing every single IP address.

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MnuBot banking trojan communicates via SQL server

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 30, 2018

Researchers at IBM X-Force have discovered MnuBot, a banking trojan targeting users in Brazil, which is noteworthy for using SQL Server for command and control communication.

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Throwback Thursday: Giving the EICAR test file some teeth

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 24, 2018

The 68-byte EICAR test file plays as important a role today as it did 19 years ago. In this week's Throwback Thursday we look back at a VB99 conference paper in which Randy Abrams described how this 'miracle tool' worked and how it could be used.

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XMRig used in new macOS cryptominer

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 23, 2018

A new piece of cryptocurrency-mining malware on macOS has been found to use the popular XMRig miner.

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

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 22, 2018

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.

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Turkish Twitter users targeted with mobile FinFisher spyware

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 15, 2018

Through fake social media accounts, users were tricked into installing an Android application that was actually a mobile version of the FinFisher spyware.

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Hide'n'Seek IoT botnet adds persistence

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 9, 2018

The Hide'n'Seek IoT botnet has received an update to make its infection persist on infected devices beyond a restart.

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Search blog

'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 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/

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/

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

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

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/

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/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenters Ilya Rabinovich and Randy Abrams about their research, Windows 8 security, and what they aim to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenters Ilya Rabinovich and Randy Abrams about their research, Windows 8 security, and what they aim to bring to VB2013. The VB2013 conference takes place… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/speaker-spotlight-rabinovich-abrams/

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