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

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/

Are Gmail's new advertisements in breach of CAN-SPAM?

Marketers upset about 'emails' that you can't unsubscribe from.
Marketers upset about 'emails' that you can't unsubscribe from. A debate is happening among (anti-)spam experts on whether Gmail's new way of displaying advertisements is in breach… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/are-gmail-s-new-advertisements-breach-can-spam/

Thousands of websites affected by nameserver hijack redirecting visitors to malware

DNS caching causes attack to have a long tail.
DNS caching causes attack to have a long tail. Yesterday, visitors to thousands of Dutch websites were served an 'under construction' page that, through a hidden iframe, was… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/thousands-websites-affected-nameserver-hijack-redirecting-visitors-malware/

Firefox 17 zero-day exploit targets users of Tor network

Visitors to child abuse websites likely target of operation, but will there be collateral damage?
Visitors to child abuse websites likely target of operation, but will there be collateral damage? A zero-day exploit in Firefox 17 that was probably used to track the visitors to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/firefox-17-zero-day-exploit-targets-users-tor-network/

There is no 'I know what I am doing' trump card in security

NSA activities could make millions avoid US-based services.
NSA activities could make millions avoid US-based services. We have all been there. To continue the product you're working on, you need to get some extra permission: a port needs… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/there-no-i-know-what-i-am-doing-trump-card-security/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenters Mark Kennedy and Igor Muttik about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenters Mark Kennedy and Igor Muttik about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013. The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/speaker-spotlight-kennedy-muttik/

August

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/

August issue of VB published

The August issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.
The August issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download. The August 2013 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/august-issue-vb-published/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenters Axelle Apvrille and Karine de Pontevès about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenters Axelle Apvrille and Karine de Pontevès about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013. The VB2013 conference takes place this… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/speaker-spotlight-apvrille-de-ponteves/

Is publishing your employees' email addresses such a big deal?

Beware of a false sense of security.
Beware of a false sense of security. Security blogger Graham Cluley points to hypocrisy in a KPMG press release in which it criticises FTSE 350 companies for 'leaking data that can… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/publishing-your-employees-email-addresses-such-big-deal/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenters Carsten Willems and Ralf Hund about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenters Carsten Willems and Ralf Hund about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013. The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/speaker-spotlight-willems-hund/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to James Wyke about his research interests and what he aims to bring to VB2013.
We speak to James Wyke about his research interests and what he aims to bring to VB2013.The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4 October) in Berlin, with an exciting… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/speaker-spotlight-wyke/

IETF discusses deprecation of IPv6 fragmentation

Little-used feature could have unintended security consequences.
Little-used feature could have unintended security consequences. As the Internet is (very) slowly migrating towards IPv6, researchers are reconsidering a little-used feature that… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/ietf-discusses-deprecation-ipv6-fragmentation/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenter Samir Mody about his research interests and what he aims to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenter Samir Mody about his research interests and what he aims to bring to VB2013. The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4 October) in Berlin,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/speaker-spotlight-mody/

July issue of VB published

The July issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.
The July issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download. The July 2013 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or download… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/july-issue-vb-published/

July

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenter Andreas Lindh about his research interests and what he aims to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenter Andreas Lindh about his research interests and what he aims to bring to VB2013.The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4 October) in Berlin,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/06/speaker-spotlight-lindh/

Compromised Yahoo! accounts continue to spread Android malware

Problem likely to be on Yahoo!'s side.
Problem likely to be on Yahoo!'s side. In recent weeks, we have noticed an uptick in the amount of spam sent from compromised Yahoo! accounts; we have reasons to believe the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/06/compromised-yahoo-accounts-continue-spread-android-malware/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenters Lysa Myers and David Harley about their research interests and what they aim to bring to the conference.
We speak to VB2013 presenters Lysa Myers and David Harley about their research interests and what they aim to bring to the conference. The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/06/speaker-spotlight-harley-myers/

Facebook temporarily blocks access from Tor

Malicious activity triggered automatic lockdown.
Malicious activity triggered automatic lockdown. A 'high volume of malicious activity across Tor exit nodes' is believed to have been the reason why Facebook temporarily blocked… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/06/facebook-temporarily-blocks-access-tor/

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