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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VB100 for Windows Server 2008 results published

Latest VB100 results published - full report now also available.
Latest VB100 results published - full report now also available. The results of the VB100 comparative review on Windows Server 2008 R2 have been announced. This month's test… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/06/windows-server-2008-results-published/

DroidKungFu command and control server may be mobile device

Android trojan makes use of root exploit.
Android trojan makes use of root exploit. Researchers at Fortinet have discovered a command and control server for the 'DroidKungFu' Android trojan that appears to be a mobile… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/06/droidkungfu-command-and-control-server-may-be-mobile-device/

Outlook spam phishes for SMTP credentials

Login details would give spammers access to legitimate mail servers.
Login details would give spammers access to legitimate mail servers. A phishing scam has been identified that targets users of Microsoft Outlook and tries to obtain SMTP login… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/06/outlook-spam-phishes-smtp-credentials/

Exploit kit targets customers of air travel websites

SpyEye configuration intercepts personal data submitted to legitimate websites.
SpyEye configuration intercepts personal data submitted to legitimate websites. Security researchers have uncovered a version of the 'SpyEye' trojan that steals credit card and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/06/exploit-kit-targets-customers-air-travel-websites/

Botnet rented for online extortion

Man who threatened World Cup bookmakers with DDoS attack convicted.
Man who threatened World Cup bookmakers with DDoS attack convicted. A German man who hired a botnet and used it to threaten bookmakers with DDoS attacks during the 2010 FIFA World… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/06/botnet-rented-online-extortion/

US court: passwords reasonable security for online banking

Security question considered second authentication factor.
Security question considered second authentication factor. A US court has declared that a combination of passwords and 'security questions' is an ample way for banks to protect… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/06/us-court-passwords-reasonable-security-online-banking/

Sophos red flags Google Analytics

Popular analytics tool mistakenly flagged as 'high risk'.
Popular analytics tool mistakenly flagged as 'high risk'. Security firm Sophos had an embarrassing moment this morning when its scanner flagged Google Analytics as malicious.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/06/sophos-red-flags-google-analytics/

Malicious PHP script hides bad stuff inside 'white-space'

Spaces and tabs used to encode into binary.
Spaces and tabs used to encode into binary. Researchers at Kaspersky have discovered a malicious PHP script that uses an inventive way to obfuscate its malicious behaviour. The… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/06/malicious-php-script-hides-bad-stuff-inside-white-space/

Banking malware hosted on Amazon's cloud servers

Trojan targets mostly Brazilian banks.
Trojan targets mostly Brazilian banks. Researchers have discovered malware hosted on Amazon Web Services that steals victims' bank account data. Acting as a rootkit, the malware… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/06/banking-malware-hosted-amazon-s-cloud-servers/

June issue of VB published

The June issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.
The June issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download. The June 2011 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or download… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/06/june-issue-vb-published/

June

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/06/

Facebook scam serving malware

Attack targeting Windows and Mac users in US and UK.
Attack targeting Windows and Mac users in US and UK. A Facebook scam that is doing the rounds at the moment - claiming to contain a 'freaky video' related to the ongoing case… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/06/facebook-scam-serving-malware/

95% of spam monetized through three banks

Financial infrastructure possible bottleneck for spammers.
Financial infrastructure possible bottleneck for spammers. In a recently published paper, researchers from the University of California found that 95 per cent of spamvertised… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/05/95-spam-monetized-through-three-banks/

Spammers use unicode trick to manipulate file names

Windows executable appears to be Word document.
Windows executable appears to be Word document. An unicode trick that reverses the order of some characters has been used by spammers to disguise malicious attachments as harmless… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/05/spammers-use-unicode-trick-manipulate-file-names/

Zeus source code leaked

Banking trojan among the most advanced of its kind.
Banking trojan among the most advanced of its kind. Researchers at Danish security firm CSIS have discovered that the full source code of the Zeus crime kit has been leaked to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/05/zeus-source-code-leaked/

Canada new hotbed for cybercriminal activity

Country's IP addresses less likely to be scrutinized.
Country's IP addresses less likely to be scrutinized. Security firm Websense has reported a significant increase in cybercrime originating in Canada. Hitherto, Canada and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/05/canada-new-hotbed-cybercriminal-activity/

Smile, you're on a botnet!

Multi-platform Java botnet allows for remote control of webcam and microphone.
Multi-platform Java botnet allows for remote control of webcam and microphone. Researchers have discovered a multi-platform botnet running on the Java Runtime Environment (JRE)… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/05/smile-you-re-botnet/

May

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/05/

May issue of VB published

The May issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.
The May issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download. The May 2011 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or download… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/05/may-issue-vb-published/

VB announces Virus Bulletin for Kindle

VB joins the e-book generation.
VB joins the e-book generation. With millions of people now using e-book readers as a convenient way to read while on the go - or simply to cut down on bookshelf space - VB is… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/04/vb-announces-kindle/

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