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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VB2019 preview: A study of Machete cyber espionage operations in Latin America

Researchers from the Czech Technical University in Prague will present a very comprehensive overview of the Machete APT group.
The US government considers China, Russia, Iran and North Korea to be the most prominent nation-state actors in cyber space. Apart from conveniently ignoring activities by the US… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2019/08/vb2019-preview-study-machete-cyber-espionage-operations-latin-america/

AfricaHackon 2019: a great event and a reminder that security is global

Last week, VB Editor Martijn Grooten travelled to the Kenyan capital Nairobi to speak at the 6th edition of the AfricaHackon event.
It was a few years ago that I first learned of AfricaHackon, Africa's premier IT security conference. It led me to invite Tyrus Kamau, one of the event's organisers, to speak at… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2019/08/africahackon-2019-reminder-security-global/

Virus Bulletin researcher discovers new Lord exploit kit

Still in-development kit thus far only targets Flash Player vulnerabilities
The number of active exploit kits is very small: the recently published summer 2019 edition of Malwarebytes' quarterly round-up lists the seven then known active exploit kits. To… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2019/08/virus-bulletin-researcher-discovers-new-lord-exploit-kit/

VB2019 call for last-minute papers opened

The call for last-minute papers for VB2019 is now open. Submit before 1 September to have your abstract considered for one of the nine slots reserved for 'hot' research.
Virus Bulletin has opened the call for last-minute papers for VB2019.  The VB2019 programme already boasts some 40 talks that were announced more than three months ago. Though… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2019/07/vb2019-call-last-minute-papers-opened/

Nominations opened for sixth Péter Szőr Award

Virus Bulletin is seeking nominations for the sixth annual Péter Szőr Award.
Virus Bulletin is seeking nominations for the sixth annual Péter Szőr Award. The award was inaugurated during the VB2014 conference, in honour of late security researcher and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2019/07/nominations-opened-sixth-peter-szor-award/

Haroon Meer and Adrian Sanabria to deliver VB2019 closing keynote

New additions to the VB2019 conference programme include a closing keynote address from Thinkst duo Haroon Meer and Adrian Sanabria and a talk on attacks against payment systems.
We are very excited to announce that the closing keynote for VB2019 will be delivered by Haroon Meer and Adrian Sanabria of Thinkst, the company that was founded by Haroon and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2019/06/haroon-meer-and-adrian-sanabria-deliver-vb2019-closing-keynote/

Free VB2019 tickets for students

Virus Bulletin is excited to announce that, thanks to generous sponsorship from Google Android, we are able to offer 20 free tickets to students who want to attend VB2019.
Update 02 August 2019: Applications for free student tickets have now closed. Virus Bulletin is excited to announce that, thanks to generous sponsorship from Google Android, we… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2019/06/free-vb2019-tickets-students/

VB2018 paper: Lazarus Group: a mahjong game played with different sets of tiles

The Lazarus Group, generally linked to the North Korean government, is one of the most notorious threat groups seen in recent years. At VB2018 ESET researchers Peter Kálnai and Michal Poslušný presented a paper looking at the group's various campaigns. To…
Lazarus Group: a mahjong game played with different sets of tiles Read the paper (HTML) Download the paper (PDF)       At VB2019 in London, Peter and Michal will… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2019/06/vb2018-paper-lazarus-group-mahjong-game-played-different-sets-tiles/

Book your VB2019 ticket now for a chance to win a ticket for BSides London

Virus Bulletin is proud to sponsor this year's BSides London conference, which will take place next week, and we have a number of tickets to give away.
At Virus Bulletin, we have a particular fondness for the BSides community events, half a dozen of which we have attended in various locations around the world. And because our own… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2019/05/book-your-vb2019-ticket-now-chance-win-ticket-bsides-london/

First 11 partners of VB2019 announced

We are excited to announce the first 11 companies to partner with VB2019, whose support will help ensure a great event.
The Virus Bulletin Conference is all about bringing the security community together to share intelligence and move the industry forward, but we wouldn't be able to do any of this… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2019/05/first-11-vb2019-partners-announced/

Paper: Alternative communication channel over NTP

In a new paper published today, independent researcher Nikolaos Tsapakis writes about the possibilities of malware using NTP as a covert communication channel and how to stop this.
Alternative communication channel over NTP Read the paper (HTML) Download the paper (PDF)   The use of DNS as a covert C&C communication channel has been widely documented… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2019/04/paper-alternative-communication-channel-over-ntp/

VB2019 conference programme announced

VB is excited to reveal the details of an interesting and diverse programme for VB2019, the 29th Virus Bulletin International Conference, which takes place 2-4 October in London, UK.
We are excited to announce the programme for VB2019, the 29th International Virus Bulletin Conference which will take place 2-4 October in London, UK. The conference… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2019/04/vb2019-conference-programme-announced/

VB2018 paper: Under the hood - the automotive challenge

Car hacking has become a hot subject in recent years, and at VB2018 in Montreal, Argus Cyber Security's Inbar Raz presented a paper that provides an introduction to the subject, looking at the complex problem, examples of car hacks, and the challenges ahe…
Under the hood - the automotive challenge Read the paper (HTML) Download the paper (PDF)     During last week's Pwn2Own 2019 hacking contest, a Senegalese-Chinese duo… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2019/03/vb2018-paper-under-hood-automotive-challenge/

VB2018 paper: Fake News, Inc.

A former reporter by profession, Andrew Brandt's curiosity was piqued when he came across what appeared at first glance to be the website of a small-town newspaper based in Illinois, but under scrutiny, things didn’t add up. At VB2018 he presented a paper…
    Andrew Brandt will also speak at VB2019 in London. This time, in a Small Talk session, he will share his experience of analysing "retromalware" – some of the oldest… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2019/04/vb2018-paper-fake-news-inc/

VB2018 paper and video: Android app deobfuscation using static-dynamic cooperation

Static analysis and dynamic analysis each have their shortcomings as methods for analysing potentially malicious files. Today, we publish a VB2018 paper by Check Point researchers Yoni Moses and Yaniv Mordekhay, in which they describe a method that combin…
Android app deobfuscation using static-dynamic cooperation Read the paper (HTML) Download the paper (PDF)   The two most common methods for analysing potentially malicious… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2019/03/vb2018-paper-and-video-android-app-deobfuscation-using-static-dynamic-cooperation/

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