VB Blog

VB2016 video: Last-minute paper: Malicious proxy auto-configs: an easy way to harvest banking credentials

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 30, 2017

In a VB2016 last-minute presentation, Jaromír Horejší and Jan Širmer looked at Retefe, a trojan that has targeted banks in several European countries and used malicious proxy auto-config filesto redirect users' traffic to a server controlled by the attackers. A recording of their presentation is now available to view on our YouTube channel.

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WannaCry shows we need to understand why organizations don't patch

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 17, 2017

Perhaps the question we should be asking about WannaCry is not "why do so many organizations allow unpatched machines to exist on their networks?" but "why doesn't patching work reasonably well most of the time?"

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Modern security software is not necessarily powerless against threats like WannaCry

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 15, 2017

The WannaCry ransomware has affected many organisations around the world, making it probably the worst and most damaging of its kind. But modern security is not necessarily powerless against such threats.

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Throwback Thursday: CARO: A personal view

Posted by   Helen Martin on   May 11, 2017

This week sees the 11th International CARO Workshop taking place in Krakow, Poland – a prestigious annual meeting of anti-malware and security experts. As a founding member of CARO, Fridrik Skulason was well placed, in August 1994, to shed some light on the organization, to explain in detail CARO's main activities and functions, as well as the reasons behind its strict membership regulations.

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VB2016 paper: Uncovering the secrets of malvertising

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 10, 2017

Malicious advertising, a.k.a. malvertising, has evolved tremendously over the past few years to take a central place in some of today’s largest web-based attacks. It is by far the tool of choice for attackers to reach the masses but also to target them with infinite precision and deliver such payloads as ransomware. Today, we publish a paper presented at VB2016 in Denver by Malwarebytes researchers Jérôme Segura and Chris Boyd, in which they look at the advertising ecosystem, how it is used, and at what techniques are being utilised to spread malware

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Throwback Thursday: Tools of the DDoS Trade

Posted by   Helen Martin on   May 4, 2017

As DDoS attacks become costlier to fix and continue to increase in both number and diversity, we turn back the clock to 2000, when Aleksander Czarnowski took a look at the DDoS tools of the day.

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VB2016 paper: Building a local passiveDNS capability for malware incident response

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 4, 2017

At VB2016, Splunk researchers Kathy Wang and Steve Brant presented a Splunk app that can be used to locally collect passive DNS data. A recording of their presentation is now available to view on our YouTube channel.

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VB2016 video: Last-minute paper: A malicious OS X cocktail served from a tainted bottle

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 28, 2017

In a VB2016 last-minute presentation, ESET researchers Peter Kalnai and Martin Jirkal looked at the OS X malware threats KeRanger and Keydnap, that both spread through a compromised BitTorrent client. A recording of their presentation is now available to view on our YouTube channel.

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Consumer spyware: a serious threat with a different threat model

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 25, 2017

Consumer spyware is a growing issue and one that can have serious consequences: its use is increasingly common in domestic violence. But do our threat models consider the attacker with physical access to, and inside knowledge of the victim?

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VB2016 paper: Debugging and monitoring malware network activities with Haka

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 24, 2017

In their VB2016 paper, Stormshield researchers Benoît Ancel and Mehdi Talbi introduced Haka, an open-source language to monitor, debug and control malicious network traffic. Both their paper and the video recording of their presentation are now available to read/view on www.virusbulletin.com.

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Search blog

DoS attacks support political unrest

Estonia rioting backed up by attacks on government websites.
Estonia rioting backed up by attacks on government websites. Severe rioting in Estonia, sparked by anger over the removal of a Russian monument from a prominent war memorial, has… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/05/dos-attacks-support-political-unrest/

Massive lawsuit brought against spam harvesters

Harvesting detection project aims to prosecute address abusers.
Harvesting detection project aims to prosecute address abusers. A community project dedicated to gathering information on the collection of email addresses for spamming purposes… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/05/massive-lawsuit-brought-against-spam-harvesters/

Email this!

VB stops spammer in his tracks.
VB stops spammer in his tracks. A stark reminder of the ingenuity of spammers was received by VB's web team last month thanks to a brief incident involving the VB web server.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/05/email/

A new generation of Panda

Panda sells majority shareholding.
Panda sells majority shareholding. Spanish security vendor Panda Software has announced the sale of 75% of its shareholding to southern European investment group Investindustrial… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/05/new-generation-panda/

VB100 procedure review

Test procedures clarified.
Test procedures clarified.VB has reviewed the test procedures for the VB100 comparative testing and certification program. An updated version of the VB100 procedures document is… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/05/procedure-review/

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 2007 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or download… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/05/may-issue-vb-published/

Erratum: VB100 Linux comparative

Dr.Web results corrected.
Dr.Web results corrected. Upon closer analysis of the latest set of VB100 test results (see VB, April 2007, p.11) VB has regrettably discovered some errors in the detection figures… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/05/erratum-linux-comparative/

Websense snaps up SurfControl

$400m for British web-filtering company.
$400m for British web-filtering company. US firm Websense has sealed a $400m cash deal to acquire British web-filtering company SurfControl. The 700-pence-per-share price paid by… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/05/websense-snaps-surfcontrol/

May

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/05/

Google advert exploit attack analysed

Video demonstrates malware infiltration via ads for legitimate sites.
Video demonstrates malware infiltration via ads for legitimate sites. Details continue to emerge of a serious attack using the Google Adwords advertising system to lure… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/05/google-advert-exploit-attack-analysed/

Governments making moves to combat cybercrime

Laws and agencies beginning to target online fraud and ID theft.
Laws and agencies beginning to target online fraud and ID theft. With profits from fraud using privileged personal data stolen via phishing or spyware rocketing and making the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/04/governments-making-moves-combat-cybercrime/

Theft spam, fraud and web threats may rival ad spam

Spring threat reports show rise in spying, zombies, spear-phishing and cracked websites.
Spring threat reports show rise in spying, zombies, spear-phishing and cracked websites. A series of reports released in recent weeks, surveying the latest developments in spam and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/04/theft-spam-fraud-and-web-threats-may-rival-ad-spam/

Experts predict no let-up in malcode development

Kaspersky and Russinovich warn of growth in Vista, non-Windows malware.
Kaspersky and Russinovich warn of growth in Vista, non-Windows malware. Security experts have been making predictions for the future of malware and anti-malware developments, with… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/04/experts-predict-no-let-malcode-development/

McAfee VirusScan vulnerability found, patched

Multibyte character overflow issue breaches on-access defences.
Multibyte character overflow issue breaches on-access defences. A vulnerability has been reported in the on-access component of McAfee's flagship VirusScan product, which could be… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/04/mcafee-virusscan-vulnerability-found-patched/

Latest VB100 comparative announced

Windows XP products to be tested for June issue.
Windows XP products to be tested for June issue. VB has announced the next round of VB100% comparative testing, to be run on the Microsoft Windows XP platform. Submissions of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/04/latest-comparative-announced/

Mobile-to-human virus scare hits Asian nations

Rumours of killer mobile malware travel from Pakistan to Afghanistan.
Rumours of killer mobile malware travel from Pakistan to Afghanistan. The effects of a possible prank which sparked considerable public panic in one country have travelled to a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/04/mobile-human-virus-scare-hits-asian-nations/

Worms exploiting Windows DNS flaw

Zero-day vulnerability quickly used to transmit attacks.
Zero-day vulnerability quickly used to transmit attacks. The zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft's DNS server service, reported last week just after the release of the monthly… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/04/worms-exploiting-windows-dns-flaw/

Dr.Web Linux VB100 update

Dr.Web test results recalculated.
Dr.Web test results recalculated. Upon closer analysis of the latest set of VB100 test results VB has regrettably discovered some errors in the detection figures shown for Doctor… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/04/dr-web-linux-update/

Sexy pics push Skype malware

Messaging attack hides behind photo of girl in stilettos.
Messaging attack hides behind photo of girl in stilettos. More malware has been reported spreading through the Skype API, sending links to itself to addresses gathered from… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/04/sexy-pics-push-skype-malware/

Spam-fighters coalition formed

ICSA announces cooperative forum of anti-spam developers.
ICSA announces cooperative forum of anti-spam developers.CyberTrust-owned ICSA Labs has announced the formation of the Anti-Spam Product Developers' Consortium, a grouping of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/04/spam-fighters-coalition-formed/

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