VB Blog

Paying a malware ransom is bad, but telling people never to do it is unhelpful advice

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 26, 2016

The current ransomware plague is one of the worst threats the Internet has seen and it is unlikely to go away any time soon. But telling people to never pay the ransom is unhelpful advice.

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VB2015 paper: VolatilityBot: Malicious Code Extraction Made by and for Security Researchers

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 22, 2016

In his VB2015 paper, Martin Korman presented his 'VolatilyBot' tool, which extracts malicious code from packed binaries, leveraging the functionality of the Volatility Framework.

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VB2016 programme announced, registration opened

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 21, 2016

We have announced 37 papers (and four reserve papers) that will be presented at VB2016 in Denver, Colorado, USA in October. Registration for the conference has opened; make sure you register before 1 July to benefit from a 10% early bird discount.

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New tool helps ransomware victims indentify the malware family

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 15, 2016

The people behind the MalwareHunterTeam have released a tool that helps victims of ransomware identify which of more than 50 families has infected their system, something which could help them find a tool to decrypt their files.

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It's fine for vulnerabilities to have names — we just need not to take them too seriously

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 13, 2016

The PR campaign around the Badlock vulnerability backfired when it turned out that the vulnerability wasn't as serious as had been suggested. But naming vulnerabilities can actually be helpful and certainly shouldn't hurt.

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Throwback Thursday: The Number of the Beasts

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Apr 7, 2016

The Virus Bulletin Virus Prevalence Table, which ran from 1992 until 2013, gave users a regular snapshot of what was really going on in the virus (and later malware) world, recording the number of incidents of each virus reported to VB in the preceding month. In August 2000, Denis Zenkin, a self-confessed virus prevalence table junkie, shared his findings following a study of the virus prevalence tables over the preceding few years, allowing him to determine the top ten viruses of the period, the top viruses by type and the viruses of the year.

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Paper: All Your Meetings Are Belong to Us: Remote Code Execution in Apache OpenMeetings

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 30, 2016

Security researcher Andreas Lindh recently found a vulnerability in Apache OpenMeetings that could allow remote code execution on a vulnerable server. Andreas reported the vulnerability to the OpenMeetings developers and, once it had been patched, he wrote up the details.

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Throwback Thursday: 'In the Beginning was the Word...'

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Mar 24, 2016

Word and Excel’s internal file formats used to be something in which few were interested – until macro viruses came along and changed all that. In 1996, Andrew Krukov provided an overview of the new breed of viruses.

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VB2016 Call for Papers Deadline

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 18, 2016

You have until the early hours (GMT) of Monday 21 March to submit an abstract for VB2016! The VB2016 programme will be announced in the first week of April.

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How broken is SHA-1 really?

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 15, 2016

SHA-1 collisions may be found in the next few months, but that doesn't mean that fake SHA-1-based certificates will be created in the near future. Nevertheless, it is time for everyone, and those working in security in particular, to move away from outdated hash functions.

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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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

Major seeding of Storm trojans seen

Latest wave of variants followed up by further fake warnings.
Latest wave of variants followed up by further fake warnings. Yet another wave of malware has been widely spammed out, using similar tactics to previous attacks evolving from the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/04/major-seeding-storm-trojans-seen/

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