VB Blog

VB2019 presentation: A deep dive into iPhone exploit chains

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Jan 10, 2020

In a last-minute presentation at VB2019 in London, John Bambenek of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign discussed details of campaigns that used advanced iOS and Android exploit chains against China’s Uighur minority. Today we release the recording of John's presentation.

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Latest VBWeb report describes current state of the web-based threat landscape

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Jan 8, 2020

Today we released the Winter 2020 VBWeb report, detailing the performance of web security products against live web threats and looking at the current state of the web-based threat landscape.

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VB2019 paper: Catch me if you can: detection of injection exploitation by validating query and API integrity

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Jan 6, 2020

In a paper presented at VB2019 in London, Prismo Systems researchers Abhishek Singh and Ramesh Mani discussed code injection vulnerabilities and presented a tool that could detect this vulnerability class. Today we publish their paper and the recording of their presentation.

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Virus Bulletin says a fond farewell and thank you to Martijn Grooten

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Dec 31, 2019

As VB Editor Martijn Grooten steps down from his role to move on to new challenges, the team wish him a fond farewell and the very best of luck in his future endeavours.

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VB2019 paper: Never before had Stierlitz been so close to failure (or: what is a Soviet super-spy doing in a popular bundleware for Mac?)

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 27, 2019

Today, we publish the VB2019 paper and video by Sophos researcher Sergei Shevchenko in which he analyses a popular yet unnamed piece of macOS ‘bundleware’.

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Parting thoughts 5: bringing the good news

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 23, 2019

In the final of a five-part series of blog posts, departing VB Editor Martijn Grooten argues for more emphasis on the good news in security, especially that which is more subtle.

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Parting thoughts 4: the big picture

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Dec 20, 2019

In the fourth of a five-part series of blog posts, departing VB Editor Martijn Grooten explains why security researchers should refer to other people's work.

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Parting thoughts 3: taking security seriously

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 19, 2019

In the third of a five-part series of blog posts, departing VB Editor Martijn Grooten explains why he believes security vendors should take their products' security more seriously.

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VB2019 paper: Exploring the Chinese DDoS landscape

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 19, 2019

China has long been a hotbed of DDoS activities, and today we publish a VB2019 paper by Intezer researcher Nacho Sanmillan who looked at Chinese threat groups engaged in performing DDoS attacks. We have also uploaded the recording of his presentation.

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Parting thoughts 2: the need for education in security

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 18, 2019

In the second of a five-part series of blog posts, departing VB Editor Martijn Grooten explains why he believes cybersecurity professionals need to educate themselves on the complexities of the real-world situations in which security is applied.

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Spammer's appeal rejected

Weaselboy conviction upheld.
Weaselboy conviction upheld. The man who is the UK's biggest - and possibly nastiest - spammer has failed in his appeal to overturn two of his convictions. Back in November 2005 a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/spammer-s-appeal-rejected/

AOL phishers indicted

Team of six face jail in Connecticut.
Team of six face jail in Connecticut. A group of six men have been charged with phishing by a grand jury in Connecticut. The men allegedly harvested email addresses and spammed… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/aol-phishers-indicted/

Volvo syndrome for Mac users

Relative safety may lead to unsafe practices.
Relative safety may lead to unsafe practices.Symantec has issued a warning to Apple Macintosh users that they are still at risk from online threats, despite the relative scarcity… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/volvo-syndrome-mac-users/

McAfee tops for client security

Analyst firm rates industry heavyweights.
Analyst firm rates industry heavyweights. Analyst firm Forrester has released a report on 'Client Security Suites', naming McAfee as the leading brand in the field. Symantec and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/mcafee-tops-client-security/

More Microsoft vulnerability woes

PowerPoint problem tops off busy month for MS.
PowerPoint problem tops off busy month for MS. Yet another vulnerability has been revealed in a Microsoft product, this time in the PowerPoint slideshow software. The problem is… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/more-microsoft-vulnerability-woes/

Microsoft patches IE hole

VML fix released only a week after flaw exploited.
VML fix released only a week after flaw exploited.Microsoft has released a patch for the widely publicised and much exploited security hole in its Internet Explorer browser, a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/microsoft-patches-ie-hole/

Web trust symbol can't be trusted

Certificates sign of danger, says researcher.
Certificates sign of danger, says researcher. Website certification system Truste has been hit by a report claiming that sites bearing its certificates are more than twice as… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/web-trust-symbol-can-t-be-trusted/

Symantec, Kaspersky issue threat reports

Trojans, vulnerabilities, spam and crime loom large.
Trojans, vulnerabilities, spam and crime loom large.Symantec and Kaspersky have both released overviews of security dangers faced in the first half of 2006 this week, and both… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/symantec-kaspersky-issue-threat-reports/

Trend launches bot blocking service

Botnet-spotting system watches for bad DNS behaviour.
Botnet-spotting system watches for bad DNS behaviour.Trend Micro has launched a new service, entitled InterCloud Security Service (ICSS), to look out for bot infestations within… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/trend-launches-bot-blocking-service/

Canadians row with Sony over DRM

Rootkit battles still going.
Rootkit battles still going. Canadian public interest body CIPPIC (The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, also known as Clinique d'intérêt public et de politique… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/canadians-row-sony-over-drm/

Vista issues worry vendors

Security firms complain about monopoly tactics.
Security firms complain about monopoly tactics. New security features to be included in the next version of Microsoft Windows continue to present difficulties for AV and other… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/vista-issues-worry-vendors/

More than 90% of email is spam

Spamhaus founder estimates spam levels significantly higher than other industry monitors.
Spamhaus founder estimates spam levels significantly higher than other industry monitors.Spamhaus founder Steve Linford estimates that spam accounts for more than 90% of all email… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/more-90-email-spam/

Unofficial VML patch released

Security task force issues stop-gap fix for IE hole.
Security task force issues stop-gap fix for IE hole. A team of security experts and reverse engineers have created a patch for the latest zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/unofficial-vml-patch-released/

AV guru Jimmy Kuo heads to Microsoft

Industry veteran joins others from McAfee.
Industry veteran joins others from McAfee. Jimmy Kuo, the widely respected virus expert and popular speaker, has left McAfee after over ten years working in their AVERT labs, to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/av-guru-jimmy-kuo-heads-microsoft/

Zero-day exploit targeting IE flaw

'Extremely critical' buffer overflow used to drop spyware.
'Extremely critical' buffer overflow used to drop spyware. Researchers at anti-spyware firm Sunbelt Software have reported an new attack actively exploiting another unpatched… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/zero-day-exploit-targeting-ie-flaw/

AIM worm warning

AOL IM users at risk from botnet-building attack.
AOL IM users at risk from botnet-building attack. Instant messaging security firm FaceTime Communications has issued an alert on a highly sophisticated blended attack targeting… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/aim-worm-warning/

Spam King sued again

Serial spammer charged with more spamming.
Serial spammer charged with more spamming. Software and security firm Infinite Monkeys & Company has announced that a lawsuit has been filed against 'Spam King' Scott Richter, head… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/spam-king-sued-again/

Several backdoors in PDF revealed

Researcher lists security issues with document format.
Researcher lists security issues with document format. A researcher analysing the possibility of exploiting vulnerabilities in the Adobe PDF file format has released a lengthy list… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/several-backdoors-pdf-revealed/

Google embarrassed by phishing demo

Fake Gmail site served by Google itself.
Fake Gmail site served by Google itself. Web search and service behemoth Google has had its security credibility hit this weekend, after a site was set up on its servers spoofing… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/google-embarrassed-phishing-demo/

FTC shuts down spammers

Four spam companies hit by CAN-SPAM rulings.
Four spam companies hit by CAN-SPAM rulings. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stepped its anti-spam operations up a gear last week, shutting down four separate organisations… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/ftc-shuts-down-spammers/

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