VB Blog

New Zeus/SpyEye botnet does away with command-and-control servers

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Feb 22, 2012

Increasing use of UDP to avoid communication tracking.

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200-fold increase in HTML-attachment spam

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Feb 16, 2012

Cutwail botnet likely behind campaign that sends users to Phoenix exploit kit.

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'Hotmail and Gmail have best spam filter' says Cascade spam test

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Feb 15, 2012

Comparative test did not take false positives into account.

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February issue of VB published

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Feb 1, 2012

The February issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.

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Hacktivists hijack DNS of popular websites

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Jan 26, 2012

Security at registrars may be weak link.

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New RFC describes best practices for running DNS-based lists

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Jan 24, 2012

DNSBL users advised to avoid those lists that charge for delisting.

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Vulnerability turns McAfee's anti-malware solution into open relay

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Jan 19, 2012

Flaw allows for spam to be sent through customers' PCs.

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AV-Test releases latest results

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Jan 18, 2012

Business and consumer products achieve high pass rate.

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Sykipot trojan used to target smart cards

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Jan 13, 2012

Defence companies among small number of targets.

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Spammers link to site containing QR code

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Jan 10, 2012

Curious users may scan URL and end up on pharma websites.

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Search blog

Will DIME eventually replace email?

Protocol has all the advantages of email, yet is orders of magnitude more secure.
Protocol has all the advantages of email, yet is orders of magnitude more secure. In the current Internet era sometimes referred to as 'post-Snowden', it is often said that email… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/will-dime-eventually-replace-email/

Paper: Windows 10 patching process may leave enterprises vulnerable to zero-day attacks

Aryeh Goretsky gives advice on how to adapt to Windows 10's patching strategy.
Aryeh Goretsky gives advice on how to adapt to Windows 10's patching strategy. Patching is hard, especially when the code base is old and the bugs are buried deeply. This was… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/paper-windows-10-patching-process-may-leave-enterprises-vulnerable-zero-day-attacks/

The ghost of Stuxnet past

Microsoft patches .LNK vulnerability after 2010 patch was found to be incomplete.
Microsoft patches .LNK vulnerability after 2010 patch was found to be incomplete. Mention Stuxnet and you'll have many a security researcher's attention. The worm, which was… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/ghost-stuxnet-past/

Canadian firm fined $1.1m for breaching anti-spam law

First success story for long-awaited CASL.
First success story for long-awaited CASL. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the agency responsible for enforcing Canada's anti-spam law… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/canadian-firm-fined-1-1m-breaching-anti-spam-law/

Virus Bulletin seeks hackers, network researchers for VB2015

One week left to submit an abstract for the 25th Virus Bulletin conference.
One week left to submit an abstract for the 25th Virus Bulletin conference. A few weeks ago, I made a short visit to the Clarion Congress Hotel in Prague, where VB2015 will take… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/seeks-hackers-network-researchers/

VB2014 paper: Leaving our ZIP undone: how to abuse ZIP to deliver malware apps

Gregory Panakkal explains that there are different ways of looking at APK files - and that sometimes that can have unintended consequences.
Gregory Panakkal explains that there are different ways of looking at APK files - and that sometimes that can have unintended consequences.Since the close of the VB2014 conference… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/paper-leaving-our-zip-undone-how-abuse-zip-deliver-malware-apps/

FREAK attack takes HTTPS connections back to 1990s security

Golden keys from the (first) crypto wars have come back to haunt us.
Golden keys from the (first) crypto wars have come back to haunt us. When a web client makes a secure connection to a web server (using HTTPS), it starts by sending a 'Hello'… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/freak-attack-takes-https-connections-back-1990s-security/

Paper: Script in a lossy stream

Dénes Óvári explains how to store code in lossily compressed JPEG data.
Dénes Óvári explains how to store code in lossily compressed JPEG data. Malformed PDFs have become a common way to deliver malware. Naturally, when this started to happen,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/paper-script-lossy-stream/

TorrentLocker spam has DMARC enabled

Use of email authentication technique unlikely to bring any advantage.
Use of email authentication technique unlikely to bring any advantage. Last week, Trend Micro researcher Jon Oliver (who presented a paper on Twitter abuse at VB2014) wrote an… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/torrentlocker-spam-has-dmarc-enabled/

March

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/

M3AAWG releases BCP document on dealing with child sexual abuse material

Subject may make many feel uncomfortable, but it is essential that we know how to deal with it.
Subject may make many feel uncomfortable, but it is essential that we know how to deal with it. The mere mention of "child pornography" on the Internet makes many a security expert… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/m3aawg-releases-bcp-document-dealing-child-sexual-abuse-material/

VB2014 paper: Caphaw - the advanced persistent pluginer

Micky Pun and Neo Tan analyse the banking trojan that is best known for spreading through Skype.
Micky Pun and Neo Tan analyse the banking trojan that is best known for spreading through Skype.Since the close of the VB2014 conference in Seattle in October, we have been sharing… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/paper-caphaw-advanced-persistent-pluginer/

Hacker group takes over Lenovo's DNS

As emails were sent to wrong servers, DNSSEC might be worth looking into.
As emails were sent to wrong servers, DNSSEC might be worth looking into. Although, after some initial hesitation, Lenovo was rather frank in its admission of messing up regarding… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/hacker-group-takes-over-lenovo-s-dns/

Coordinated action takes down Ramnit botnet infrastructure

Malware remains present on infected machines; 2012 Virus Bulletin paper worth studying.
Malware remains present on infected machines; 2012 Virus Bulletin paper worth studying. A coordinated action from Anubisnetworks, Microsoft and Symantec, together with Europol has… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/coordinated-action-takes-down-ramnit-botnet-infrastructure/

Almost 50% increase in reported vulnerabilities as non-Windows operating systems lead the table

Each discovered vulnerability is actually a good news story.
Each discovered vulnerability is actually a good news story. Last week, security firm GFI published some research in which it looked at the number of vulnerabilities reported last… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/almost-50-increase-reported-vulnerabilities-non-windows-operating-systems-lead-table/

Vawtrak trojan spread through malicious Office macros

Users easily tricked, but plenty of opportunity for the malware to be blocked.
Users easily tricked, but plenty of opportunity for the malware to be blocked. Researchers at Trend Micro report that the 'Vawtrak' banking trojan now also spreads through Office… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/vawtrak-trojan-spread-through-malicious-office-macros/

Lenovo laptops pre-installed with software that adds its own root CA certificate

Shared root certificate makes for easy man-in-the-middle attacks.
Shared root certificate makes for easy man-in-the-middle attacks.What is Superfish?Superfish is a product that offers 'Visual Search'. Say, for example, you are looking at cat… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/lenovo-laptops-pre-installed-software-adds-its-own-root-ca-certificate/

Google relaxes disclosure policy following criticism

Grace period added for vulnerabilities that are about to be patched.
Grace period added for vulnerabilities that are about to be patched. Last year, Google announced a new disclosure policy, where details of a vulnerability discovered by the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/google-relaxes-disclosure-policy-following-criticism/

VB2014 video: .NET malware dynamic instrumentation for automated and manual analysis

Hexiang Hu used tool to detect Bladabindi backdoor.
Hexiang Hu used tool to detect Bladabindi backdoor. The .NET framework is a popular way to write software. As applications built with the framework compile into a Common… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/video-net-malware-dynamic-instrumentation-automated-and-manual-analysis/

Facebook launches platform for sharing of threat intelligence

Twitter, Yahoo! amongst early participants in 'ThreatExchange'.
Twitter, Yahoo! amongst early participants in 'ThreatExchange'. When I took my first steps in the security industry, I was surprised by just how much information was shared between… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/facebook-launches-platform-sharing-threat-intelligence/

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