VB Blog

VB2017 video: Turning Trickbot: decoding an encrypted command-and-control channel

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Nov 3, 2017

Trickbot, a banking trojan which appeared this year, seems to be a new, more modular, and more extensible malware descendant of the notorious Dyre botnet trojan. At VB2017, Symantec researcher Andrew Brandt presented a walkthrough of a typical Trickbot infection process, and its aftermath, as seen through the lens of a tool used to perform man-in-the-middle decryption. Today, we publish both Andrew's slides and the recording of his presentation.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Nov 2, 2017

Today, we publish a short paper in which CERT Société Générale presents FAME, its open source malware analysis framework.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Oct 31, 2017

Ebury and Mayhem, two families of Linux server malware, about which VB published papers back in 2014, are still active and have received recent updates.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Oct 27, 2017

Crypton, a tool developed by F5 Networks researchers Julia Karpin and Anna Dorfman, aims to speed up the reverse engineering process by decrypting encrypted content found in a (malicious) binary. The researchers described the tool in a paper which they presented at VB2017 in Madrid. Today, we publish both the paper and the recording of their presentation.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Oct 25, 2017

For many people, the threat of an abusive partner or ex-partner is very real - and the market for consumer spyware worryingly large. Today, we publish the recording of a presentation on the subject of consumer spyware given at VB2017 by The Daily Beast reporter Joseph Cox.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Oct 23, 2017

At the VB2017 gala dinner, the fourth Péter Szőr Award was presented to Sophos researcher Gábor Szappanos for his paper "AKBuilder – the crowdsourced exploit kit".

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Oct 20, 2017

We publish the VB2017 paper and video by Kaspersky Lab researchers Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade and Costin Raiu, in which they look at fourth-party collection (spies spying on other spies' campaigns) and its implications for attribution.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Oct 11, 2017

Virus Bulletin is a company - and a conference - with a mission: to further the research in and facilitate the fight against digital threats. To help us in this mission, we want to hear from those who didn't come to Madrid. What is your impression of the VB Conference? What did you think of this year's programme? And why couldn't you come to Madrid?

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Oct 10, 2017

Last week, we announced the full details of VB2018, which will take place 3-5 October 2018 at the Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth hotel in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Posted by Virus Bulletin on Oct 5, 2017

In a special guest blog post, VB2017 Silver sponsor Cisco Umbrella writes about a paper that researchers Dhia Mahjoub and David Rodriguez will present at the conference this Friday.

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VB2016 paper: Defeating sandbox evasion: how to increase successful emulation rate in your virtualized environment

Today, we publish the VB2016 paper and presentation (recording) by Check Point Software researchers Alexander Chailytko and Stanislav Skuratovich, which focuses on the techniques used by malware to detect virtual environments, and provides detailed techni…
In order to analyse a potentially malicious binary, an important first step is to run it in a specialised virtual environment, or sandbox environment, and see what it does – if it… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/december/vb2016-paper-defeating-sandbox-evasion-how-increase-successful-emulation-rate-your-virtualized-environment/

VB2016 paper: Mobile applications: a backdoor into the Internet of Things?

While the Internet of Things blossoms with newly connected objects every day, the security and privacy of these objects is often overlooked, making the IoT a major security concern. Unfortunately, reverse-engineering so-called smart devices is not an easy…
The meteoric rise of the Mirai botnet in recent months has led to the Internet of Things (IoT) becoming a major and actual security concern. To assess the effective security… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/november/vb2016-paper-mobile-applications-backdoor-internet-things/

VB2016 paper: Wave your false flags! Deception tactics muddying attribution in targeted attacks

Today, we publish the VB2016 paper and presentation (recording) by Kaspersky Lab researchers Juan Andrés Guerrero-Saade and Brian Bartholomew, in which they look at some of the deception tactics used in targeted attacks.
Security researchers have a complicated relationship with attribution. On the one hand, for technical analyses, it doesn't matter whether an attack was performed by a Bear, a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/november/vb2016-paper-wave-your-false-flags-deception-tactics-muddying-attribution-targeted-attacks/

VB2016 paper: The TAO of Automated Iframe Injectors - Building Drive-by Platforms For Fun

We publish Aditya K. Sood's VB2016 paper on the use of iframe injectors by cybercriminals to deliver drive-by downloads.
VB2016 took place almost two weeks ago, since when we have had many requests to publish the papers presented at the conference, as well as the videos of those presentations. Virus… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/october/vb2016-paper-tao-automated-iframe-injectors-building-drive-platforms-fun/

VB2016 preview: Cryptography mistakes in malware

At VB2016, two talks will discuss mistakes made by malware authors in cryptographic implementations. Ben Herzog and Yaniv Balmas will present a paper in which they look at a number of these mistakes, while Malwarebytes researcher hasherezade will present …
"Don't roll your own crypto", software developers are often told: cryptography is hard and thus it is always safer to use a well-tested public library rather than writing your own… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/september/vb2016-preview-presentations-cryptography-mistakes-malware/

GPS technology is more at risk from cyber attack than ever before, security expert demonstrates at VB2016

Next month at VB2016, HPE Security's Oleg Petrovsky will speak about attacks on GPS. We conducted a short interview with Oleg and asked him about GPS, about the conference, and about his ultimate dinner party.
An interview with VB2016 presenter Oleg Petrovsky of HPE Security research. Meeting Oleg Petrovsky, a senior anti-malware researcher at HPE Security research, is an experience.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/september/turns-out-gps-technology-more-vulnerable-cyberattack-ever-security-expert-demonstrates/

BSides Denver: Join and Support the Security Community

If you are coming to VB2016 in Denver, why not spend an extra day in the Mile-High City and join the free BSides Denver conference, which takes place on Saturday?
I sometimes catch myself talking about "the security industry" and then quickly correct myself to say "the security community". For, despite the presence of big businesses and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/september/bsides-denver-join-and-support-security-community/

VB2016 'Last-Minute' Papers Announced

We are excited to announce the addition of the "last-minute" papers to the VB2016 programme: nine presentations covering hot research topics, from OS X attacks to exotic APTs, breaking ransomware and the current state of BGP.
With a little over three weeks to go until VB2016, the conference programme is almost complete. We have a great selection of talks on the main programme, half a dozen Small Talks… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/september/vb2016-last-minute-papers-announced/

VB2016 preview: Smart Outlets. Why We Need Responsible Disclosure!

At VB2016, four researcher from Bitdefender will present a paper in which they look at vulnerabilities in four "smart" power outlets.
If you are wondering whether you really live in the future: we need to be concerned about the security of Internet-connected power outlets. Such devices are the subject of a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/september/vb2016-preview-smart-outlets-why-we-need-responsible-disclosure/

VB2016 preview: Uncovering the Secrets of Malvertising

Malvertising, in which legitimate ad networks are abused to silently infect users with malware, has become a real plague in recent years. A VB2016 paper by Malwarebytes researchers Jérôme Segura and Chris Boyd will look at the issue.
Two years ago, at VB2014, Bromium researcher Vadim Kotov presented a paper in which he looked at various possibilities for cybercriminals to leverage ad networks to spread… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/september/vb2016-preview-uncovering-secrets-malvertising/

A look at the VB2016 sponsors

More than a dozen companies and organizations are lending their support to VB2016 as conference sponsors and supporting organizations.
Today, we are exactly one month away from the start of VB2016, the 26th Virus Bulletin International Conference, which is to take place 5-7 October in Denver, Colorado. We thought… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/september/look-vb2016-sponsors/

VB2016 preview: Mobile Applications: a Backdoor into Internet of Things?

At VB2016 in Denver, Fortinet researcher Axelle Apvrille will discuss how analysing a device's complementary mobile app can help a great deal in understanding the architecture of a smart device.
The recent discovery of a one-million-device IoT botnet used for DDoS attacks should be ample proof that concerns over the security of the Internet of Things are not merely… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/september/vb2016-preview-mobile-applications-backdoor-internet-things/

Small Talks return to the Virus Bulletin Conference

Following their success last year, this year a series of "Small Talks" return to the VB2016 conference programme. We are pleased to announce the details of six of these talks, covering subjects that range from the Chinese cybercriminal underground to Andr…
VB2015 was the 25th Virus Bulletin conference and, to celebrate the occasion, we added a third stream to the programme. Dubbed "Small Talks", these talks were longer than those on… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/08/small-talks-return-virus-bulletin-conference/

VB2016 call for last-minute papers opened, discounts announced

Announcing the VB2016 call for last-minute papers and a number of discounts on the conference registration rate.
Today, we opened the call for last-minute papers for VB2016. The VB2016 conference programme is already chock-a-block with more than 40 talks on a wide range of security… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/08/vb2016-call-last-minute-papers-opened-discounts-announced/

BSides Denver to take place the day after VB2016

VB2016, the 26th International Virus Bulletin conference, is an excellent reason to go to Denver, Colorado in the first week of October. But there is another reason to come to Denver: BSides Denver, which will take place the day after VB2016, on Saturday …
VB2016, the 26th International Virus Bulletin conference, is an excellent reason to visit Denver, Colorado in the first week of October this year. Of course, we are biased, but a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/06/bsides-denver-take-place-day-after-vb2016/

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

In his VB2015 paper, Martin Korman presented his 'VolatilyBot' tool, which extracts malicious code from packed binaries, leveraging the functionality of the Volatility Framework.
Given the sheer volume of new malware samples discovered every day, security researchers eagerly make use of tools that will help automate their research and analysis. IBM… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/02/vb2015-paper-volatilitybot-malicious-code-extraction-made-and-security-researchers/

VB2016 programme announced, registration opened

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.
We are excited to officially announce the programme for VB2016, the 26th International Virus Bulletin Conference, which will take place in Denver, Colorado, USA 5-7 October this… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/04/vb2016-programme-announced-registrations-opened/

VB2016 Call for Papers Deadline

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.
If you read our blog or follow us on social media, you can't have missed the fact that the deadline for submissions for VB2016 is 18 March. That's today! If you haven't… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/03/vb2016-call-papers-deadline/

VB2016 Call for Papers - Frequently Asked Questions

Are you interested in submitting an abstract for VB2016? We've answered some frequently asked questions about the Call for Papers, which closes next week.
The call for papers for VB2016, the 26th Virus Bulletin conference, which takes place 5 to 7 October in Denver, CO, USA, is currently open. We've had some excellent… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/03/vb2016-call-papers-frequently-asked-questions/

VB2015 paper: Mobile Banking Fraud via SMS in North America: Who's Doing it and How

Though SMS may have been claimed dead many time, it is still very much alive, and quite popular among mobile phishers. At VB2015, Adaptive Mobile researcher Cathal Mc Daid presented a paper various mobile phishing campaigns targeting North American banks.
While SMS has been declared dead many times, the service remains frequently used - and abused. In a paper presented at VB2015 in Prague, Adaptive Mobile researcher Cathal Mc… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/03/vb2015-paper-mobile-banking-fraud-sms-north-america-whos-doing-it-and-how/

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