VB Blog

VB2018 paper: Fake News, Inc.

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Apr 25, 2019

A former reporter by profession, Andrew Brandt's curiosity was piqued when he came across what appeared at first glance to be the website of a small-town newspaper based in Illinois, but under scrutiny, things didn’t add up. At VB2018 he presented a paper in which he shared the results of his investigation of the site. Today, we publish his paper and the recording of his presentation.

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Paper: Alternative communication channel over NTP

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 24, 2019

In a new paper published today, independent researcher Nikolaos Tsapakis writes about the possibilities of malware using NTP as a covert communication channel and how to stop this.

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VB2019 conference programme announced

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 5, 2019

VB is excited to reveal the details of an interesting and diverse programme for VB2019, the 29th Virus Bulletin International Conference, which takes place 2-4 October in London, UK.

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VB2018 paper: Under the hood - the automotive challenge

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 27, 2019

Car hacking has become a hot subject in recent years, and at VB2018 in Montreal, Argus Cyber Security's Inbar Raz presented a paper that provides an introduction to the subject, looking at the complex problem, examples of car hacks, and the challenges ahead. Today, we publish both Inbar's paper and the recording of his presentation.

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VB2018 paper and video: Android app deobfuscation using static-dynamic cooperation

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 20, 2019

Static analysis and dynamic analysis each have their shortcomings as methods for analysing potentially malicious files. Today, we publish a VB2018 paper by Check Point researchers Yoni Moses and Yaniv Mordekhay, in which they describe a method that combines static and dynamic analysis to defeat app obfuscation in Android binaries. We also publish the video of their presentation.

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VB2019 call for papers closes this weekend

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 15, 2019

The call for papers for VB2019 closes on 17 March, and while we've already received many great submissions, we still want more!

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Registration open for VB2019 ─ book your ticket now!

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 13, 2019

Registration for VB2019, the 29th Virus Bulletin International Conference, is now open, with an early bird rate available until 1 July.

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The VB2019 call for papers is about ... papers

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 8, 2019

When we are calling for papers for the Virus Bulletin conference as we are doing now, we really mean a written paper. But don't worry if you've never written a paper - we can help!

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VB2018 video: Adware is just malware with a legal department - how we reverse engineered OSX/Pirrit, received legal threats, and survived

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 8, 2019

Amit Serper first analysed the OSX/Pirrit adware in 2016, highlighting some of its malware-like techniques, and soon afterwards started receiving legal threats from the company behind it. At VB2018 Amit gave a presentation in which he discussed both the adware and the legal threats he received for calling it malware. Today, we publish the video of Amit's presentation.

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VB2018 paper: Anatomy of an attack: detecting and defeating CRASHOVERRIDE

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 5, 2019

In December 2016, the CRASHOVERRIDE malware framework was used to cause a blackout in Ukraine. At VB2018 in Montreal, Dragos researcher Joe Slowik presented a detailed paper on the framework, explaining how the malware works and how it targets various protocols used to operate the electric grid. Today we publish both Joe's paper and the recording of his presentation.

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Throwback Thursday: Malware taking a bit(coin) more than we bargained for

This Throwback Thursday, we republish the VB2012 paper by Microsoft researcher Amir Fouda, one of the earliest papers to look at malware targeting Bitcoin.
In late spring of 2011, a sudden rise in the price of Bitcoin – reaching almost US$30, up from less than $1 barely a month earlier – attracted the attention of malware authors.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2018/02/throwback-thursday-malware-taking-bitcoin-more-we-bargained/

Meltdown and Spectre attacks mitigated by operating system updates

Just four days into the new year, two serious attacks in modern processors, dubbed Meltdown and Spectre, have been discovered. The attacks can be mitigated by patches to the operating system, but anti-virus software vendors need to make sure their product…
We wish all our readers a very happy and very secure 2018! The latter part will not come without some serious work though. We are not even four days into the new year and we… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2018/01/meltdown-and-spectre-attacks-mitigated-operating-system-updates/

VB2017 preview: Stuck between a ROC and a hard place

We preview the VB2017 paper by Microsoft's Holly Stewart and Joe Blackbird, which uses data about users switching anti-virus provider to decide whether machine-learning models should favour avoiding false positives over false negatives.
Authors of security software in general, and anti-virus software in particular, have always needed to find the right balance between a high detection rate and a low false positive… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/08/vb2017-preview-stuck-between-roc-and-hard-place/

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/

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/

Microsoft no longer publishes advance notifications for its Patch Tuesdays

Company unhappy with Google going full disclosure on privilege escalation vulnerability.
Company unhappy with Google going full disclosure on privilege escalation vulnerability. Tomorrow is the second Tuesday of the month and, as most people reading this blog will… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/01/microsoft-no-longer-publishes-advance-notifications-its-patch-tuesdays/

Out-of-band patch released for all Windows versions

Kerberos bug means one set of credentials suffices to rule them all.
Kerberos bug means one set of credentials suffices to rule them all. If you are a Windows systems administrator, the content of this blog post will (hopefully) not come as a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/11/out-band-patch-released-all-windows-versions/

VB2014 paper: DMARC - how to use it to improve your email reputation

Terry Zink presents case study in which he describes setting a DMARC policy for Microsoft.
Terry Zink presents case study in which he describes setting a DMARC policy for Microsoft.Over the next few months, we will be sharing VB2014 conference papers as well as video… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/11/paper-dmarc-how-use-it-improve-your-email-reputation/

Windows Error Reporting used to discover new attacks

No excuse for sending error reports in cleartext.
No excuse for sending error reports in cleartext. All happy programs are the same. But each unhappy program crashes in its own way. In a report published yesterday, security firm… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/02/windows-error-reporting-used-discover-new-attacks/

VirusTotal support integrated into new version of Process Explorer

Sysadmins can check hashes of processes against file-checking service database.
Sysadmins can check hashes of processes against file-checking service database.Microsoft and Google are known for their fierce competition, but when it comes to security, the tech… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/01/virustotal-support-integrated-new-version-process-explorer/

Privilege escalation vulnerability targets Windows XP and Server 2003

Vulnerability being used in the wild in combination with exploit of patched Adobe Reader vulnerability.
Vulnerability being used in the wild in combination with exploit of patched Adobe Reader vulnerability. Researchers at FireEye have discovered a new privilege escalation… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/11/privilege-escalation-vulnerability-targets-windows-xp-and-server-2003/

Good and bad news for victims of targeted attacks against Microsoft products

Bug bounty program extended; TIFF zero-day used in the wild.
Bug bounty program extended; TIFF zero-day used in the wild. This week, Microsoft has good news and bad news for those targeted by zero-day exploits in its products. The bad… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/11/good-and-bad-news-victims-targeted-attacks-against-microsoft-products/

Should software vendors extend support for their products on Windows XP?

Is Google making the Internet more or less secure by extending support for Chrome on XP?
Is Google making the Internet more or less secure by extending support for Chrome on XP? A software vendor's decision to release updates to its product is generally seen as a good… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/10/should-software-vendors-extend-support-their-products-windows-xp/

Microsoft releases advisory offering workarounds for IE vulnerability

German government advises users to use alternative browser.
German government advises users to use alternative browser.Microsoft has released a security advisory to address the zero-day vulnerability in its Internet Explorer browser that we… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2012/09/microsoft-releases-advisory-offering-workarounds-ie-vulnerability/

Microsoft to publish security bulletins in CVRF format

Standard will streamline process of reviewing patches.
Standard will streamline process of reviewing patches. Software giant Microsoft has announced that it has started to publish its monthly security bulletins in the CVRF format.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2012/05/microsoft-publish-security-bulletins-cvrf-format/

Hefty Patch Tuesday bulletin rounds off bumper year

No sign of an end to vulnerability glut.
No sign of an end to vulnerability glut.Microsoft released its monthly Patch Tuesday security bulletin yesterday, with details of a hefty 17 alerts covering 40 separate… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2010/12/hefty-patch-tuesday-bulletin-rounds-bumper-year/

Security fixes from Apple and Microsoft

100 security fixes in latest OS X update; three MS security updates in this month's patch release.
100 security fixes in latest OS X update; three MS security updates in this month's patch release. The latest release of Mac operating system OS X (Mac OS X v10.6.5) contains over… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2010/11/security-fixes-apple-and-microsoft/

Giant patch release from Microsoft, Oracle

Record Patch Tuesday combines with swathe of extra fixes for corporates.
Record Patch Tuesday combines with swathe of extra fixes for corporates. It's a busy week for corporate admins as Microsoft's monthly Patch Tuesday security bulletin, containing a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2010/10/giant-patch-release-microsoft-oracle/

Microsoft's machines hijacked by spammers

Servers also used for DoS attack on security journalist's site.
Servers also used for DoS attack on security journalist's site. More than a thousand websites pushing spamvertised pharmaceuticals have been found to be using name servers on… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2010/10/microsoft-s-machines-hijacked-spammers/

Microsoft releases new fix for DLL vulnerability

Earlier workaround believed to be too complex for most users.
Earlier workaround believed to be too complex for most users. A week after Microsoft released a fix for a DLL vulnerability that affected a large number of programs running on its… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2010/09/microsoft-releases-new-fix-dll-vulnerability/

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