VB Blog

VB2017 paper and update: Browser attack points still abused by banking trojans

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jul 25, 2018

At VB2017, ESET researchers Peter Kálnai and Michal Poslušný looked at how banking malware interacts with browsers. Today we publish their paper, share the video of their presentation, and also publish a guest blog post from Peter, in which he summarises the recent developments in this space.

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New paper: Does malware based on Spectre exist?

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jul 16, 2018

It is likely that, by now, everyone in computer science has at least heard of the Spectre attack, and many excellent explanations of the attack already exist. But what is the likelihood of finding Spectre being exploited on Android smartphones?

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More VB2018 partners announced

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jul 11, 2018

We are excited to announce several more companies that have partnered with VB2018.

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Malware authors' continued use of stolen certificates isn't all bad news

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jul 10, 2018

A new malware campaign that uses two stolen code-signing certificates shows that such certificates continue to be popular among malware authors. But there is a positive side to malware authors' use of stolen certificates.

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Save the dates: VB2019 to take place 2-4 October 2019

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jul 6, 2018

Though the location will remain under wraps for a few more months, we are pleased to announce the dates for VB2019, the 29th Virus Bulletin International Conference.

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Necurs update reminds us that the botnet cannot be ignored

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jul 6, 2018

The operators of the Necurs botnet, best known for being one of the most prolific spam botnets of the past few years, have pushed out updates to its client, which provide some important lessons about why malware infections matter.

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Nominations opened for fifth Péter Szőr Award

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jul 3, 2018

Virus Bulletin has opened nominations for the fifth annual Péter Szőr Award, for the best piece of technical security research published between 1 July 2017 and 30 June 2018.

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.SettingContent-ms files remind us that it is features, not bugs we should be most concerned about

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jul 3, 2018

Security researcher Matt Nelson has discovered how .SettingContent-ms files can be embedded into Office files to deliver malware.

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We cannot ignore the increased use of IoT in domestic abuse cases

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 26, 2018

The New York Times reports that smart home devices are increasingly used in cases of domestic abuse.

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Benefit now from early bird discount tickets for VB2018

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 25, 2018

If you want to come to VB2018 in Montreal this year (and why wouldn't you?) and want to save a bit on the ticket price (and why wouldn't you?), remember that early bird discounts will be available until 30 June.

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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/

Research shows web security products perform well against exploit kits

Research by Virus Bulletin, in which five web security products were served 54 live exploit kits, shows that the products blocked between 87 and 100 per cent of the kits.
Among the security community a lot of research effort is dedicated to analysing exploit kits and their constantly evolving methods of frustrating researchers while infecting… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/08/research-shows-web-security-products-perform-well-against-exploit-kits/

Throwback Thursday: Olympic Games

In 1994, along with the Olympic Games came an Olympic virus, from a group of Swedish virus authors calling themselves ‘Immortal Riot’. We look back at Mikko Hyppönen's analysis in the VB archive.
As the world of sport awaits the official opening of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio tomorrow, any talk of viruses is restricted to concerns surrounding the mosquito-borne,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/08/throwback-thursday-olympic-games/

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/

Guest Blog: Malicious Scripts Gaining Prevalence in Brazil

In the run up to VB2016, we invited the conference sponsors to write guest posts for our blog. In the second of this series, ESET's Matías Porolli writes about malicious Visual Basic and JavaScript gaining prevalence in Brazil.
In the run up to VB2016, we invited the conference sponsors to write guest posts for our blog. In the second of this series, ESET's Matías Porolli writes about malicious Visual… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/07/malicious-scripts-gaining-prevalence-brazil/

Romanian university website compromised to serve Neutrino exploit kit

The website of the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy has been compromised to inject a hidden iframe into the site's source code that serves the Neutrino exploit kit and may infect visitors with ransomware.
This blog post was written by Martijn Grooten and Adrian Luca. Like every summer, millions of prospective students around the world have been taking entry exams for the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/07/romanian-university-website-compromised-serve-neutrino-exploit-kit/

It's 2016. Can we stop using MD5 in malware analyses?

While there are no actually risks involved in using MD5s in malware analyses, it reinforces bad habits and we should all start using SHA-256 instead.
When a security researcher comes across a new piece of malware, the first thing he (or she) does is check the file hash to see if it has been seen, or maybe even analysed, before.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/07/its-2016-can-we-stop-using-md5-malware-analyses/

Throwback Thursday: Holding the Bady

In 2001, ‘Code Red’ caused White House administrators to change the IP address of the official White House website, and even penetrated Microsoft’s own IIS servers.
Last week saw the 15th anniversary of the appearance of 'Code Red' (also known as 'Bady') - the first fileless worm, which spread by exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft IIS,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/07/throwback-thursday-holding-bady/

Paper: The Journey of Evasion Enters Behavioural Phase

A new paper by FireEye researcher Ankit Anubhav provides an overview of evasion techniques applied by recently discovered malware.
Anti-detection techniques are almost as old as malware itself and have developed well beyond hash busting techniques. As security products adapt their detection tools, malware… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/07/paper-journey-evasion-enters-behavioural-phase/

Guest blog: Espionage toolkit uncovered targeting Central and Eastern Europe

Recently, ESET researchers uncovered a new espionage toolkit targeting targeting Central and Eastern Europe. They provide some details in a guest post.
In the run up to VB2016, we invited the conference sponsors to write guest posts for our blog. In the first of this series, ESET writes about the SBDH toolkit. Over the course… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/07/guest-blog-espionage-toolkit-targeting-central-and-eastern-europe-uncovered/

Avast acquires AVG for $1.3bn

Anti-virus vendor Avast has announced the acquisition of its rival AVG for 1.3 billion US dollars.
There was interesting news in the anti-virus world yesterday, as Avast announced the acquisition of its competitor AVG. Both companies were founded in the Czech Republic and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/07/avast-acquires-avg-13bn/

Throwback Thursday: You Are the Weakest Link, Goodbye!

Passwords have long been a weak point in the security chain, despite efforts to encourage users to pick strong ones. 13 years ago, Martin Overton wrote an article highlighting the weakness and explaining why it is the human element that presents the bigge…
A recent survey by mobile ID provider TeleSign revealed that 72% of security professionals believe that passwords will be phased out by 2025 - in favour of behavioural biometrics… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/07/throwback-thursday-you-are-weakest-link-goodbye/

Paper: New Keylogger on the Block

In a new paper published by Virus Bulletin, Sophos researcher Gabor Szappanos takes a look at the KeyBase keylogger, sold as a commercial product and popular among cybercriminals who use it in Office exploit kits.
Keyloggers have long been a popular tool for cybercriminals, something made worse by the fact that many of them are sold commercially. Today, we publish a paper (here as a PDF)… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/07/paper-new-keylogger-block/

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: DDoS Trojan: A Malicious Concept that Conquered the ELF Format

In their VB2015 paper, Peter Kálnai and Jaromír Hořejší look at the current state of DDoS trojans forming covert botnets on unsuspecting systems. The paper provides a technical analysis of the most important malware families, focusing on infection methods…
Recently, a new trend has emerged in non-Windows DDoS attacks. Malware has evolved into complex and relatively sophisticated pieces of code, employing compression, advanced… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/06/vb2015-paper-ddos-trojan-malicious-concept-conquered-elf-format1/

Throwback Thursday: Hyppönen, that Data Fellow / Finnish Sprayer

This week, well known and universally respected industry guru Mikko Hyppönen celebrates his 25th anniversary of working at F-Secure (formerly known as Data Fellows). VB takes a look back in the archives at two articles published in 1994: an "insight" into…
This week, well known and universally respected industry guru Mikko Hyppönen celebrates his 25th anniversary of working at F-Secure (formerly known as Data Fellows). In… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/06/throwback-thursday-hypponen-data-fellow-finnish-sprayer/

VB2015 paper: Economic Sanctions on Malware

Financial pressure can be a proactive and potentially very effective tool in making our computer ecosystems safer. By cleverly employing various trust metrics and technologies such as digital signing, watermarking, and public-key infrastructure in strateg…
Financial pressure can be a proactive and potentially very effective tool in making our computer ecosystems safer: making attackers spend real money before they can deploy malware… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/06/economic-sanctions-malware/

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