VB Blog

New Emotet spam campaign continues to bypass email security products

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 18, 2019

On Monday, the infamous Emotet malware resumed its spam campaign to spread the latest version of the malware. As before, the malware successfully bypasses many email security products.

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Book review: Cyberdanger: Understanding and Guarding Against Cybercrime

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Sep 16, 2019

Security researcher Paul Baccas reviews Eddy Willems' book 'Cyberdanger'.

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Programme for VB2019 Threat Intelligence Practitioners' Summit announced

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 13, 2019

In the mini-summit, which forms part of VB2019 (the 29th Virus Bulletin International Conference), eight sessions will focus on all aspects of threat intelligence collecting, using and sharing.

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Guest blog: TotalAV uncovers the world’s first ransomware

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Sep 12, 2019

In a guest blog post by VB2019 Silver partner TotalAV, Matthew Curd, the software’s Technical Expert, considers the changes in the cybersecurity landscape.

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Guest blog: Targeted attacks with public tools

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Sep 4, 2019

Over the last few years SE Labs has tested more than 50 different security products against over 5,000 targeted attacks. In this guest blog post Stefan Dumitrascu, Chief Technical Officer at SE Labs, looks at the different attack tools available, how effective they are at helping attackers bypass anti-malware products, and how security vendors have been handling this type of threat for over a year.

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VB2019 preview: Small Talks

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 3, 2019

We preview the five Small Talks on the VB2019 programme in which important topics are discussed in a less formal atmosphere.

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VB2019 preview: Problem child: common patterns in malicious parent-child relationships

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 2, 2019

We preview the VB2019 paper by Endgame researcher Bobby Filar, who created a graph-based framework designed to detect malicious use of legitimate binaries through parent-child relationships.

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VB2019 preview: Inside Magecart: the history behind the covert card-skimming assault on the e-commerce industry

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Aug 30, 2019

We preview the VB2019 paper by RiskIQ researcher Yonathan Klijnsma on the Magecart web skimming attacks.

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VB2019 call for last-minute papers closes on Sunday (1 Sept)

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Aug 29, 2019

Your last chance to get a speaking slot on the VB2019 programme with a talk on hot research!

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21 organisations partner with VB2019

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Aug 29, 2019

Record number of partner organisations for the Virus Bulletin Conference reflects very broad and international event.

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VB2015 conference programme announced

From drones to elephants: an exciting range of topics will be covered in Prague.
From drones to elephants: an exciting range of topics will be covered in Prague. In six months' time, security researchers from around the world will gather in Prague for the 25th… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/conference-programme-announced/

Paper: a timeline of mobile botnets

Ruchna Nigam provides an overview of more than 60 mobile malware families.
Ruchna Nigam provides an overview of more than 60 mobile malware families. The rise of mobile malware is still a relatively recent thing, with the first actual mobile botnets not… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/paper-timeline-mobile-botnets/

Paper: Dylib hijacking on OS X

Patrick Wardle shows how OS X is also vulnerable to once common Windows attacks.
Patrick Wardle shows how OS X is also vulnerable to once common Windows attacks. A few years ago, DLL hijacking on Windows was really hot, despite the fact that the concept had… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/paper-dylib-hijacking-os-x/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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