VB Blog

VB2017 preview: Android reverse engineering tools: not the usual suspects

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 19, 2017

We preview the VB2017 paper by Fortinet researcher Axelle Apvrille, in which she looks at some less obvious tools for reverse engineering Android malware.

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Malicious CCleaner update points to a major weakness in our infrastructure

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 18, 2017

Researchers from Cisco Talos have found that a recent version of the widely used CCleaner tool installed malware on the machine.

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Despite the profitability of ransomware there is a good reason why mining malware is thriving

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Sep 15, 2017

Though ransomware is far more profitable than using a compromised PC to mine bitcoins, the global distribution of malware means that there are many botnets for which mining is the most efficient way to extract money out of a PC.

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VB2017 preview: Crypton - exposing malware's deepest secrets

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 14, 2017

We preview the VB2017 paper by Julia Karpin and Anna Dorfman (F5 networks), in which they present a tool to decrypt encrypted parts of malware.

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VB2017 preview: Hacktivism and website defacement: motivations, capabilities and potential threats

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 13, 2017

We preview the VB2017 paper by Marco Romagna and Niek Jan van den Hout (The Hague University of Applied Sciences), in which they thoroughly analyse the motivations and modus operandy of hacktivists.

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Three questions to ask about security product bypasses

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 13, 2017

Proof-of-concepts for bypasses of security products always sound scary, but how seriously should we take them? VB Editor Martijn Grooten lists three questions one should ask about any such bypass to determine how serious a threat it represents.

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VB2017: WHOIS and EICAR Small Talks added

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 12, 2017

Today, we announce two more 'Small Talks' for the VB2017 programme. In one of them, Neil Schwarzman will discuss the consequences of the GDPR for WHOIS and abuse research, while the other will be hosted by three members of EICAR, who will discuss its work on a trustworthiness strategy and minimum standard.

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VB2017: nine last-minute papers announced

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 11, 2017

From attacks on Ukraine's power grid to web shells, and from car hacking to ransomware: we announce the first nine 'last-minute' papers on the VB2017 programme.

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Patching is important even when it only shows the maturity of your security process

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 5, 2017

A lot of vulnerabilities that are discovered are never exploited in the wild. It is still important to patch them though.

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Massive data breach confirms what you already knew: you are getting spam

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 4, 2017

A security researcher found more than 700 million email addresses stored on a server used by a spam botnet, which gives us some insight into what the email lists used by spammers look like.

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VB2014 preview: Tech Support Scams 2.0: an inside look into the evolution of the classic Microsoft tech support scam

Jérôme Segura looks at recent developments in malicious cold calls.
Jérôme Segura looks at recent developments in malicious cold calls.In the weeks running up to VB2014 (the 24th Virus Bulletin International Conference), we are looking at some of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/preview-tech-support-scams-2-0-inside-look-evolution-classic-microsoft-tech-support-scam/

VB2014 preview: Ubiquitous Flash, ubiquitous exploits and ubiquitous mitigation

Chun Feng and Elia Florio look at exploits targeting domain memory opcode in Adobe Flash.
Chun Feng and Elia Florio look at exploits targeting domain memory opcode in Adobe Flash.In the weeks running up to VB2014 (the 24th Virus Bulletin International Conference), we… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/preview-ubiquitous-flash-ubiquitous-exploits-and-ubiquitous-mitigation/

VB2014: frequently asked questions

Some useful information for those attending VB2014 - or those interested in attending.
Some useful information for those attending VB2014 - or those interested in attending.I haven't registered yet, but I'd like to attend. Can I still register? Yes, you can. Use our… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/frequently-asked-questions/

VB2014 preview: two papers on Linux server malware

Researchers from ESET, Yandex and Symantec look at emerging malware trend.
Researchers from ESET, Yandex and Symantec look at emerging malware trend.In the weeks running up to VB2014 (the 24th Virus Bulletin International Conference), we are looking at… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/preview-two-papers-linux-server-malware/

VB2014 preview: keynote and closing panel

Vulnerability disclosure one of the hottest issues in security.
Vulnerability disclosure one of the hottest issues in security. In the proceedings of the 24th Virus Bulletin conference, the words 'vulnerabilty' and 'vulnerabilities' occur more… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/preview-keynote-and-closing-panel/

Report: VB100 comparative review on Windows Server 2012

23 out of 29 tested products earn VB100 award.
23 out of 29 tested products earn VB100 award.Windows Server 2012 is the server version of Windows 8, the most recent version of Microsoft's operating system. Though supposedly… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/report-comparative-review-windows-server-2012/

DNS cache poisoning used to steal emails

Call to use end-to-end encryption and to deploy DNSSEC.
Call to use end-to-end encryption and to deploy DNSSEC.DNS is sometimes called 'the phone book of the Internet'. If true, then it is a phone book that makes it relatively easy to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/dns-cache-poisoning-used-steal-emails/

VB2014 preview: Apple without a shell - iOS under targeted attack

FireEye researchers show a large attack vector for Apple's mobile operating system.
FireEye researchers show a large attack vector for Apple's mobile operating system.In the weeks running up to VB2014 (the 24th Virus Bulletin International Conference), we are… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/preview-apple-without-shell-ios-under-targeted-attack/

Left-to-right override makes a return in spam

Trick shows that spammers still try to beat content-based filters.
Trick shows that spammers still try to beat content-based filters. A decade ago, when spam had become a serious issue, most spam filters tried to block the unwanted emails based on… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/left-right-override-makes-return-spam/

Paper: Prosecting the Citadel botnet - revealing the dominance of the Zeus descendent: part two

Aditya K. Sood and Rohit Bansal study the malware's behaviour when ran on a physical machine.
Aditya K. Sood and Rohit Bansal study the malware's behaviour when ran on a physical machine. Last week, we published the first part of the paper 'Prosecting the Citadel botnet -… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/paper-prosecting-citadel-botnet-revealing-dominance-zeus-descendent-part-two/

Crypto blunder makes TorrentLocker easy to crack

Use of single XOR key leaves ransomware open to known-plaintext attack.
Use of single XOR key leaves ransomware open to known-plaintext attack. It has been said many times before: cryptography is hard. Earlier this year, the authors of the 'Bitcrypt'… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/crypto-blunder-makes-torrentlocker-easy-crack/

VB2014 preview: The three levels of exploit testing

Richard Ford and Marco Carvalho present an idea for how to test products that claim to detect the unknown.
Richard Ford and Marco Carvalho present an idea for how to test products that claim to detect the unknown.In the weeks running up to VB2014 (the 24th Virus Bulletin International… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/preview-three-levels-exploit-testing/

VB2014 preview: last-minute papers added to the programme

Hot topics to be covered at VB2014 conference in Seattle.
Hot topics to be covered at VB2014 conference in Seattle. Although most of the VB2014 conference programme was announced back in April, it looks anything but dated. A paper on… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/preview-last-minute-papers-added-programme/

Paper: Prosecting the Citadel botnet - revealing the dominance of the Zeus descendent: part one

Aditya K. Sood and Rohit Bansal dissect botnet primarily used for financial fraud.
Aditya K. Sood and Rohit Bansal dissect botnet primarily used for financial fraud. It is unlikely that anyone still thinks that cybercrime is performed by 16-year-old kids who… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/paper-prosecting-citadel-botnet-revealing-dominance-zeus-descendent-part-one/

VB2014 preview: Swipe away, we're watching you

Hong Kei Chan and Liang Huang describe the various aspects and the evolution of point-of-sale malware.
Hong Kei Chan and Liang Huang describe the various aspects and the evolution of point-of-sale malware.In the weeks running up to VB2014 (the 24th Virus Bulletin International… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/preview-swipe-away-we-re-watching-you/

September

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/

VB2014 preview: Design to discover: security analytics with 3D visualization engine

Thibault Reuille and Dhia Mahjoub use particle physics to shows clusters of malicious domains.
Thibault Reuille and Dhia Mahjoub use particle physics to shows clusters of malicious domains.In the weeks running up to VB2014 (the 24th Virus Bulletin International Conference),… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/08/preview-design-discover-security-analytics-3d-visualization-engine/

Srizbi kernel-mode spambot reappears as Pitou

Malware possibly still in the 'brewing' stage.
Malware possibly still in the 'brewing' stage. In November 2007, we published an article by Kimmo Kasslin (F-Secure) and Elia Florio (Symantec), in which they analysed the 'Srizbi'… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/08/srizbi-kernel-mode-spambot-reappears-pitou/

Malicious ads served on java.com

If you do need to run plug-ins, make sure you enable click-to-play.
If you do need to run plug-ins, make sure you enable click-to-play. Last week, we published a blog previewing the VB2014 paper 'Optimized mal-ops. Hack the ad network like a boss'… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/08/malicious-ads-served-java-com/

VB2014 preview: Methods of malware persistence on Mac OS X

Patrick Wardle shows that OS X users really have something to worry about.
Patrick Wardle shows that OS X users really have something to worry about.In the weeks running up to VB2014 (the 24th Virus Bulletin International Conference), we will look at some… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/08/preview-methods-malware-persistence-mac-os-x/

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