New malware toolkit thwarts AV
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Web gateway filtering specialist Finjan is reporting a new toolkit that uses randomized JavaScript to stay hidden from virus crawlers and deliver its payload via compromised Web sites.
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Cupertino, we have a problem Symantec has updated its anti-virus definition files after a duff update falsely identified two open source packages as adware.â¦
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New security software supplements antivirus protection by scanning systems for 'bot' malware that can take over unprotected PCs.
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What is this thing you call heuristics? Antivirus software is getting worse at protecting users from new threats, according to two reports which found malware authors are getting better at disguising their creations.â¦
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(Source: Computerworld) Antivirus software alone isnt enough to prevent todays speedy, sophisticated virus attacks. Security managers should consider multitiered approaches that include behavior scanning, appliances that check e-mail for worms, and estricting user access to dangerous Web sites. Download this Executive Bulletin (a $49.95 value) for free, compliments of MessageLabs, to learn more.
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Ziff Davis - Holes in KOffice and RealPlayer allow attackers to take over a user's system.
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(InfoWorld) - The notorious Mpack hacker toolkit is installing malware that carries out its chores -- including spewing spam -- from within the Windows kernel, making it extremely difficult for security software to detect it, Symantec said Thursday. The Trojan horse that Symantec has dubbed "Srizbi" is being dropped onto some PCs by the multi-exploit Mpack, a ready-to-use attack application that until recently has been selling for around $1,000. Responsibility for a large-scale attack launched from thousands of hijacked Web sites last month was pinned on Mpack, as was a follow-up campaign waged from compromised Internet porn sites. Although Mpack can force-feed any malicious code to a commandeered PC, Symantec researchers said Srizbi stands out. Rather than follow the current practice of hiding only some activities with rootkit-cloaking technologies, Srizbi goes completely undercover. The new Trojan, said Symantec, works without any user-mode payload and does everything from kernel mode, including its main task: sending spam. "When Trojans go to spam, they go out to user land," said Dave Cole, director of Symantec's security response team, referring to malware writers injecting their code into visible Windows processes to carry out spam-sending tasks. "Srizbi, though, is basically using kernel libraries [to send spam]," said Cole. "It's calling the kernel libraries it needs." A blog entry by Kaoru Hayashi, a senior security response engineer at Symantec, spelled out the technical details. "Srizbi seems to move a step forward by working totally in kernel mode without the need to inject anything into user mode," wrote Hayashi. "To manipulate the network connection directly in kernel mode, it attaches NDIS and TCP/IP drivers and gets all the Ndis* and Zw* functions that it needs. This technique also allows the Trojan to bypass firewall and sniffer tools, and to hide all its network activities." Translation: Only advanced security tools will detect Srizbi. It's also the first full-kernel malware spotted in the wild. "It's evolutionary, not revolutionary, but it's indicative of what we see in the threat landscape," Cole said. "And if your security software is relying only on [Windows'] APIs to detect malware, you won't be protected. You need something that uses modern, anti-rootkit techniques." Cole added other information to the Srizbi story, in particular his suspicion that its author is probably the same hacker who created Rustock, a dangerous polymorphic Trojan from 2006 that also relied on rootkit technology to avoid detection. "It appears to be from the same author," said Cole. "He's been quiet for a while, and everyone has been waiting for Rustock 2.0. Some thought he'd maybe went away, but [Srizbi] uses some of the same components as Rustock." Cole expects Srizbi to follow a similar trajectory. "The pattern with Rustock seemed to be to get something out there that might be sloppy at first, but to evolve it over time. It's reasonable to believe that [Srizbi] will do the same." According to Symantec's research, the new Trojan is sloppy. "Users may be able to detect the presence of this malicious code via a registry key that happens to not be hidden by the rootkit component," said an alert to Symantec's DeepSight customers. The registry key to look for, said Symantec, is: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\RcpApi\\"MachineNum" = "[six random digits-six random digits-two random digits]" In other Mpack-related news, a third Symantec security researcher said today that he's spotted the toolkit selling for as little as $150, an 85 percent reduction from its previous $1,000 price tag. "Considering the toolkit is written in a script language, it is easy to redistribute and modify," said Eric Chien, a Symantec security response engineer. "The sellers likely didn't even need to buy it themselves, but rather probably found some of the multiple Web sites that did not employ standard Web site protections, allowing them to download the whole kit for free. "Talk about clearance sales." Mpack's wider "distribution" spells trouble not only for the hacker -- suspected to be Russian -- who created the multiple-strike attack kit, but for users, too. "Its usage is likely to grow," said Chien. "In addition, without a single author controlling the distribution of the toolkit, we also expect to see forks of the source code with additional exploits, bug fixes, and other feature enhancements."
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Handling of images could allow an attacker to take over your PC.
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Revamped Norton AntiVirus, Personal Firewall, and AntiSpam tools fight pests and dangers online.
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More info and a new kit for building and customizing Trojan malware is on sale online.
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An unpatched flaw in antivirus software compromises student data in Colorado.
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Computers running Microsoft Windows XP can be infected by a new Trojan horse, program remotely controlled in a victim&#39;s system, even after it is patched with Microsoft&#39;s
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A toolkit designed to exploit a recently-disclosed Microsoft JPEG vulnerability has been released onto the net.
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Blog: Popular add-ons could have their update process hijacked by man-in-the-middle attacks.
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Malware arrives in an e-mail message, launches denial of service attack.
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A newly identified malicious program not only messes up its victims' computers, it taunts them too.
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New software addresses a vulnerability that allowed previous versions to crash and execute arbitrary code.