Category Archives: Downloaders

Malware for which the primary or sole function is to retrieve data or files from the Internet.

Researchers intercept two client-side exploits serving malware campaigns

February 8, 2012 – 4:52 pm

By Dancho Danchev Security researchers from Webroot have intercepted two currently live client-side exploits serving malware campaigns that have already managed to infect over 20,000 PCs across the globe, primarily in the United States. Based upon detailed analysis, it can be concluded that both campaigns are launched by the same cybercriminal. More details:

By ddanchev | Also posted in Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Keyloggers, malware, Passwords, Threat Research, Trojans | Comments (1)

Researchers spot Citadel, a ZeuS crimeware variant

February 8, 2012 – 1:35 pm

By Dancho Danchev Security researchers from “Tracking Cyber Crime” have spotted a new ZeuS crimeware variant, that’s based on the leaked ZeuS source code from last year. Dubbed Citadel, the crimeware is positioned as a universal spyware system, whose modular nature allows cybercriminals to offer flexibly priced value-added services such as managed malware crypting, and [...]

By ddanchev | Also posted in Keyloggers, malware, Passwords, rootkit, Threat Research, Trojans | Leave a Comment

A peek inside the Smoke Malware Loader

February 3, 2012 – 5:07 pm

By Dancho Danchev The competitive arms race between security vendors and malicious cybercriminals constantly produces new defensive mechanisms, next to new attack platforms and malicious tools aiming to efficiently exploit and infect as many people as possible. Continuing the “A peek inside…” series, in this post I will profile yet another malware loader. This time it’s [...]

By ddanchev | Also posted in Threat Research, Keyloggers, Passwords, malware, Trojans | Leave a Comment

Cybercriminals generate malicious Java applets using DIY tools

January 30, 2012 – 3:22 pm

By Dancho Danchev Who said there’s such a thing as a trusted Java applet? In situations where malicious attackers cannot directly exploit client-side vulnerabilities on the targeted host, they will turn to social engineering tricks, like legitimate-looking Java Applets, which will on the other hand silently download the malicious payload of the attacker, once the [...]

By ddanchev | Also posted in Backdoors, Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Keyloggers, malware, social engineering, Stupid malware tricks, Threat Research, Trojans | Comments (1)

A peek inside the uBot malware bot

January 26, 2012 – 12:18 pm

By Dancho Danchev Participants in the dynamic cybercrime underground ecosystem are constantly working on new cybercrime-friendly releases in the form of malware bots, Remote Access Tools (RATs) and malware loaders. Continuing the “A peek inside…” series, in this post I will profile yet another DIY (do-it-yourself) malware bot, available at the disposal of cybercriminals at [...]

By ddanchev | Also posted in Backdoors, Keyloggers, malware, Passwords, Threat Research, Trojans | Comments (1)

Researchers intercept a client-side exploits serving malware campaign

January 25, 2012 – 12:14 pm

By Dancho Danchev Security researchers from Webroot have intercepted a currently active, client-side exploits-serving malicious campaign that has already managed to infect 18,544 computers across the globe, through the BlackHole web malware exploitation kit. More details:

By ddanchev | Also posted in Backdoors, Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Keyloggers, malware, Passwords, rootkit, Threat Research, Trojans | Comments (1)

How malware authors evade antivirus detection

January 18, 2012 – 6:37 pm

By Dancho Danchev Aiming to ensure that their malware doesn’t end up in the hands of vendors and researchers, cybercriminals are actively experimenting with different quality assurance processes whose objective is to increase the probability of their campaigns successfully propagating in the wild without detection. Some of these techniques include multiple offline antivirus scanning interfaces [...]

By ddanchev | Also posted in Backdoors, Dialers, Keyloggers, malware, Phishing Trojans, Ransomware, Rogue Security Products, rootkit, Trojans, Uncategorized | Comments (8)

ZeroAccess Rootkit Guards Itself with a Tripwire

July 8, 2011 – 12:40 pm

By Marco Giuliani The latest generation of a rapidly evolving family of kernel-mode rootkits called, variously, ZeroAccess or Max++, seems to get more powerful and effective with each new variant. The rootkit infects a random system driver, overwriting its code with its own, infected driver, and hijacks the storage driver chain in order to hide [...]

By Marco Giuliani | Also posted in Ad-clickers, Botnet activity, Destructive behavior, Stupid malware tricks, Threat Research, Trojans | Comments (4)

Fake UPS Document Installs Fake Microsoft Patch Payload

June 17, 2011 – 8:12 am

By Andrew Brandt As if we didn’t have enough to deal with this week — after a Microsoft patch Tuesday that brought with it a boatload of security updates for Windows, Office, Silverlight, Visual Studio, and other programs — some enterprising malware distributor is emailing around bogus tracking number malware dressed up in the icon [...]

By mguthrie09 | Also posted in Backdoors, Botnet activity, hijack search results, Keyloggers, Rogue Security Products, social engineering, spam, Stupid malware tricks, Threat Research | Comments (1)

Android ‘Angry Birds’ Malware Contains Bot-like Code

June 10, 2011 – 9:05 am

By Andrew Brandt Most of yesterday, Threat Research Analyst Armando Orozco and I took a closer look at a piece of malware discovered by a university security researcher, Xuxian Jiang of North Carolina State. The malicious code, which the malware creator named Plankton, is embedded into a number of apps that were briefly posted to [...]

By mguthrie09 | Also posted in Android, Backdoors, Botnet activity, Mobile security, social engineering, Stupid malware tricks, Threat Research, Trojans | Comments (15)
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