Identifying file manipulation in system files
Sometimes people send files to us that seem to be legitimate Microsoft system files at first glance, yet closer inspection reveals, that they have in fact been modified. Are those manipulations always malicious? And how can file manipulations be identified? Here are seven different ways to do that.
Criminals provide Ginzo stealer for free, now it is gaining traction
We identified more than 400 samples for Ginzo stealer within 10 days since 20th March and the numbers are rising. What is behind the free stealer?
An attacker's toolchest: Living off the land
If you’ve been keeping up with the information security world, you’ve certainly heard that recent ransomware attacks and other advanced persistent threats are sometimes using special kind of tools. But for the most part, the tools will be very familiar to you.
Allcome clipbanker is a newcomer in underground forums
The malware underground market might seem astoundingly professional in marketing and support. Let's take a look under the covers of one particular malware-as-a-service—the clipboard banker Allcome.
QR codes on Twitter deliver malicious Chrome extension
ISO file downloads are advertised via QR codes on Twitter and on supposedly free gaming sites, but they don't contain what they promise.
All your hashes are belong to us: An overview of malware hashing algorithms
VirusTotal's "Basic Properties" tab alone lists eight different hashes and supports even more to use them for queries and hunt signatures. Hashes are important for malware analysis, as well as identification, description and detection. But why do so many of them exist and when should you use which…
Microsoft signed a malicious Netfilter rootkit
What started as a false positive alert for a Microsoft signed file turns out to be a WFP application layer enforcement callout driver that redirects traffic to a Chinese IP. How did this happen?
Picture this: Malware Hides in Steam Profile Images
SteamHide abuses the gaming platform Steam to serve payloads for malware downloaders. Malware operators can also update already infected machines by adding new profile images to Steam. The developers seem to have a few more ambitious goals.
To patch or not to patch
As the infosec world was in turmoil following a total of seven zero-day vulnerabilities in MS Exchange and the so-called Hafnium attack, one thing came to my mind - and it sort of left me thinking: For the past 20 years, patches have been a constantly recurring topic of discussion. And as we all…
Hafnium: Spying on your Exchange Server
Microsoft have patched four highly critical security flaws in their Exchange mail server application. Those flaws allowed an attacker to access confidential information. No passwords are needed to exploit the vulnerabilities. Affected organizations should apply the patches immediately.
Karsten Hahn
Virus Analyst
Tim Berghoff
Security Evangelist
