The Malware Research team here at PC Pitstop has noticed a large number of hits on seemingly randomly-generated files in our research queue. Upon further investigation, it is apparent that these files are coming from Emotet Banking Trojan. In this post we will give a brief overview of the Trojan, how we detected it, and […]
READ FIRST: Disclaimer – Malware can destroy data, damage your computer, cause your computer to damage other computers, steal information, or cause other harm to property and even life in the case of a system which is in control of some equipment or machinery. When analyzing malware, you must always do so on a machine […]
READ FIRST: Disclaimer – Malware can destroy data, damage your computer, cause your computer to damage other computers, steal information, or cause other harm to property and even life in the case of a system which is in control of some equipment or machinery. When analyzing malware, you must always do so on a machine […]
READ FIRST: Disclaimer – Malware can destroy data, damage your computer, cause your computer to damage other computers, steal information, or cause other harm to property and even life in the case of a system which is in control of some equipment or machinery. When analyzing malware, you must always do so on a machine […]
In the anti-malware world, you may hear the term APT which is short for Advanced Persistent Threat. It sounds like a complicated buzzword. What is it really? Before we start talking about what an “advanced” persistent threat is, let’s just start with a plain ol’ persistent threat. In computer science, the term “persistence” is generally […]
A week ago, Lawrence Abrams at Bleeping Computer wrote about Locky ransomware now taking a 7z form. The PC Matic Research Team has seen this new form of Locky this past week. Like many other variants of Locky, the core components which make up the binary are very similar except for the encrypted file extension […]
When reading a technical analysis of malware, you will often hear of the term “hooking.” The term is rather confusing and even ambiguous in some cases and thus, in this article we will explain exactly what hooking is, the different types of hooking, and how it is used by malware. What is Hooking? Let’s start […]
ETERNALBLUE, DOUBLEPULSAR, Heartbleed…. Many of us have heard of these terms and possibly of their association with malware. However, the ecosystem and jargon can be confusing. How is ETERNALBLUE really related to WannaCry and Petya? What is the difference between an exploit and a malware to begin with? As a Malware Researcher, I’ve done deep […]
We’ve recently been covering scripting attacks in more detail on the Malware Research blog. These types of attacks have the ability to be completely fileless, as explained in a previous post. However, scripts also sometimes do come in files or accompany file-based malware. The new strain of Spora malware does just this. It uses a […]
Of course having PC Matic and PC Matic SuperShield installed will help stop threats in their tracks. Nonetheless, it is important to be educated in order to help avoid problems and PC Pitstop also believes in providing our customers with not just a quality anti-malware solution, but training as well. Let’s take a look at […]
The Malware Research Team have come across some JavaScript malware as we posted about in Fileless Malware Explained last month. In this post, we will highlight one such piece of malware and specifically, the process used in deobfuscating part of the malicious code. What is Obfuscation? Code obfuscation is a group of techniques used to […]
A few days ago, Kayla wrote about Fileless Malware, and how PC Matic protects your devices from it. Malware can be so complicated and confusing to understand, that Malware Research is a full-time job… Let alone “fileless” malware. However, when explained in the proper steps, the concept is actually very easy to understand and every […]
Introduction Part II of the WanaCrypt0r code analysis has arrived. We’re going to be starting out where we left off last time, which is with the Microsoft Windows MS17-010 Server Message Block (SMB) exploit/”worm component” that made the ransomware so dangerous by allowing it to spread to other vulnerable (not patched) systems on the network […]
Introduction During the past few days, as one might expect, we’ve been getting lots of news, reports, and files for the ransomware entitled WanaCrypt0r/WannaCry/WanaCrypt. First and foremost, the good news is that customers of PC Matic SuperShield were protected from WanaCrypt0r the entire time. However, this post aims to provide a technical analysis of how […]
Fake tech support companies have been using popups and programs for quite some time with several different justifications to “fix” your computer. Here is a breakdown of a typical tech support scams. The Hook In order to have the victim call, there must be a method to force the user to call without looking […]
A recent report from TrendMicro/ZDI stated that Apple has ceased development of Apple Quicktime, and has also revealed two critical vulnerabilities under their Zero Day Initiative. These two vulnerabilities are considered “remote code execution” vulnerabilities, which means a miscreant could get the victim to click on a link or visit a website, and can remotely […]