Tag Archives: McAfee Labs

Emerging ‘Stack Pivoting’ Exploits Bypass Common Security

[This blog was primarily written by Xiaoning Li of Intel Labs, with assistance from Peter Szor of McAfee Labs.] In February 2013, the Adobe Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) released security advisory APSA13-02. In that report they listed two vulnerabilities (CVE-2013-0640 and CVE-2013-0641) that were widely exploited. At Intel Labs and McAfee Labs we Read more…

Tracking PDF Usage Poses a Security Problem

Looking back this year’s RSA Conference, you might have the feeling that the current threat landscape is primarily a series of advanced attacks. This concept includes well-known advanced persistent threats (APTs) and zero-day vulnerability exploits. To respond to this trend in threats, McAfee Labs has launched several innovative projects, one of which we call the Read more…

Travnet Botnet Steals Huge Amount of Sensitive Data

In a McAfee Labs blog by my colleague Vikas Taneja last month, he discussed high-level functioning in the malware Travnet. Since then we have continued to analyze different samples and now classify Travnet as a botnet rather than a Trojan because of the presence of control code, and the malware’s ability to wait for further Read more…

Cybercriminals Exploit News of Boston Marathon Bombing, Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion

McAfee Labs Messaging Security recently observed a spam campaign based on the Boston Marathon bombing and the Texas fertilizer plant explosion. The messages take advantage of our interest in these tragic events to lure victims to malware and exploits. Last week my colleague Paras Gupta blogged about the use of the Black Hole exploit kit Read more…

Blackhole Exploit Kit Spam Campaigns Disguised as Top Service Brands

Spam campaigns based on the Blackhole Exploit Kit send messages that contain links to compromised legitimate websites, which serve hidden iframes and redirections that exploit vulnerabilities across operating systems–from Android to Windows. Spam themes we have seen vary rapidly and are disguised to appear as legitimate messages from familiar services. Campaigns spoofing Facebook, LinkedIn, American Read more…

Blackhole Exploit Kit Spam Campaigns Disguised as Top Service Brands

Spam campaigns based on the Blackhole Exploit Kit send messages that contain links to compromised legitimate websites, which serve hidden iframes and redirections that exploit vulnerabilities across operating systems–from Android to Windows. Spam themes we have seen vary rapidly and are disguised to appear as legitimate messages from familiar services. Campaigns spoofing Facebook, LinkedIn, American Read more…

Fake Vertu App Infects Korean and Japanese Android Users

A new threat has surfaced targeting users in Korea and Japan, but this attack, unlike others making the news, is not one motivated by political or ideological dogma. Instead, this one is based purely on old-fashioned greed. Vertu phone owners or those looking for a localized Vertu theme in Korean or Japanese for an Android Read more…

One-Click Fraud Variant on Google Play in Japan Steals User Data

Last week McAfee Labs reported a series of “one-click fraud” malware on Google Play in Japan. We have been monitoring this fraudulent activity and have found more than 120 additional variants on Google Play since the previous report. The malicious developers upload five or six applications per account using three to five accounts every night, Read more…

Turkish ‘Delete Virus’ Targets Facebook Users

Facebook continues to be a favorite target for attackers to spread fake wall-post messages or fake scams. Most of the time these fake messages are involved in fake scams that ask users to respond to surveys. Recently, I discovered a Facebook wall post with a malicious website address that was unknowingly shared by a friend. Read more…

Tibetan Activists Targeted with More Android Malware

Following the recent discovery of Android/Chuli.A, yet another Android malware has now been found using the same method as Chuli.A: via forged email messages with the Android malware (APK file) as an attachment. However, instead of creating a standalone malicious application that shows a fake invitation about an upcoming congress, this time the attackers compromised Read more…