ESET Threat Blog

After having used the Google Chrome internet browser for a while now, I can say that it is generally a pretty nice browser, but I have some very serious privacy concerns.
When you open a new tab in Chrome, it displays pictures from websites you have visited. This means that if someone is sitting next to … Read More…

You may have noticed that we have an intense interest in issues around sample-sharing and testing. Recently we noticed a thread in a forum associated with a free security product, originating in an open letter to a well-known tester, asking him to donate his sample set for the improvement of the product.
You might think that … Read More…

Packing technology is really just compression. You know, ZIP, CAB, RAR, and so on. There are many types of packers and some people even write their own. The way a packer compresses the file is called an algorithm. There are many different algorithms and unless you know what one was used, or have a tool … Read More…

As stated previously by Randy, a new vulnerability affecting the Windows operating system from Microsoft has recently been discovered and has been patched Yesterday by an out of cycle patch.  This vulnerability has been exploited by attackers to install a trojan horse on victim computers.  The name of this trojan is Gimmiv.A.  This blog post … Read More…

Typically, Microsoft releases patches (security fixes) on the second Tuesday of each month. This day is affectionately called “Patch Tuesday” by many. On very rare occasions when there is a particularly severe vulnerability Microsoft will release a patch as soon as possible.
Yesterday (October 23rd, 2008) Microsoft made a rare exception and released an “out of … Read More…

From time to time we are asked to provide samples or malicious URLs to individuals and groups who are not in the full-time testing business. We do, of course, share such material with other actors in the security industry who are within our web of trust, but are not usually able to honor requests from … Read More…

For the last couple of weeks, we are seeing a wave of malicious PDFs crafted to exploit security flaws in PDF reader software.  For the last two weeks alone, we have detected more than 25 000 attacks involving this type of file.  Attackers are exploiting two different vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat Reader to execute arbitrary … Read More…

…and for once we’re not one of the vendors getting hammered.
Secunia, a Danish company that sends out security notifications, has announced that it has tested a dozen security suites. Interestingly, Secunia used a number of exploits developed in-house for analysing vulnerabilities rather than the sort of malware sample based testing that we’re more used to … Read More…

I don’t suppose you thought they did. But just to prove that scammers have no compunction about using people’s understandable fears about the current financial crisis as a means of stealing from them, here’s a short extract from a fairly typical example of a current wave of fraudulent emails.
"Subject: New campaign against financial markets collapse
 Due … Read More…

Memetic malware, in case you haven’t heard me ranting on the subject before, is a pseudo-technical term applied by some to hoaxes, semi-hoaxes, urban legends and so on, especially when spread via email and other Internet services.
The adjective memetic derives from the coining by Richard Dawkins of the noun meme, which he described in … Read More…