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A computer worm is a standalone malware computer program that replicates itself in order to spread to other computers. It often uses a computer network to spread itself, relying on security failures on the target computer to access it. It will use this machine as a host to scan and infect other computers. When these new worm-invaded computers are controlled, the worm will continue to scan and infect other computers using these computers as hosts, and this behaviour will continue. Computer worms use recursive methods to copy themselves without host programs and distribute themselves based on exploiting the advantages of exponential growth, thus controlling and infecting more and more computers in a short time. Worms almost always cause at least some harm to the network, even if only by consuming bandwidth, whereas viruses almost always corrupt or modify files on a targeted computer.
Malware is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, deprive access to information, or which unknowingly interferes with the user's computer security and privacy. Researchers tend to classify malware into one or more sub-types.
In hacking, a shellcode is a small piece of code used as the payload in the exploitation of a software vulnerability. It is called "shellcode" because it typically starts a command shell from which the attacker can control the compromised machine, but any piece of code that performs a similar task can be called shellcode. Because the function of a payload is not limited to merely spawning a shell, some have suggested that the name shellcode is insufficient. However, attempts at replacing the term have not gained wide acceptance. Shellcode is commonly written in machine code.
In computer security, an attack vector is a specific path, method, or scenario that can be exploited to break into an IT system, thus compromising its security. The term was derived from the corresponding notion of vector in biology. An attack vector may be exploited manually, automatically, or through a combination of manual and automatic activity.
A browser exploit is a form of malicious code that takes advantage of a flaw or vulnerability in an operating system or piece of software with the intent to breach browser security to alter a user's browser settings without their knowledge. Malicious code may exploit ActiveX, HTML, images, Java, JavaScript, and other Web technologies and cause the browser to run arbitrary code.
Ransomware is a type of cryptovirological malware that permanently block access to the victim's personal data unless a ransom is paid. While some simple ransomware may lock the system without damaging any files, more advanced malware uses a technique called cryptoviral extortion. It encrypts the victim's files, making them inaccessible, and demands a ransom payment to decrypt them. In a properly implemented cryptoviral extortion attack, recovering the files without the decryption key is an intractable problem, and difficult to trace digital currencies such as paysafecard or Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are used for the ransoms, making tracing and prosecuting the perpetrators difficult.
Cross-zone scripting is a browser exploit taking advantage of a vulnerability within a zone-based security solution. The attack allows content (scripts) in unprivileged zones to be executed with the permissions of a privileged zone - i.e. a privilege escalation within the client executing the script. The vulnerability could be:
Rogue security software is a form of malicious software and internet fraud that misleads users into believing there is a virus on their computer and aims to convince them to pay for a fake malware removal tool that actually installs malware on their computer. It is a form of scareware that manipulates users through fear, and a form of ransomware. Rogue security software has been a serious security threat in desktop computing since 2008. An early example that gained infamy was SpySheriff and its clones, such as Nava Shield.
Honeypots are security devices whose value lie in being probed and compromised. Traditional honeypots are servers that wait passively to be attacked. Client Honeypots are active security devices in search of malicious servers that attack clients. The client honeypot poses as a client and interacts with the server to examine whether an attack has occurred. Often the focus of client honeypots is on web browsers, but any client that interacts with servers can be part of a client honeypot.
A web threat is any threat that uses the World Wide Web to facilitate cybercrime. Web threats use multiple types of malware and fraud, all of which utilize HTTP or HTTPS protocols, but may also employ other protocols and components, such as links in email or IM, or malware attachments or on servers that access the Web. They benefit cybercriminals by stealing information for subsequent sale and help absorb infected PCs into botnets.
Form grabbing is a form of malware that works by retrieving authorization and log-in credentials from a web data form before it is passed over the Internet to a secure server. This allows the malware to avoid HTTPS encryption. This method is more effective than keylogger software because it will acquire the user’s credentials even if they are input using virtual keyboard, auto-fill, or copy and paste. It can then sort the information based on its variable names, such as email, account name, and password. Additionally, the form grabber will log the URL and title of the website the data was gathered from.
Malvertising is the use of online advertising to spread malware. It typically involves injecting malicious or malware-laden advertisements into legitimate online advertising networks and webpages. Because advertising content can be inserted into high-profile and reputable websites, malvertising provides malefactors an opportunity to push their attacks to web users who might not otherwise see the ads, due to firewalls, more safety precautions, or the like. Malvertising is "attractive to attackers because they 'can be easily spread across a large number of legitimate websites without directly compromising those websites'."
Mobile security, or mobile device security, is the protection of smartphones, tablets, and laptops from threats associated with wireless computing. It has become increasingly important in mobile computing. The security of personal and business information now stored on smartphones is of particular concern.
Cross-site request forgery, also known as one-click attack or session riding and abbreviated as CSRF or XSRF, is a type of malicious exploit of a website or web application where unauthorized commands are submitted from a user that the web application trusts. There are many ways in which a malicious website can transmit such commands; specially-crafted image tags, hidden forms, and JavaScript fetch or XMLHttpRequests, for example, can all work without the user's interaction or even knowledge. Unlike cross-site scripting (XSS), which exploits the trust a user has for a particular site, CSRF exploits the trust that a site has in a user's browser. In a CSRF attack, an innocent end user is tricked by an attacker into submitting a web request that they did not intend. This may cause actions to be performed on the website that can include inadvertent client or server data leakage, change of session state, or manipulation of an end user's account.
Browser security is the application of Internet security to web browsers in order to protect networked data and computer systems from breaches of privacy or malware. Security exploits of browsers often use JavaScript, sometimes with cross-site scripting (XSS) with a secondary payload using Adobe Flash. Security exploits can also take advantage of vulnerabilities that are commonly exploited in all browsers.
The Blackhole exploit kit was, as of 2012, the most prevalent web threat, where 29% of all web threats detected by Sophos and 91% by AVG are due to this exploit kit. Its purpose is to deliver a malicious payload to a victim's computer. According to Trend Micro the majority of infections due to this exploit kit were done in a series of high volume spam runs. The kit incorporates tracking mechanisms so that people maintaining the kit know considerable information about the victims arriving at the kit's landing page. The information tracked includes the victim's country, operating system, browser and which piece of software on the victim's computer was exploited. These details are shown in the kit's user interface.
The Java platform provides a number of features designed for improving the security of Java applications. This includes enforcing runtime constraints through the use of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), a security manager that sandboxes untrusted code from the rest of the operating system, and a suite of security APIs that Java developers can utilise. Despite this, criticism has been directed at the programming language, and Oracle, due to an increase in malicious programs that revealed security vulnerabilities in the JVM, which were subsequently not properly addressed by Oracle in a timely manner.
Locky is ransomware malware released in 2016. It is delivered by email with an attached Microsoft Word document that contains malicious macros. When the user opens the document, it appears to be full of gibberish, and includes the phrase "Enable macro if data encoding is incorrect," a social engineering technique. If the user does enable macros, they save and run a binary file that downloads the actual encryption Trojan, which will encrypt all files that match particular extensions. Filenames are converted to a unique 16 letter and number combination. Initially, only the .locky file extension was used for these encrypted files. Subsequently, other file extensions have been used, including .zepto, .odin, .aesir, .thor, and .zzzzz. After encryption, a message instructs them to download the Tor browser and visit a specific criminal-operated Web site for further information.
The Zealot Campaign is a cryptocurrency mining malware collected from a series of stolen National Security Agency (NSA) exploits, released by the Shadow Brokers group on both Windows and Linux machines to mine cryptocurrency, specifically Monero. Discovered in December 2017, these exploits appeared in the Zealot suite include EternalBlue, EternalSynergy, and Apache Struts Jakarta Multipart Parser attack exploit, or CVE-2017-5638. The other notable exploit within the Zealot vulnerabilities includes vulnerability CVE-2017-9822, known as DotNetNuke (DNN) which exploits a content management system so that the user can install a Monero miner software. An estimated USD $8,500 of Monero having been mined on a single targeted computer. The campaign was discovered and studied extensively by F5 Networks in December 2017.
A Highly Evasive Adaptive Threat (HEAT) is a cybersecurity attack type designed to bypass traditional network security defenses.:. HEAT attacks are designed to find ways around protections that have been in place for years. HEAT attacks are able to bypass typical cybersecurity controls like Secure Web Gateways (SWG) and anti-malware capabilities through malicious links disguised as common URLs that victims assume to be safe. HEAT attacks go beyond traditional phishing methods, which have historically been launched by way of email, by inserting themselves into links that are not flagged by anti-phishing software. Similar to most cybersecurity threats, the drivers of HEAT attacks are primarily monetary and political. HEAT attacks focus on technical limitations of commonly deployed security tools with the primary target being web browsers. Nation-states and cybercriminals typically use HEAT attacks for phishing attempts or ransomware initial access.
References
- ↑ Sood, Aditya K.; Zeadally, Sherali (1 September 2016). "Drive-By Download Attacks: A Comparative Study". IT Professional. 18 (5): 18–25. doi:10.1109/MITP.2016.85. ISSN 1520-9202. S2CID 27808214.
- ↑ Olsen, Stefanie (8 April 2002). "Web surfers brace for pop-up downloads". CNET News. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Le, Van Lam; Welch, Ian; Gao, Xiaoying; Komisarczuk, Peter (1 January 2013). Anatomy of Drive-by Download Attack. AISC '13. Darlinghurst, Australia, Australia: Australian Computer Society, Inc. pp. 49–58. ISBN 9781921770234.
{{cite book}}:|journal=ignored (help) - 1 2 3 4 Egele, Manuel; Kirda, Engin; Kruegel, Christopher (1 January 2009). "Mitigating Drive-By Download Attacks: Challenges and Open Problems". INetSec 2009 – Open Research Problems in Network Security. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology. Vol. 309. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. pp. 52–62. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-05437-2_5. ISBN 978-3-642-05436-5.
- ↑ Phillips, Gavin (14 January 2021). "What Is a Drive-by Download Malware Attack?" . Retrieved 4 January 2022.
- ↑ Rieck, Konrad; Krueger, Tammo; Dewald, Andreas (6 December 2010). "Cujo: Efficient detection and prevention of drive-by-download attacks". Proceedings of the 26th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference. New York, NY, USA: ACM. pp. 31–39. doi:10.1145/1920261.1920267. ISBN 9781450301336. S2CID 8512207.
