Spybot - Search & Destroy v 1.5

Spybot - Search & Destroy v 1.5 has been released.
It has quite a lot of advantages over version 1.4 such as improved compatibility, more effective detections and new functions.

This new version features a lot of improved detection mechanisms:

Improved Immunization:

New configuration for IE plugin:

New confirmation dialogs for IE plugin:

System support

• Restored Win95 compatibility
• Improved Wine compatibility
• Fixed HyperThreading issues
• Improved 64 bit immunization
• Create Portable.ini in main folder to use app folder as data folder as well
• New warnings about missing admin rights on Windows Vista
• Support for multi-line bookmarks (IE 7 / Vista)
• New Immunization for Firefox & Mozilla
• Improved Immunization for Opera

Reports

• Added version info to bug report
• Include Errors.log now includes timestamps
• Improved Windows version display

Misc

• "Single excludes" now include filenames to be more unique
• Improved settings retrieval from registry (mixed installations)
• Fixed .reg import bugs
• Added support for automated removal of F/Ps from host lists
• Changed update UserAgent and Referrer
• Improved (Vista-compatible) support for fast user switching
• Updater now in separate executable file
• Vista manifests for assigning required rights to each application
• Deactivated list of active ports per process for Vista (incompatible)
• Fixed support for handle list on 64 bit systems
• Improved disabling/enabling BHOs
• New special error reporting for beta versions
• Support for Windows Error Reporting for public versions
• Fixed update-related crashes on Vista
• Fixed memory leaks (replaced Indy with Synapse)
• Vista-compatible MSI installer for those who like/need that
• Support for alpha tests on services and domains lists
• Added hundreds of new automated tests of internal functionality for prerelease QA
• Added TeaTimer hide icon (disabled) registry value in installer

Detection and removal of threats

• Improved PE detection all over the place
• New 64 bit detection all over the place
• Improved file removal methods
• Added optional custom RecoveryDir setting in Default.ini
• Automatic guessing of "Download Dir" folders
• Added support for renaming services before stopping/killing/deleting them
• Improved plugin support (example: current TCP/IP Plugin)
• Support for regular expressions nearly all over the SBI interface
• Much improved logic connections between files, registry and API detections (others would invent a new TLA for that *g*)
• Speed-ups through improved caches
• File version checking
• Authenticode checking
• Improved archives checking
• Faster fulltext checking
• Improved Sys Internals file location algo
• Improved hosts file location algo
• Added some more Opera 9 detection schemes

User interface changes

• Fixed "show more information" panels
• Implemented workarounds for misarranged buttons (including TeaTimer)
• Improved support for /allhives in tools section (inactive installation support)
• Fixed flag shown on shortcut bar after changes
• Fixed IE proxy import in wizard
• Changed "use proxy" button to checkbox
• Improved localization on simple dialogs
• Added option to add a proxy inside app if running on Win PE
• Improved localization of list of updates
• Added Firefox icon on Cookie exclude page
• Fixed bad keyboard handling on some exclude lists
• Fixed cookie removal selection problems
• New confirmation dialog for system restore points
• Changed default font to Tahoma
• Red cross (trademarked) replaced with green cross
• Made "Check" option unavailable during fix
• Process list now is a bit less eager on tooltips
• Improved "delay start" dialogs
• Now displays checksum for each result for better trackback of results
• Fixed "Ignore Products" column width problems on Vista
• Improved localization of product descriptions
• Adjusted wizard for new situation (external updater etc.)
• Fixed Tools snapshot comparison highlighting
• Made display of registry changes in results list less confusing
• Improved SDHelper dialogs and block/allow choices
• Update date format on info page now localized
• Displayed app version is now four digits (e.g. 1.5.1.12)
• (De+)Select all in list of old reports
• Improved Warning/Confirmation dialog IE plugin
• Configuration & Information dialog in IE plugin

You can download Spybot - Search & Destroy v 1.5 from here:
http://www.safer-networking.org

Spybot-S&D is the result of quite a lot of work from a team of volunteers. In spite of that Spybot-S&D is being kept free.

If you feel that the program has been helpful to you, please donate to their cause here:
http://www.safer-networking.org

Mass web infection

Security maven Mary Landesman is in the midst of piecing together a who-done-it involving the infection of hundreds of websites that are generating an enormous amount of traffic. Or maybe it's a how-done-it. Either way, she's mostly drawing blanks.

Landesman is a researcher for ScanSafe, a company that monitors the web surfing of employees at large companies and provides them with real-time intelligence about what sites are spreading malware. When a client visits a site that has already attacked someone else, the service automatically blocks the site from loading in the end user's browser. Viewing some seven billion web requests per month, company researchers see a fair amount of internet gremlins.

Over the past four days, 15 per cent of the blocked malicious traffic has come from just a few hundred sites, which appear to be legitimate ecommerce destinations that have been compromised by attackers. This prompted Landesman to do some digging, and what she uncovered is unlike anything she's seen before.

For one thing, the sites themselves are hosting the malware, which is then foisted on visitors. Most of the time attackers are unable to gain such a high degree of control over the sites they hack, so they redirect end users to servers under the control of bad guys and use them to drop malicious payloads.

"I'm stumped," Landesman says. "This is a very different method of infecting the user. I want to find out how they're doing it and what is the common link between these sites."

So far, Landesman and other researchers have found no visible thread that ties the disparate group of mom-and-pop sites together. With addresses such as dubai.travel-culture.com, operationultimategoal.com and directline-citybreaks.co.uk, the sites are mostly based in the UK, but some also hail from India, Brazil and elsewhere. They don't use the same web host, and while most use web serving software from Apache, the versions vary widely, making it unlikely that attackers are exploiting a vulnerability in that program.

The outbreak coincides with another mass infection in progress that's infected tens of thousands of pages, including those of Boston University, security provider Computer Associates, and agencies from the state of Virginia and the city of Cleveland. It infects websites running Microsoft's Internet Information Server web program and the company's SQL database with links the redirect users to servers in China. The malicious sites then try to install keylogging software and other nasties.

As massive as that infection is, it's responsible for less than one per cent of the malicious traffic that ScanSafe has blocked over the past four days, a small fraction compared with the mystery sites Landesman is tracking.

The sites exhibit other intriguing characteristics. They attempt to infect visitors with a javascript file with a randomly generated name that changes each time a person visits the site. Accessing paddingtoncourt.com, for example, (we don't recommend readers try this) might result in the insertion of a script referencing a file titled xxxxx.js, which is dynamically created at paddingtoncourt.com/xxxxx.js. A different visitor might encounter a file titled yyyyy.js served from paddingtoncourt.com/yyyyy.js.

The constant flux makes it impossible for researchers to access the script responsible for delivering the payload or running Google searches that might provide a more comprehensive list of other sites that might be affected.

The script looks for various vulnerabilities specific to the visiting OS, and when it finds one pulls a .Mov file from the domain dedicated.abac.net. That in turn invokes a file from bds.invitations.fr, which installs a backdoor on end users' machines. Victims are unlikely to know they've been infected because the installation is clear and seamless, and the malware uses few PC resources. At last check, only three of 33 antivirus programs detected the malware, which appears to be a derivitive of the Rbot Trojan.

"This is pretty nasty," Landesman says. "It's a new type of compromise, and a pretty significant one." And so far very little is understood about it.

Source:
Dan Goodin
The Register

Browser Vulnerabilities and Botnets head threat list

Security experts have looked into the crystal ball to predict the cyber attacks most likely to cause substantial damage this year.

The resulting list (below), drawn together by 12 security experts under the auspices of the SANS Institute, is based on an analysis of emerging attack patterns. Two of the resulting predictions - malware on consumer devices and web application security exploits - have already come true in the early days of 2008, evidence that that the run down is closer to the mark than other security predictions.

As is often the case browser exploit came out as the top threat in the run down but the risk is evolving. Web site attacks have migrated from simple exploits to more sophisticated attacks based on scripts that cycle through multiple exploits to yet more sophisticated attacks featuring packaged modules. One of the latest such modules, mpack, produces a claimed 10-25 per cent success rate in infecting surfers.

Attackers are actively placing exploit code on popular, trusted web sites where users have an expectation of security. Placing better attack tools on trusted sites is giving attackers a huge advantage over the unwary public. Meanwhile attackers have broadened the scope of the vulnerabilities they target to encompass components, such as Flash and QuickTime, that are not automatically patched when the browser is patched.

Evolution in existing threats - including stealthier botnet control techniques and more subtle social engineering approaches in phishing attacks - is a theme that runs through the whole list.

1. Increasingly sophisticated website attacks that exploit browser vulnerabilities - especially on trusted websites.
2. Increasing sophistication and effectiveness in botnets
3. Cyber espionage efforts by well resourced organisations looking to extract large amounts of data – particularly using targeted phishing.
4. An increase in mobile phone threats, especially against iPhones and Android-based phones.
5. Insider attacks
6. Advanced identity theft from persistent bots. Malicious agents that stay on compromised machines for months will be able to gather enough data to enable extortion attempts (against people who surf child porn sites, for example) and advanced identify theft attempts where criminals have enough data to pass basic security checks.
7. Increasingly malicious spyware
8. Web application security exploits
9. Increasingly sophisticated social engineering including blending phishing with VoIP and event phishing. For example, a blended attack may include an inbound email, apparently being sent by a credit card company, asks recipients to "re-authorise" their credit cards by calling a 1-800 number. The number leads them (via VoIP) to an automated system in a foreign country that, quite convincingly, asks that they key in their credit card number, CVV, and expiration date.
10. Supply chain attacks infecting consumer devices (USB thumb drives, GPS systems, photo frames, etc.) Retail outlets are increasingly becoming unwitting distributors of malware-infected devices, the experts warns.

The list will be formally launched at the SANS Security 2008 conference in New Orleans later on Monday (14 January).

Source:
John Leyden
The Register