Skip to main content

The Big Bad Worm of 2009 - Conficker

Been hearing about this worm since November 2008. The researchers have found that it may have a payload that it may unleash today. Not sure how bad it could be, depending on all those un-patched machines out there in the wild.

So what does it do.... It has a very interesting payload and we have already seen more than 4 variants. Interestingly it looks like they let version A and B to check on how the community is going to respond. The cabal to counter its domain generation algorithm got a new lease and a new algorithm in the C version and also contains a p2p communication mechanism. The other part is how a digital signatures can be used effectively to control the compromised host. This is important to protect other bot commanders to take over the already compromised Conficker bots.

Network traces have not yielded much, but looks like it is a widely distributed system which has already started pushing the latest DLL updates across to the already compromised machines. Lets look at the changes we may perceive from the new variant today. The variant is supposed to have a payload that is activated on April 1st.

An interesting and well researched article on the conficker C variant

http://mtc.sri.com/Conficker/addendumC/
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Shifting Landscape of Knowledge and the Nobel Prize

Our recent conversation sparked some interesting thoughts about the prestigious Nobel Prize and the distribution of its recipients across the globe. Inspired by a user's search history, we delved into the fascinating patterns and potential implications of who gets recognized for groundbreaking achievements. The initial point of discussion centered on the user's search activity, which revealed an interest in various scientific and technological topics, as well as a specific search for "Nobel Prize winners by country." This led us to explore the geographical distribution of Nobel laureates, and a question arose: why does it seem that certain schools and countries, particularly in the West, have a higher representation? We considered several factors that might contribute to this observation: Historical Dominance in Science: Historically, Western nations have often been at the forefront of scientific research due to earlier investments and established infrastructure. V...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Curriculum for a typical Advanced Course in Cybersecurity - Part II

  Weekend 1 Introduction to Cybersecurity What is cybersecurity? The history of cybersecurity The different types of cyberattacks The importance of cybersecurity Risk Management What is risk management? The different types of risks How to identify and assess risks How to mitigate risks Threat Intelligence What is threat intelligence? How to gather threat intelligence How to use threat intelligence to protect your organization Vulnerability Management What is vulnerability management? How to identify vulnerabilities How to prioritize vulnerabilities How to remediate vulnerabilities Weekend 2 Penetration Testing What is penetration testing? The different types of penetration tests How to plan and execute a penetration test How to report the results of a penetration test Incident Response What is incident response? The different phases of incident response How to plan and execute an incident response plan How to communicate during an incident Forensics What is forensics? The different...
Post a Comment
Read more

Where are we headed ... A crystal ball into Cybersecurity in the next five years .. Are we ready?

  The future of Cyber Security: Trends and Predictions for the Next 5 years The field of cybersecurity is constantly evolving, and the threats are only getting more sophisticated. In the next five years, we can expect to see a number of trends emerge in the field of cybersecurity, including: The rise of artificial intelligence (AI). AI is already being used by cybercriminals to develop more sophisticated and targeted attacks. As AI continues to develop, it is likely that cybercriminals will be able to use it to even greater effect. The increasing use of cloud computing. Cloud computing has many benefits, but it also introduces new security challenges. Cloud-based data is often more vulnerable to attack than data that is stored on-premises. The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT is connecting billions of devices to the internet, which creates a vast new attack surface for cybercriminals. IoT devices are often poorly secured, making them easy targets for attack. The shor...
Post a Comment
Read more