Report: Trojans Continue To Dominate Malware Threat Landscape
GFI Software recently announced the top 10 most prevalent malware threats for the month of November. The report, compiled from monthly scans performed by GFI's anti-malware solution, VIPRE Antivirus, and its antispyware tool, CounterSpy, is a service of GFI Labs.
As in recent months, Trojans dominated the threat landscape in November. ThreatNet data revealed that seven of the top 10 malware threats were classified as Trojans. The number-one detection, Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT, is a Trojan comprising over 20 percent of the ThreatNet detections.
“There is another picture in the top-10 numbers,” said Tom Kelchner, GFI Software communications and research analyst. “Three of them go after applications or server software that hasn’t been patched. The number six detection, Exploit.PDF-JS.Gen (v), tries to exploit a security flaw in PDF files with embedded JavaScript. That’s aiming at Adobe products. It often installs downloaders that pull down other malware from remote Web sites.”
Worm.Win32.Downad.Gen (v,) the Downadup worm (also called Conficker and Kido) in the number seven spot, is a worm that spreads across a network by taking advantage of a vulnerability in Windows Server service which allows remote code execution when file sharing is enabled. This vulnerability was patched some time ago.
Trojan.ASF.Wimad (v), in the number nine spot, is a VIPRE detection for a group of Trojanized Windows media files that exploit an old vulnerability in Windows Media Player. It redirects the victim’s browser to a web site to download malicious files. This is also is an old vulnerability that’s been fixed.
“If this malcode is still circulating, it means that the malcode writers are seeing a landscape with lots of unpatched and vulnerable machines. The conclusion is pretty clear for both enterprises and consumers: update Windows operating systems (including servers), browsers, Adobe products and media players and keep them updated,” said Kelchner.
Top 10 detections for November
Detection Type Percent
1. Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT Trojan 22.44
2. Trojan-Spy.Win32.Zbot.gen Trojan 3.88
3. Trojan.Win32.Generic.pak!cobra Trojan 3.53
4. Trojan.Win32.Generic!SB.0 Trojan 3.46
5. INF.Autorun (v) Trojan 1.83
6. Exploit.PDF-JS.Gen (v) Exploit 1.45
7. Worm.Win32.Downad.Gen (v) Worm.W32 1.42
8. Trojan.Win32.Malware.a Trojan 0.83
9. Trojan.ASF.Wimad (v) Trojan 0.76
10. Trojan.Win32.Meredrop Trojan Downloader 0.68