Fortinet, a high-performance network security provider has announced the findings of its FortiGuard threat landscape research for the period of January 1 − July 31, 2013. Mobile Malware on the Rise FortiGuard Labs observed a 30% increase in mobile malware in the labs over the last six months. The team is now seeing more than 1,300 new samples per day, is currently tracking over 300 unique Android malware families and over 250,000 unique malicious Android samples.
Bring Your Own Trouble
The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomenon has many benefits for a business, chief among them are increased employee efficiency and productivity gains. However, the disadvantage of a lenient BYOD policy is the threat of mobile malware infecting the user’s device and, subsequently, the business network.
“Three years ago, mobile malware wasn’t much of a concern for users or businesses. Most malware at the time targeting smartphones and tablets were nothing more than annoyware such as the Cabir virus or scam software used to commit SMS fraud or replace icons,” said Axelle Apvrille, Senior Mobile Anti-virus Researcher, FortiGuard Labs, Fortinet.
“However, as devices have proliferated, so, too, have cybercriminals eager to capitalize on the growing user base, and our research shows the proliferation of mobile malware will not abate anytime soon,” added Apvrille.
Symbian Started it All
In 2009, the majority of mobile malware in existence targeted the Symbian OS, as iOS and Android were still relatively new in the marketplace. In addition, a large number of the malware was coded by programmers in Eastern Europe and China, places where Symbian commanded a large share of the user base.
2013 Changed the Mobile Threat Landscape
In 2013, the mobile threat landscape changed dramatically. Wide scale manufacturer adoption of Google’s Android OS globally has led to an explosion of smartphones in the marketplace. Android devices are available in every market, at price levels from the incredibly inexpensive to feature-rich, cutting edge computing monsters. Coupled with the explosion of available applications to extend device functionality, cybercriminals and other nefarious types have used this platform as a new business opportunity.
Mobile Ransomware Has its Coming Out
In 2012, FortiGuard predicted that the financially lucrative ransomware would make its way onto mobile phones.
“Ransomware has been incredibly successful financially for cybercriminals, it’s no surprise they’ve turned their attention to mobile devices,” said Richard Henderson, Security Strategist, FortiGuard
Labs, Fortinet.
“The Fake Defender malware for Android follows the same M.O. as PC fake antivirus software – it pretends to be altruistic, but in reality, it lies in wait to launch its true form. This malware then locks the victim’s phone and demands payment before unlocking the device. Once the phone is locked, the victim can either pay the ransom or completely erase their device, losing all their photos and data unless they have a full backup elsewhere,” added Henderson.
New Attacks on Old Vulnerabilities
Even though we’ve seen recent patches for Ruby on Rails, Java, Adobe Acrobat and Apache, FortiGuard Labs is finding attackers are still exploiting those old vulnerabilities.
Ruby on Rails
In January, it was announced that a critical vulnerability in the Ruby on Rails Framework could allow a remote attacker to execute code on the underlying Web server.
Ruby on Rails (RoR) is a web application framework for the Ruby programming language. Put simply, it allows for rapid, easy and elegant deployment of “Web 2.0” websites. RoR is a popular framework: hundreds of thousands of Websites online use RoR in some fashion. Further adding to the problem, a Metasploit module was made available to scan for the vulnerability, making the ability to find a web server to exploit a trivial matter.
“The exploit involved a flaw in the XML processor deserialization routine, which is used to create Ruby objects on the fly,” said Henderson. “RoR was patched to correct the flaw, but four months later it was discovered that an attacker or attackers was searching for and exploiting, unpatched Web servers in order to infect them with software.”
Java Remote Code Execution
In January, a zero-day exploit that was able to bypass Java’s sandbox and run arbitrary Java code was discovered. Java is a ubiquitous technology online – most computers have some form of Java installed and enabled. The vulnerability allowed a malicious applet to run any Java program, bypassing Java’s sandbox and granting full access to the vulnerable computer.