Abstract: Taking a zero-configuration approach, a domain name discovery system utilizes, in an iterative process, WHOIS data and infrastructure data for a seed domain to automatically discover domain names having registration and/or infrastructure details that match those of the seed domain. Registration information such as a registered email address associated with a domain name discovered through WHOIS data matching or infrastructure data matching is utilized in a reverse lookup for domain names having infrastructure or WHOIS registered information that fully matches the information associated with the domain name discovered through the iterative process. Domain names discovered through WHOIS data matching, infrastructure data matching, and reverse lookup can be presented through a user interface on a client device communicatively connected to the domain name discovery system over a network. The domain name discovery can be performed periodically or in near real time responsive to receiving a new seed domain.

Abstract: A threat actor identification system that obtains domain data for a set of domains, generates domain clusters, determines whether the domain clusters are associated with threat actors, and presents domain data for the clusters that are associated with threat actors to brand owners that are associated with the threat actors. The clusters may be generated based on similarities in web page content, domain registration information, and/or domain infrastructure information. For each cluster, a clustering engine determines whether the cluster is associated with a threat actor, and for clusters that are associated with threat actors, corresponding domain information is stored for presentation to brand owners to whom the threat actor poses a threat.

Abstract: A method of detecting malware in a specimen of computer content or network traffic is described. The method features conducting a first analysis on the specimen in accordance with a first plurality of analyses and an order of the first plurality of analyses. A second analysis is conducted on the specimen different than the first analysis type. Thereafter, further analyses on the specimen may be altered by modifying information associated with the first plurality of analyses or the order of the first plurality of analyses in response to feedback information based on results from at least the first analysis. The modified information changes a malware analysis of the specimen from being conducted in accordance with the first plurality of analyses to being conducted in accordance with a second plurality of analyses different in analysis type or in order of analyses than the first plurality of analyses.

Abstract: Disclosed is an effective domain name defense solution in which a domain name string may be provided to or obtained by a computer embodying a visual domain analyzer. The domain name string may be rendered or otherwise converted to an image. An optical character recognition function may be applied to the image to read out a text string which can then be compared with a protected domain name to determine whether the text string generated by the optical character recognition function from the image converted from the domain name string is similar to or matches the protected domain name. This visual domain analysis can be dynamically applied in an online process or proactively applied in an offline process to hundreds of millions of domain names.

Abstract: Disclosed is a domain engineering analysis solution that determines relevance of a domain name to a brand name in which a domain name, brand name, and identification of a substring of the domain name may be provided to or obtained by a computer embodying a domain engineering analyzer. A list of features may be determined. The list of features may include a lexicon, or a set of key-value pairs that encode information about terms included as substrings in the domain name. Determining the features may include obtaining a language model for each term, analyzing a cluster of language models closest to the obtained language model, and determining and scoring a relevance of each term to the brand name. The determined relevance and score of each term may be provided to a client. This relevance analysis can be dynamically applied in an online process or proactively applied in an offline process.

Abstract: A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions when executable by a processor perform operations including responsive to receiving an email including a URL, conducting an analysis of the email including: (i) analyzing a header and a body, and (ii) analyzing the URL; analyzing contents of a web page directed to by the URL; generating a score indicating a level of confidence the email is associated with a phishing attack based on at least one of the analysis of the email or the analysis of the contents of the web page; and responsive to the score being below a threshold, virtually processing the web page to determine whether the web page is associated with the phishing attack is shown.

Abstract: According to one embodiment, a system of detecting malware in a specimen of computer content or network traffic comprises a processor and a memory. The memory includes a first analysis logic and a second analysis logic that may be executed by the processor. Upon execution, the first analysis logic performs a static analysis in accordance with an analysis plan to identify one or more suspicious indicators associated with malware and one or more characteristics related to processing of the specimen. The second analysis logic performs a second analysis in accordance with the analysis plan by processing of the specimen in a virtual machine and monitoring for one or more unexpected behaviors during virtual processing of the specimen in the virtual machine. The analysis plan may be altered based on the results of one of the analyzes.

Abstract: Disclosed is a domain filter capable of determining an n-gram distance between a seed domain and each of a plurality of candidate domains. The domain filter loads a seed domain n-gram for the seed domain and a candidate domain n-gram for each candidate domain in memory, compares the seed domain n-gram and the candidate domain n-gram to identify any identical grams, removes any identical grams from the seed domain n-gram, and determines how many grams are left in the seed domain n-gram, representing the n-gram distance between the seed domain and the candidate domain. The domain filter then compares n-gram distances thus determined with a predetermined threshold, eliminates any candidate domain having an n-gram distance from the seed domain that exceeds the predetermined threshold, and provides remaining candidate domains to a downstream computing facility such as a user interface or an analytical module operating in an enterprise computing environment.

Abstract: According to one embodiment, an apparatus comprises a first analysis engine and a second analysis engine. The first analysis engine analyzes an object to determine if the object is malicious. The second analysis engine is configured to (i) receive results of the analysis of the object from the first analysis engine and (ii) analyze, based at least in part on the analysis by the first analysis engine, whether the object is malicious in accordance with a predictive model. Responsive to the first analysis engine and the second analysis engine differing in determinations as to whether the object is malicious, information associated with an analysis of the object by at least one of the first analysis engine and the second analysis engine is uploaded for determining whether an update of the predictive model is to occur. An update of the predictive model is subsequently received by the classification engine.

Abstract: A computerized method for classifying objects in a malware system is described. The method includes detecting behaviors of an object for classification after processing of the object has begun. Data associated with the detected behaviors is collected, and a fuzzy hash for the received object is generated. The generation of the fuzzy hash may include (i) removing a portion of the data associated with the detected behaviors, and (ii) performing a hash operation on a remaining portion of the data associated with the detected behaviors. Thereafter, the fuzzy hash for the received object is compared to a fuzzy hash of an object in a preexisting cluster to generate a similarity measure. The received object is associated with the preexisting cluster in response to determining that the similarity measure is above a predefined threshold value. Thereafter, the results are reported.

Abstract: A computerized method for classifying objects in a malware system is described. The method includes detecting behaviors of an object for classification after processing of the object has begun. Data associated with the detected behaviors is collected, and a fuzzy hash for the received object is generated. The generation of the fuzzy hash may include (i) removing a portion of the data associated with the detected behaviors, and (ii) performing a hash operation on a remaining portion of the data associated with the detected behaviors. Thereafter, the fuzzy hash for the received object is compared to a fuzzy hash of an object in a preexisting cluster to generate a similarity measure. The received object is associated with the preexisting cluster in response to determining that the similarity measure is above a predefined threshold value. Thereafter, the results are reported.

Abstract: Techniques for malware detection are described. Herein, a system, which detects malware in a received specimen, comprises a processor and a memory. Communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory comprises a controller that controls analysis of the specimen for malware in accordance with an analysis plan. The memory further comprises (a) a static analysis module that performs at least a first static analysis to identify a suspicious indicator of malware and at least partially determine that the specimen includes a packed object; (b) an emulation analysis module that emulates operations associated with processing of the specimen by a software application or library, including unpacking an object of the specimen when the specimen is determined by the static analysis module to include the packed object, and monitors one or more behaviors of the specimen during the emulated operations; and a classifier that determines whether the specimen should be classified as malicious.

Abstract: According to one embodiment, an apparatus comprises a detection engine and a classification engine. The detection engine is responsible for analyzing an object to determine if the object is malicious. The classification engine is configured to (i) receive results of the analysis of the object conducted by the detection engine and (ii) analyze, based at least in part on the results from the detection engine, whether the object is malicious in accordance with a predictive model. Responsive to the detection engine and the classification engine differing in determinations as to whether the object is malicious, information associated with at least a portion of the results of the analysis of the object by at least one of the detection engine and the classification engine is uploaded for determining whether an update of the predictive model is to occur. An update of the predictive model is subsequently received by the classification engine.

Abstract: A system and computer based method are provided for identifying active content in websites on a network. In one aspects, a method for classifying web content includes determining a first property associated with static content of a web page, determining a second property associated with the content of the web page based at least in part on active content associated with the web page, evaluating a logical expression relating the first property and the second property, at least in part by evaluating whether a constant value matches at least a portion of the content of the web page, associating the web page with a category based on a result of the evaluation, and determining whether to allow network access to the web page based on the category.

Abstract: A computerized method for classifying objects in a malware system is described. The method includes detecting behaviors of an object for classification after processing of the object has begun. Data associated with the detected behaviors is collected, and a fuzzy hash for the received object is generated. The generation of the fuzzy hash may include (i) removing a portion of the data associated with the detected behaviors, and (ii) performing a hash operation on a remaining portion of the data associated with the detected behaviors. Thereafter, the fuzzy hash for the received object is compared to a fuzzy hash of an object in a preexisting cluster to generate a similarity measure. The received object is associated with the preexisting cluster in response to determining that the similarity measure is above a predefined threshold value. Thereafter, the results are reported.

Abstract: A computerized method is described in which a received object is analyzed by a malicious content detection (MCD) system to determine whether the object is malware or non-malware. The analysis may include the generation of a fuzzy hash based on a collection of behaviors for the received object. The fuzzy hash may be used by the MCD system to determine the similarity of the received object with one or more objects in previously classified/analyzed clusters. Upon detection of a “similar” object, the suspect object may be associated with the cluster and classified based on information attached to the cluster. This similarity matching provides 1) greater flexibility in analyzing potential malware objects, which may share multiple characteristics and behaviors but are also slightly different from previously classified objects and 2) a more efficient technique for classifying/assigning attributes to objects.

Abstract: Techniques for malware detection are described herein. According to one aspect, control logic determines an analysis plan for analyzing whether a specimen should be classified as malware, where the analysis plan identifies at least first and second analyses to be performed. Each of the first and second analyses identified in the analysis plan including one or both of a static analysis and a dynamic analysis. The first analysis is performed based on the analysis plan to identify suspicious indicators characteristics related to processing of the specimen. The second analysis is performed based on the analysis plan to identify unexpected behaviors having processing or communications anomalies. A classifier determines whether the specimen should be classified as malicious based on the static and dynamic analyses. The analysis plan, the indicators, the characteristics, and the anomalies are stored in a persistent memory.

Abstract: A system and computer based method are provided for identifying active content in websites on a network. In one aspects, a method for classifying web content includes determining a first property associated with static content of a web page, determining a second property associated with the content of the web page based at least in part on active content associated with the web page, evaluating a logical expression relating the first property and the second property, at least in part by evaluating whether a constant value matches at least a portion of the content of the web page, associating the web page with a category based on a result of the evaluation, and determining whether to allow network access to the web page based on the category.

Abstract: A system and computer based method are provided for identifying active content in websites on a network. One embodiment includes a computer based method of classifying web content. The method receives content of a web page, and determines a first property associated with the content, the first property including static content. The method executes active content associated with the webpage, and determines a second property associated with the content based at least in part on the executing, the second property including the active content. The method also evaluates a logical expression relating the first property and the second property, and associates the web page with a category based on a result of the evaluation. The evaluation of the logical expression at least in part evaluates whether a constant value matches at least a portion of the content of the web page.

Abstract: Techniques for malware detection are described herein. According to one aspect, control logic determines an analysis plan for analyzing whether a specimen should be classified as malware, where the analysis plan identifies at least first and second analyses to be performed. Each of the first and second analyses identified in the analysis plan including one or both of a static analysis and a dynamic analysis. The first analysis is performed based on the analysis plan to identify suspicious indicators characteristics related to processing of the specimen. The second analysis is performed based on the analysis plan to identify unexpected behaviors having processing or communications anomalies. A classifier determines whether the specimen should be classified as malicious based on the static and dynamic analyses. The analysis plan, the indicators, the characteristics, and the anomalies are stored in a persistent memory.