The following statistics are compiled from Fortinet's FortiGate network security appliances and intelligence systems for the period September 21st - October 20th, 2010.
The top 10 attack attempts detected for this period follow, ranked by the number of valid attack cases reported. Valid attack cases are defined as threats we have listed as a Threat Outbreak on our FortiGuard Center (RSS feed here). Percentage indicates the portion of activity for which the attack accounted out of the accumulated daily incidents reported during this period. Severity indicates the general risk factor involved with the exploitation of the vulnerability, rated from medium to critical. Critical issues are outlined in bold. Top 100 shifts indicate positional changes compared to last edition's Top 100 ranking, with "new" highlighting the attack's debut in the Top 100. Figure 1a shows a daily record of attack cases reported for this period's Top 5 attacks. Figure 1b below shows the Top 5 regions attacked in comparison to total attack cases reported this period.
Malware Today
Top 5 regions for this period, ranked by distinct malware volume reported. Distinct malware volume indicates the amount of unique virus names (variants) that has been detected in the given regions, as opposed to total malware volume, which indicates the accumulated amount of all reported incidents. Total and distinct malware volume trends for the last six reporting periods are also given. Figures 3a-3c below show these statistics:
For more information on daily activity per region, please visit our Virus World Map.
Spam and Email Threats
Top three email threats observed for this period. Top e-mails have been filtered to highlight diverse campaigns by removing duplicates and unsolicited advertisements. This helps focus on scams and malicious intent; the resulting list is ranked by Figures 5a-c below illustrate the most popular message tactics used during recent spam campaigns:
The following list breaks down the percentage of activity blocked for selected Web categories throughout this period. Percentage indicates how much activity was accounted for out of the four selected categories. Figure 6a shows a different scope, comparing only threat traffic: Malware, spyware, and phishing. The percentage shown in Figure 6a below indicates how much activity was accounted for out of these three threat categories. Figure 6b highlights the growth (or reduction) of selected web threat activity when compared period over period:
As outlined in our 2010 Threat Predictions, money mules have been aggressively recruited this year in order for cyber criminals to launder their ill-gained funds. A great example of this is the recent world-wide prosecutions of a Zeus criminal operation, which included 37 charges to alleged money mules. This certainly gives an idea of how widely used money mules are, and how many mules are used in large organizations like this to spread the trace of fund transfers. Mules are incorporated into a criminal organization through recruitment campaigns. Many likely enter knowing the criminal implications (albeit they may downplay the severity of their actions), however, some may not. We have highlighted many money mule recruitment campaigns in the past. Figure 5b highlighted in this report is yet another example. The email begins with the subject line "Re: CV", offering the recipient a "Administrative Representative" position for a proposed salary of 5,000 euros / month plus commission. One of listed job duties is "Administer day-to-day financial responsibilities for clients", as well as preparing weekly financial reports. While the salary certainly may be questionable, mules typically receive about a 10% commission rate for their transfers. These transfers can be upwards to $10,000 USD, which translates into roughly $1,000 USD for a couple clicks of a button. Sounds easy and too good to be true? It certainly is. With the recent prosecutions brought to light, the hope is that mules will begin to think about time spent behind bars, rather than in them. Beware of these recruitment campaigns, they can be found anywhere - not just email (for example: classifieds and job advertisement placements). Other spam e-mails this report include Figure 5a, a typical Russian Bride scheme - an advanced fee (419) scam that uses beauty, pictures and promises as social engineering.
Figure 5c shows an aggressive seeding campaign used by Zeus/ZBot mostly towards the end of September 2010. Observing the link, you can see that by clicking you will not be brought to LinkedIn - rather, a malicious web site hosting up exploits and Zeus/ZBot. A newer Zeus variant was used in this attack (v2.0) based, as developers continue to support this notorious project. As of writing, the command and control servers are still live though the initial infection sites have been taken offline. Antispam, web content filtering, intrusion prevention and antivirus all help in attacks like these. Stopping a threat at any one of these levels will effectively mitigate infection. This is a layered security approach, which will help defend against many other threats, and their attack strategies.
On October 8th, FortiGuard Labs disclosed a discovered vulnerability in Adobe Reader/Acrobat - for more information see our advisory here. Detection is available for this through FortiGuard IPS as 'Adobe.Reader.Acroform.Field.Memory.Corruption' - please ensure that your software patches are up to date as well. Conficker exploit activity (MS08-067) continues to remain in our top detection for attacks and vulnerabilities. The vulnerability - detected by FortiGuard as 'MS.DCERPC.NETAPI32.Buffer.Overflow' - was patched two years ago now, and has been ever present in our top malicious network traffic ever since. The iPhone Jailbreak we reported on last month (detected as 'FreeType.CFF.Jailbreak.Apple.Device') slipped in activity this month but certainly still remained active. Detections for Sasfis Botnet communication ('Sasfis.Botnet') also remained very active in our list, as Sasfis continues to infect machines worldwide. This bot has been quite versatile, and uses several spambots to spread including Asprox and Cutwail. The prevalence of this bot is reflected in our Malware Top 10 listing this report: FortiGuard antivirus detections for W32/Krypt.U, W32/Krypt.D and W32/Oflica.WK were all related to flavors of Sasfis.
Customers who use Fortinet's FortiGuard Subscription Services should already be protected against the threats outlined in this report. Threat activity is compiled by Fortinet's FortiGuard Labs using data gathered from its intelligence systems and FortiGate™ multi-threat security appliances in production worldwide. FortiGuard Subscription Services offer comprehensive security solutions including antivirus, intrusion prevention, Web content filtering and antispam capabilities. These services enable protection against threats on both application and network layers. FortiGuard Services are continuously updated, which enables Fortinet to deliver a combination of multi-layered security intelligence and true zero-day protection from new and emerging threats. These updates are delivered to all FortiGate, FortiMail and FortiClient products.
Table of Contents:
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 FortiGuard Labs |
Exploits and Intrusion Prevention
Top 10 Attacks & Regions
The top 10 attack attempts detected for this period follow, ranked by the number of valid attack cases reported. Valid attack cases are defined as threats we have listed as a Threat Outbreak on our FortiGuard Center (RSS feed here). Percentage indicates the portion of activity for which the attack accounted out of the accumulated daily incidents reported during this period. Severity indicates the general risk factor involved with the exploitation of the vulnerability, rated from medium to critical. Critical issues are outlined in bold. Top 100 shifts indicate positional changes compared to last edition's Top 100 ranking, with "new" highlighting the attack's debut in the Top 100. Figure 1a shows a daily record of attack cases reported for this period's Top 5 attacks. Figure 1b below shows the Top 5 regions attacked in comparison to total attack cases reported this period.
| Rank | Vulnerability | Percentage | Severity | Top 100 Shift |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MS.DCERPC.NETAPI32.Buffer.Overflow | 27.1 | critical | - |
| 2 | SMTP.Auth.Buffer.Overflow | 19.9 | critical | - |
| 3 | MS.IE.Userdata.Behavior.Code.Execution | 16.3 | critical | - |
| 4 | Sasfis.Botnet | 8.3 | high | +5 |
| 5 | Apache.Expect.Header.XSS | 7.8 | medium | +3 |
| 6 | MS.Windows.LSASS.Buffer.Overflow | 7.5 | high | +4 |
| 7 | AWStats.Rawlog.Plugin.Logfile.Parameter.Input.Validation | 7.3 | high | - |
| 8 | FTP.USER.Command.Overflow | 7.1 | high | -2 |
| 9 | FreeType.CFF.Jailbreak.Apple.Device | 6.6 | high | -5 |
| 10 | MS.Content.Management.Server.Code.Execution | 3.7 | critical | +1 |
 Figure 1a: Daily attack case activity for top 5 attacks |
 Figure 1b: Top 5 regions by number of attack cases |
New Vulnerability Coverage
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There were a total of 126 vulnerabilities added to FortiGuard IPS coverage this period.
Of these added vulnerabilities, 48 were reported to be actively exploited (38.1%). Figure 1c breaks down added vulnerabilities by severity, coverage and active exploitation in the wild. For more information, observe the detailed reports for this period at: |
 Figure 1c: New vulnerability coverage for this edition, categorized by severity |
Malware Today
Top 10 Variants
Top 10 malware activity by individual variant. Percentage indicates the portion of activity the malware variant accounted for out of all malware threats reported in this edition. Top 100 shifts indicate positional changes compared to last edition's Top 100 ranking, with "new" highlighting the malware's debut in the Top 100. Figure 2 below shows the detected volume for the malware variants listed within the Top 5:
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 Figure 2: Activity curve for top five malware variants |
Regions & Volume
Top 5 regions for this period, ranked by distinct malware volume reported. Distinct malware volume indicates the amount of unique virus names (variants) that has been detected in the given regions, as opposed to total malware volume, which indicates the accumulated amount of all reported incidents. Total and distinct malware volume trends for the last six reporting periods are also given. Figures 3a-3c below show these statistics:
 Figure 3a: Top 5 regions by distinct malware volume |
 Figure 3b: Six period trend for total malware volume |
 Figure 3c: Six period trend for distinct malware volume |
For more information on daily activity per region, please visit our Virus World Map.
Spam and Email Threats
Spam Rate & Regions
The global spam rate is shown on a daily basis for this edition's given period. Spam rate indicates the accumulated emails which have been tagged as spam, in comparison to total email traffic. Top 5 spam regions are ranked by received spam in comparison to global spam volume. Statistics are graphed for business working days, and shown in Figures 4a-4b below:
 Figure 4a: Spam rate compared to global email |
 Figure 4b: Top 5 spam regions by received spam |
Top 3 In The Wild
Top three email threats observed for this period. Top e-mails have been filtered to highlight diverse campaigns by removing duplicates and unsolicited advertisements. This helps focus on scams and malicious intent; the resulting list is ranked by Figures 5a-c below illustrate the most popular message tactics used during recent spam campaigns:
 Figure 5a: Spam campaign #1 |
 Figure 5b: Spam campaign #2 |
 Figure 5c: Spam campaign #3 |
Crawling The Web
Threat Traffic & Growth
The following list breaks down the percentage of activity blocked for selected Web categories throughout this period. Percentage indicates how much activity was accounted for out of the four selected categories. Figure 6a shows a different scope, comparing only threat traffic: Malware, spyware, and phishing. The percentage shown in Figure 6a below indicates how much activity was accounted for out of these three threat categories. Figure 6b highlights the growth (or reduction) of selected web threat activity when compared period over period:
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 Figure 6a: Threat traffic volume break-down |
 Figure 6b: Threat traffic growth by period |
Activity Recap
As outlined in our 2010 Threat Predictions, money mules have been aggressively recruited this year in order for cyber criminals to launder their ill-gained funds. A great example of this is the recent world-wide prosecutions of a Zeus criminal operation, which included 37 charges to alleged money mules. This certainly gives an idea of how widely used money mules are, and how many mules are used in large organizations like this to spread the trace of fund transfers. Mules are incorporated into a criminal organization through recruitment campaigns. Many likely enter knowing the criminal implications (albeit they may downplay the severity of their actions), however, some may not. We have highlighted many money mule recruitment campaigns in the past. Figure 5b highlighted in this report is yet another example. The email begins with the subject line "Re: CV", offering the recipient a "Administrative Representative" position for a proposed salary of 5,000 euros / month plus commission. One of listed job duties is "Administer day-to-day financial responsibilities for clients", as well as preparing weekly financial reports. While the salary certainly may be questionable, mules typically receive about a 10% commission rate for their transfers. These transfers can be upwards to $10,000 USD, which translates into roughly $1,000 USD for a couple clicks of a button. Sounds easy and too good to be true? It certainly is. With the recent prosecutions brought to light, the hope is that mules will begin to think about time spent behind bars, rather than in them. Beware of these recruitment campaigns, they can be found anywhere - not just email (for example: classifieds and job advertisement placements). Other spam e-mails this report include Figure 5a, a typical Russian Bride scheme - an advanced fee (419) scam that uses beauty, pictures and promises as social engineering.
Figure 5c shows an aggressive seeding campaign used by Zeus/ZBot mostly towards the end of September 2010. Observing the link, you can see that by clicking you will not be brought to LinkedIn - rather, a malicious web site hosting up exploits and Zeus/ZBot. A newer Zeus variant was used in this attack (v2.0) based, as developers continue to support this notorious project. As of writing, the command and control servers are still live though the initial infection sites have been taken offline. Antispam, web content filtering, intrusion prevention and antivirus all help in attacks like these. Stopping a threat at any one of these levels will effectively mitigate infection. This is a layered security approach, which will help defend against many other threats, and their attack strategies.
On October 8th, FortiGuard Labs disclosed a discovered vulnerability in Adobe Reader/Acrobat - for more information see our advisory here. Detection is available for this through FortiGuard IPS as 'Adobe.Reader.Acroform.Field.Memory.Corruption' - please ensure that your software patches are up to date as well. Conficker exploit activity (MS08-067) continues to remain in our top detection for attacks and vulnerabilities. The vulnerability - detected by FortiGuard as 'MS.DCERPC.NETAPI32.Buffer.Overflow' - was patched two years ago now, and has been ever present in our top malicious network traffic ever since. The iPhone Jailbreak we reported on last month (detected as 'FreeType.CFF.Jailbreak.Apple.Device') slipped in activity this month but certainly still remained active. Detections for Sasfis Botnet communication ('Sasfis.Botnet') also remained very active in our list, as Sasfis continues to infect machines worldwide. This bot has been quite versatile, and uses several spambots to spread including Asprox and Cutwail. The prevalence of this bot is reflected in our Malware Top 10 listing this report: FortiGuard antivirus detections for W32/Krypt.U, W32/Krypt.D and W32/Oflica.WK were all related to flavors of Sasfis.
Solutions
Customers who use Fortinet's FortiGuard Subscription Services should already be protected against the threats outlined in this report. Threat activity is compiled by Fortinet's FortiGuard Labs using data gathered from its intelligence systems and FortiGate™ multi-threat security appliances in production worldwide. FortiGuard Subscription Services offer comprehensive security solutions including antivirus, intrusion prevention, Web content filtering and antispam capabilities. These services enable protection against threats on both application and network layers. FortiGuard Services are continuously updated, which enables Fortinet to deliver a combination of multi-layered security intelligence and true zero-day protection from new and emerging threats. These updates are delivered to all FortiGate, FortiMail and FortiClient products.
