Obfuscation malware on the rise

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Malware that uses obfuscation techniques such as runtime packing, polymorphism and junk code injection is on the increase, according to new research.

The latest ThreatSense report from anti-virus vendor Eset found that such obfuscated malware was the number one threat to users. This family of malware made up 7.58 per cent of all viruses circulating the internet.

Second spot was taken up by the Win32/Agent trojan malware which compromises computers and turns them into part of a botnet, leaving open a backdoor to hackers to keep control of the infected host.

"This malware connects to a command and control server that seems to be located in Singapore," said Paul Brook, managing director of ESET UK. "The purpose of Win32/Agent.ARK seems to be to keep control of an infected system for future use; it can be used to execute commands on the infected host and download additional software."

Brook said that very often such botnet software is able to update itself with new components which add new functionality, and "which help it to evade detection by signature based anti-virus software".

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