-Intro to the Series
Hey everyone! As of recent I’ve become insanely interested in Malware, which has resulted in me wanting to
be a Malware Analyst. I mean to be honest you can do so much with Malware that it can be applied to most if not all aspects of cyber security, and hacking. However as of late I’ve noticed me being one of the only members who isn’t being as active as they should be. So I’ve decided to start a series ( the series will span greatly ) on anything Malware related “types of malware”, “Malware Analysis”, “How malware works”, “How to make Malware”, “Malware in the News”, “Social Engineering in terms of Malware”, “Core Malware concepts”, “languages used in Malware”, and the list goes on and on! But I can’t just write an intro without posting some level of information can I? That would be a big waste of your time, and just plain disrespectful and rude. So without further ado, I’ll start my quick into to what Malware is (not new stuff to be honest), and what types of Malware there are.
-What is Malware?
Malware is a malicious type of software. The word itself is a blend of both those “ideals”. Mal which stands for “Malicious”, and Ware which stands for “Software”. Nice play of words, eh?
-Types of Malware?
Malware itself can come in so many forms and to be honest you can do anything with malware that would be malicious. Sometimes though you still find forms of un-authorized software on your computer/system. Sometimes those software have no malicious intent, therefore being categorized as “Grayware”. Grayware falls into a “gray-ish” category between a normal software, and software that would be considered as “Malware”. The series will also focus on these types of programs, although not as much as it would with Malware (expect an occasional post) as although they may sometimes be harmless they can still pose a threat.
Malware itself can come into a large number of categories and types. This’ll be a quick list of the types of Malware commonly found.
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Trojan horse- A very abundant type of Malware is the Trojan. It poses as a real program or file, and once inside your system wreaks havoc. It is recommended to Not kid around with this malware. It can be very-very destructive.
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Viruses- An extremely common type of Malware (probably the most recognized) is a Virus. A Virus once installed is either executed by accident by the user or it executes itself, which from there it can cause damage. It is closely related to a Worm. They sometimes rely on the users themselves to spread.
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Worms- Worms as said right above (^
) are very similar to a viruses, although they do have their own very obvious differences. A worm is a more of a “stand alone” program which can “infect” a program by themselves. These can also wreak havoc onto a system as they spread very-very quickly (although to be fair all types of Malware are dangerous). -
Spyware- Spyware is a type of Malware that gathers information on the infected user’s computer. This can range from browsing information to even account passwords and so on. Once having gathered said information the Spyware immediately begins to distribute it to “interested parties” those being the Malware writers, or the people who distributed it. Spyware usually infects a computer/system through a Trojan.
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Annoyware- Annoyware is (I’ve posted about this before), but in short it happens to be a type of Malware designed to “annoy” the infected user’s computer. Typical Annoyware would probably be something like “Adware”. This category is usually used in a broad form, and can be interpreted differently.
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Rootkit- A rootkit is a group of programs that can usually grant attacker special access or “permissions” with the computer or network. Said permission are usually on the “administrator level”. One installed it can help mask the intrusion and cover the attacker’s “steps” you could say.
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Ransomware- Last and not least is Ransomware. Ransomware is a type of Malware that literally takes your computer for “ransom”. In most cases they ask you to pay or they will wipe all your files out or do something malicious ( no big surprise, eh?
). Beware though that in most cases this turns out to be a farce and the “link” they ask you to click is actually something that will download a Trojan onto your system.
-Ending Notes
If you’ve read this far thank you! I’m sure this will be a very exciting series for not only me but the rest of us! If you’ve got anything to say or anything that would be great for me to add or maybe make a post on feel free to comment below! I’ll try to do a post of the series every week. Preferably on Saturdays/Sundays, although due to time it could come out at other times! I figured that just for fun I’ll make an encryption (made it myself) of what will be posted next, and if you decrypt it, please PM me and I’ll tell you if it’s correct or not. If you do in fact “crack the code” please keep it to yourself!
-Next Post Encryption
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-Enjoy!
I would also be very interested on a specific post about rootkits!