Systems and methods for malware detection and scanning

• US 9,344,446 B2
• Filed: 09/08/2014
• Issued: 05/17/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: VeriSign, Inc.
• Original Assignee: VeriSign, Inc.
• Inventors: Thomas, Ralph, Lapilla, Michael, Tonn, Trevor, Sinclair, Gregory, Hartstein, Blake, Cote, Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): Abrishamkar, Kaveh
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRAN, TRI MINH
• Application Number:
  US14/480,289
• Publication Number:
  US 20140380482A1
• Time in Patent Office: 617 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/566 Dynamic detection, i.e. detection performed at run-time, e.g. emulation, suspicious activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/145 the attack involving the propagation of malware through the network, e.g. viruses, trojans or worms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1466 Active attacks involving interception, injection, modification, spoofing of data unit addresses, e.g. hijacking, packet injection or TCP sequence number attacks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1483 service impersonation, e.g. phishing, pharming or web spoofing detection of rogue wireless access points H04W12/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1491 using deception as countermeasure, e.g. honeypots, honeynets, decoys or entrapment

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for malware scanning and detection in a computing system. In one exemplary embodiment, the method includes launching, in a computing device of the computing system, a virtual machine, and launching, in the virtual machine of the computing device, an internet browser. The method also includes requesting, by the internet browser, data from a web page, and performing, using one or more analysis tools, analysis on the web page. In the method, performing analysis on the web page includes performing monitoring and recording of system application programming interface (API) calls, and creating software objects associated with the web page. The method also includes performing antivirus scanning of the software objects, de-obfuscating JavaScript associated with the software objects, and correlating data associated with the performed analysis to determine if the web page is a malicious web page.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method operating in a computing device, the method comprising:

receiving, at a controller in the computing device, a malware scan request transmitted from a remote controller device via a network, the malware scan request comprising a type and version of an internet browser and one or more parameters, the one or more parameters comprising target uniform resource identifiers (URIs), uniform resource locators (URLs), and/or uniform resource names (URNs) used to identify web pages upon which malware scanning is to be performed, the computing device storing a plurality of virtual machines, wherein at least two of the plurality of virtual machines are within a same domain or a same netblock;

launching, by the controller, the plurality of virtual machines in the computing device, in response to the received malware scan request;

instructing, by the controller, each of the plurality of virtual machines of the computing device to;

launch an internet browser of the type and version,

request data from a web server hosting a web page over the network via the internet browser, wherein at least one of the plurality of virtual machines that are within the same domain or the same netblock is rate-limited; and

perform, in the virtual machine of the computing device, analysis on the web page using one or more analysis tools; and

receiving, from each of the plurality of virtual machines, results of the performed analysis; and

storing, in a storage, the results of the performed analysis for malware analysis.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein performing the analysis includes:

monitoring and recording of system application programming interface (API) calls,

creating software objects associated with the web page,

performing antivirus scanning of the software objects, and

de-obfuscating code associated with the software objects; and

correlating data associated with the analysis that is performed to determine if the web page is a malicious web page.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

routing, by the controller, traffic from each of the virtual machines through at least one proxy computing device in the network.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further including:

creating, by the controller, packet capture (pcap) files; and

storing the pcap files in a storage.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further including:

comparing at least one of uniform resource identifier (URI), universal resource locator (URL) data, or uniform resource number (URN) data associated with the web page against one or more lists.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein potential malware includes one or more of obfuscated executable code and potential cross-site scripting attacks.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further including:

matching a pattern of the web page with one or more other patterns known to be indicative of malware.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more parameters in the malware scan request includes a number of virtual machines to visit the web page, and wherein launching a plurality of virtual machines includes:

launching the plurality of virtual machines based on the number of virtual machines included in the malware scan request.

9. A computing device for scanning and detection, the device comprising:

at least one memory to store data and instructions; and

at least one processor to access memory and to execute instructions to;

receive, at a virtual machine controller in the computing device, a malware scan request transmitted from a remote controller device via a network, the malware scan request comprising a type and version of an internet browser and one or more parameters, the one or more parameters comprising target uniform resource identifiers (URIs), uniform resource locators (URLs), and/or uniform resource names (URNs) used to identify web pages upon which malware scanning is to be performed, wherein at least two of the plurality of virtual machines are within a same domain or a same netblock;

launch, by the virtual machine controller, a plurality of virtual machines in the computing device, in response to the received malware scan request;

instruct, by the virtual machine controller, each of the plurality of virtual machines of the computing device to;

launch an internet browser of the type and version,

request data from a web server hosting a web page over the network via the internet browser, wherein at least one of the plurality of virtual machines that are within the same domain or the same netblock is rate-limited; and

perform, in the virtual machine of the computing device, analysis on the web page using one or more analysis tools;

receive, from each of the plurality of virtual machines, results of the performed analysis; and

store, in a storage, the results of the performed analysis for malware analysis.

10. The computing device of claim 9, wherein performing the analysis includes:

monitoring and recording of system application programming interface (API) calls,

creating software objects associated with the web page,

performing antivirus scanning of the software objects, and

de-obfuscating code associated with the software objects; and

correlating data associated with the analysis that is performed to determine if the web page is a malicious web page.

11. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the processor is further to:

route, by the virtual machine controller, traffic from each of the virtual machines through at least one proxy computing device in the network.

12. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the processor is further to:

create, by the virtual machine controller, packet capture (pcap) files; and

store the pcap files in a storage.

13. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the processor is further to:

compare, by the virtual machine controller, at least one of uniform resource identifier (URI), universal resource locator (URL) data, or uniform resource number (URN) data associated with the web page against one or more lists.

14. The computing device of claim 9, wherein potential malware includes one or more of obfuscated executable code and potential cross-site scripting attacks.

15. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the processor is further to:

match a pattern of the web page with one or more other patterns known to be indicative of malware.

16. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the one or more parameters in the malware scan request includes a number of virtual machines to visit the web page, and wherein launching a plurality of virtual machines includes:

launching the plurality of virtual machines based on the number of virtual machines included in the malware scan request.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method to:

receive, at a virtual machine controller in the computing device, a malware scan request comprising a type and version of an internet browser and one or more parameters, the one or more parameters comprising target uniform resource identifiers (URIs), uniform resource locators (URLs), and/or uniform resource names (URNs) used to identify web pages upon which malware scanning is to be performed, wherein at least two of the plurality of virtual machines are within a same domain or a same netblock;

launch, by the virtual machine controller, a plurality of virtual machines in the computing device, in response to the received malware scan request;

instruct, by the virtual machine controller, each of the plurality of virtual machines of the computing device to;

launch an internet browser of the type and version,

request data from a webserver hosting a web page over a network via the internet browser, wherein at least one of the plurality of virtual machines that are within the same domain or the same netblock is rate-limited; and

perform, in the virtual machine of the computing device, analysis on the web page using one or more analysis tools;

receive, from each of the plurality of virtual machines, results of the performed analysis; and

store, in a storage, the results of the performed analysis for malware analysis.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein performing the analysis includes:

monitoring and recording of system application programming interface (API) calls,

creating software objects associated with the web page,

performing antivirus scanning of the software objects, and

de-obfuscating code associated with the software objects; and

correlating data associated with the analysis that is performed to determine if the web page is a malicious web page.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the method is further to:

route, by the virtual machine controller, traffic from each of the virtual machines through at least one proxy computing device in the network.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the method is further to:

create, by the virtual machine controller, packet capture (pcap) files; and

store the pcap files in a storage.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the method is further to:

compare, by the virtual machine controller, at least one of uniform resource identifier (URI), universal resource locator (URL) data, or uniform resource number (URN) data associated with the web page against one or more lists.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein potential malware includes one or more of obfuscated executable code and potential cross-site scripting attacks.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the method is further to:

match a pattern of the web page with one or more other patterns known to be indicative of malware.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the one or more parameters in the malware scan request includes a number of virtual machines to visit the web page, and wherein launching a plurality of virtual machines includes:

launching the plurality of virtual machines based on the number of virtual machines included in the malware scan request.