Basics

A Layman's Glossary of Malware Terms

Baffled by bots? Vexed by variants? Some working definitions for the non-technical.

By Scott Berinato

Packer – A tool used to compress and scramble an EXE file. Used to hide the malicious nature of malware and thwart analysis by researchers.

Padonki – A kind of Russian hacker slang in which words, often obscene ones, are purposefully misspelled or bastardized.

Pesdato – English transliteration of a Padonki interjection.

RAT - Remote Access Trojan, malware that allows an attacker to remotely control a infected PC or "bot".

RATs – The nickname for people who write remote access trojans.

RBN – The Russian Business Network. An infamous ISP used by primarily Russian malware groups to host malware and drops. The ISP is reportedly run out of Panama and owned a company operating from the islands of Seychelles, off the eastern coast of Africa. Variously described as "opaque," "dubious," and "shady."

Redirect – A feature of HTTP used to automatically forward someone from one web site to another. In the case of malware, redirects are done invisibly, sometimes inside iFrames.

Rootkit – Code that plugs into and changes the low-level functions of an operating system. Used by malware to hide itself from users and even the operating system itself.

Torpig – A relatively new family of Trojans representing the latest in malware capabilities, including the ability to hide itself and provide backdoor access for installing other configurations, components, or even other Trojans.

Trojan – A program that attempts to hide its malicious code by masquerading as an innocuous program most commonly through the use of a "packer."

Variant – Malware that is produced from the same code base (or "family") as a previous version but is different enough to require new signatures for detection by anti-virus and anti-malware products.

VXer – Originally, a virus writer. Now refers to anyone involved in the production or use of malware.

--Source: SecureWorks, CSO Reporting

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