POODLE Malware

Posted: February 27, 2015

Threat Metric

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The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Ranking:	11,655
Threat Level:	1/10
Infected PCs:	2,836

First Seen:	February 27, 2015
Last Seen:	October 10, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The POODLE Malware is any threatening software exploiting the CVE-2014-3566 vulnerability, a bug in outdated versions of SSL that could let third parties hijack and gather encrypted information through Man-in-the-Browser attacks. MitB attacks through the POODLE Malware may show symptoms of some visibility, but also is implementable in ways that minimize any visible elements of an attack's having taken place. Modern SSL standards don't provide the vulnerability exploited by the POODLE Malware. Nevertheless, due to the potential of automatic 'downgrading' of encryption standards, malware researchers also would suggest taking extra steps for disabling versions of SSL at risk for these attacks.

The Dog Sniffing at Your Browser's Data

SSL encryption vulnerabilities are issues of note for both high-level spyware, such as Zlob and other banking Trojans, as well as for the different browsers, OSes and applications that unintentionally host them. Unfortunately, the POODLE Malware takes advantage of an auto-downgrading feature that may affect any machine capable of using SSL 3.0. New standards in security have long since replaced that version of data encryption. However, an incompatibility on the part of the client or the server may cause the encryption to downgrade, proceeding down until it finds a compatible version of SSL. In a worst case scenario, the encryption may settle as low as SSL 3.0. At that point, the POODLE Malware may intercept all transmitted information and, potentially, decrypt it for theft.

Man-in-the-Browser or Man-in-the-Middle attacks are likely vectors for the POODLE Malware campaigns, which may circulate on 'poisoned' public networks or through the efforts of other PC threats. Web administrators should consider disabling SSL 3.0 and previous versions of SSL with similar vulnerabilities. Similarly, PC users can disable unsafe versions of SSL with different command options, according to which browser is being used. Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome all provide functions for blocking unwanted downgrades of SSL. If disabling SSL 3.0 is impractical, due to a need to maintain connections with systems that don't support the new encryption standards, using TLS_FALLBACK_SCSV is a secondary solution.

When the POODLE Malware triggers, the POODLE Malware may intercept your information without providing any symptoms. However, some attacks by the POODLE Malware and similar spyware may induce additional changes in your browser that may be warning signs. Websites that request additional information in unusual ways may be symptomatic of a threat inserting their toxic content into your Web-browsing session.

Sending the Poodle to the Pound

Although PC users are told to update their software almost continuously, the POODLE Malware shows the unmissable reasons for why this is the case. Even when SSL is being used, using old software that doesn't support the latest security updates may put your information and data at extreme risk. Regardless of what steps you take to block SSL-related attacks, specifically, PC security software and anti-malware tools also should be able to provide some protection from MitB attacks. Whether these attacks originate from POODLE Malware or elsewhere, they should be assumed to be byproducts of the presence of high-level threats or security vulnerabilities that could include the active involvement of remote attackers.

The POODLE Malware, named as an abbreviation of 'Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy Encryption,' takes advantage of a benign feature meant to make data encryption easier and more accessible to outdated systems. However, when one weights the prospective cost of a POODLE Malware attack, merely upgrading your OS and using modern SSL standards seems like the safest bet that malware researchers ever could recommend.

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following URL's were detected:

https://feed.bestpdfsearch.com/?q=

Stinkypoodle.com