Patent Grant
9317679
In recent years, malicious individuals and organizations have created a variety of sophisticated targeted attacks aimed at high-profile or high-level entities, such as governments, corporations, political organizations, defense contractors, or the like. In many cases, the goal of such an attack is to gain access to highly sensitive or confidential information, such as financial information, defense-related information, and/or intellectual property (e.g., source code), and/or to simply disrupt an entity's operations. Many targeted attacks use email-attachment based spear phishing tactics to infiltrate target networks. In these attacks, a malicious document (such as a malicious Portable Document Format (PDF) document or a MICROSOFT OFFICE document), which may be sent as an email attachment to an unsuspecting user, may exploit a zero-day-vulnerability in a document-handling application on the user's computer.
Such targeted attacks are growing in popularity and are increasingly successful for a variety of reasons. First, documents are generally less suspicious than executables to normal users. Second, it is often easy to construct different documents to evade typical anti-virus (AV) detection methods. For example, traditional security systems generally rely on signature-based techniques for detecting document-based threats, which are typically unable to detect zero-day-vulnerability threats. Moreover, while traditional security systems may allow entities to block access to email attachments of particularly dangerous file types (such as executable files), many entities are reluctant to block access to a variety of commonly used, but nonetheless exploitable, document types (such as PDF documents, MICROSOFT OFFICE documents, media files, video files, etc.) since these document types are frequently used as a means for exchanging information electronically. Finally, there are plenty of vulnerabilities in document-handling applications.
Accordingly, the instant disclosure identifies a need for systems and methods capable of more accurately identifying security threats, especially systems and methods capable of more accurately distinguishing between malicious and benign documents.
As will be described in greater detail below, the instant disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for detecting malicious documents based on component-object reuse by detecting when an unknown document (e.g., a document that is not known to be malicious or benign) contains a component object that is also contained within one or more documents that are known to be malicious. In one example, a computer-implemented method for detecting malicious documents based on component-object reuse may include (1) identifying a plurality of malicious documents, (2) identifying a plurality of component objects that are contained within at least one malicious document from the plurality of malicious documents, (3) receiving an unknown document, (4) determining that at least one component object from the plurality of component objects was used to create the unknown document, and (5) performing a security action on the unknown document (e.g., convicting the unknown document as being a malicious document) in response to determining that the component object was used to create the unknown document.
In some embodiments, the computer-implemented method for detecting malicious documents based on component-object reuse may further include identifying a plurality of benign documents, and each component object from the plurality of component objects may not be contained within any benign document from the plurality of benign documents. For example, each component object from the plurality of component objects may be exclusively found within the plurality of malicious documents. In some embodiments, the component object used to create the unknown document may be benign.
In some embodiments, the step of determining that the component object was used to create the unknown document may include determining that the component object was used as part of the unknown document in a similar manner that the component object was used as part of at least one malicious document from the plurality of malicious documents (e.g., the location of the component object within the unknown document matches the location of the component object within at least one malicious document), and the security action may be performed on the unknown document based at least in part on the component object having being used as part of the unknown document in a similar manner that the component object was used as part of the malicious document. In at least one embodiment, the security action may be performed on the unknown document only when the component object has been used as part of the unknown document in a similar manner that the component object was used as part of the malicious document.
In some embodiments, the step of determining that the component object was used to create the unknown document may include determining that a manner in which the component object is incorporated within a structure of the unknown document matches a manner in which the component object has been incorporated in a structure of at least one malicious document from the plurality of malicious documents (e.g., the location of the component object within the hierarchical-tree structure of the unknown document matches the location of the component object within the hierarchical-tree structure of at least one malicious document), and the security action may be performed on the unknown document based at least in part on the manner in which the component object is incorporated within the structure of the unknown document matching the manner in which the component object has been incorporated in the structure of the malicious document. In certain embodiments, the structures of the unknown document and the malicious document may be hierarchical trees.
In some embodiments, the step of performing the security action on the unknown document may include convicting the unknown document as being malicious.
In some embodiments, the step of determining that the component object was used to create the unknown document may include determining how many malicious documents from the plurality of malicious documents contained the component object, and the security action may be performed on the unknown document based at least in part on how many malicious documents contained the component object (e.g., a confidence level associated with a conviction of the unknown document may be based on how many malicious documents contain the component object). In some embodiments, the component object may include an image, an icon, a video, an executable file, and/or an embedded document.
In one embodiment, a system for implementing the above-described method may include (1) an identifying module, stored in memory, that identifies a plurality of malicious documents and a plurality of component objects that are contained within at least one malicious document from the plurality of malicious documents, (2) a receiving module, stored in memory, that receives an unknown document, (3) a determining module, stored in memory, that determines that at least one component object from the plurality of component objects was used to create the unknown document, (4) a security module, stored in memory, that performs a security action on the unknown document in response to determining that the component object was used to create the unknown document, and (5) at least one physical processor that executes the identifying module, the receiving module, the determining module, and the security module.
In some examples, the above-described method may be encoded as computer-readable instructions on a non-transitory computer-readable medium. For example, a computer-readable medium may include one or more computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, may cause the computing device to (1) identify a plurality of malicious documents, (2) identify a plurality of component objects that are contained within at least one malicious document from the plurality of malicious documents, (3) receive an unknown document, (4) determine that at least one component object from the plurality of component objects was used to create the unknown document, and (5) perform a security action on the unknown document in response to determining that the component object was used to create the unknown document.
Features from any of the above-mentioned embodiments may be used in combination with one another in accordance with the general principles described herein. These and other embodiments, features, and advantages will be more fully understood upon reading the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and claims.
The accompanying drawings illustrate a number of exemplary embodiments and are a part of the specification. Together with the following description, these drawings demonstrate and explain various principles of the instant disclosure.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference characters and descriptions indicate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements. While the exemplary embodiments described herein are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in detail herein. However, the exemplary embodiments described herein are not intended to be limited to the particular forms disclosed. Rather, the instant disclosure covers all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the appended claims.
The present disclosure is generally directed to systems and methods for detecting malicious documents based on component-object reuse. As will be explained in greater detail below, by detecting when an unknown document (e.g., a document that is not known to be malicious or benign) contains a component object that is also contained within one or more documents that are known to be malicious and/or by detecting when the unknown document contains a component object that is exclusively contained within documents that are known to be malicious, the systems and methods described herein may enable detection of malicious documents based on component-object reuse. Furthermore, in some examples, by determining whether a component object contained within an unknown document is also contained within a large number of distinct malicious documents and/or whether the component object has been used within the unknown document in a similar manner as the component object has been used in other malicious documents, the systems and methods described herein may reduce or eliminate false-positive malicious document convictions.
Moreover, in at least some examples, the systems and methods described herein may detect malicious documents based on component-object reuse regardless of whether the component objects that are being reused are themselves malicious. For example, the systems and methods described herein may convict an unknown document as being a malicious document in response to detecting that the unknown document contains a benign component object that is also contained within a document that is known to be malicious. Embodiments of the instant disclosure may also provide various other advantages and features, as discussed in greater detail below.
As used herein, the term “document” generally refers to any computer-readable file or object that includes various types of human-readable content and/or component objects. Examples of documents may include, without limitation, PDF documents, word-processing documents, spreadsheet documents, presentation documents, and electronic messages (such as emails). In some examples, documents may be attached to and/or embedded within another document.
Documents may be in any suitable format. For example, a document may be in a portable document format (PDF) and/or any format accessible via a PDF reader (such as ADOBE READER). A document may also be in a word-processor format, a spreadsheet format, and/or a presentation format and/or any format accessible via a word-processing application such as MICROSOFT WORD), a spreadsheet application (such as MICROSOFT EXCEL), or a presentation application (such as MICROSOFT POWERPOINT). Additionally or alternatively, a document may be in an extended markup language (XML) format (such as an OFFICE-OPEN-XML format). Lastly, a document may include a container format, such as ZIP, GZIP, TAPE ARCHIVE (TAR), LHA, MULTIPURPOSE INTERNET MAIL EXTENSION (MIME), OBJECT LINKING AND EMBEDDING (OLE), UUENCODE, and ROSHAL ARCHIVE (RAR) formats. A document may also be included in any other type of document or object that contains an embedded document.
In some examples, documents may be malicious or benign. As used herein, the term “malicious document” generally refers to any document that is known to contain malware. On the other hand, the term “benign document,” as used herein, generally refers to any document that is known to not contain malware. Documents that have not yet been determined to be malicious or benign may be referred to herein using the term “unknown document.”
Documents may be made up of one or more component objects. As used herein, the term “component object” generally refers to any distinct component, part, sub-object, or building block that makes up a document. Examples of component objects may include the header section, body section, table section, and/or trailer sections of a PDF document. Further examples may include component objects (e.g., sub-objects) within the body section (or other section) of a PDF document. Further examples of component objects may also include sections or portions of an XML-based document enclosed or defined by open and close tags or delimiters within the XML document. Another example of a component object includes an embedded document within another document (e.g., multimedia content) or a container object. For example, component objects may include, without limitation, text, images, icons, videos, media files, scripts (such as JAVASCRIPT scripts), macros, executable files, and/or ACTIVEX objects. In some examples, component objects may be malicious or benign and/or may represent the malicious payload of a document within which the component object is contained.
The following will provide, with reference to
In addition, and as will be described in greater detail below, exemplary system 100 may include a determining module 108 that determines that at least one component object from the plurality of component objects was used to create the unknown document. Exemplary system 100 may also include a security module 110 that performs a security action on the unknown document in response to determining that the component object was used to create the unknown document. Although illustrated as separate elements, one or more of modules 102 in
In certain embodiments, one or more of modules 102 in
As illustrated in
Database 120 may represent portions of a single database or computing device or a plurality of databases or computing devices. For example, database 120 may represent a portion of server 206 in
Exemplary system 100 in
In one embodiment, one or more of modules 102 from
Computing device 202 generally represents any type or form of computing device capable of reading computer-executable instructions. Examples of computing device 202 include, without limitation, laptops, tablets, desktops, servers, cellular phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), multimedia players, embedded systems, combinations of one or more of the same, exemplary computing system 710 in
Server 206 generally represents any type or form of computing device that is capable of reading computer-executable instructions. Examples of server 206 include, without limitation, application servers and database servers configured to provide various database services and/or run certain software applications. In at least one example, server 206 may represent an application server or database server configured to provide various malicious-document-detection services to an email server, an email exchange, a message transfer agent (MTA), a message handling service (MHS), or a firewall.
Network 204 generally represents any medium or architecture capable of facilitating communication or data transfer. Examples of network 204 include, without limitation, an intranet, a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Local Area Network (LAN), a Personal Area Network (PAN), the Internet, Power Line Communications (PLC), a cellular network (e.g., a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network), exemplary network architecture 800 in
As illustrated in
The systems described herein may perform step 302 in any suitable manner. For example, identifying module 104 may identify malicious documents 122 by receiving and/or collecting a set of malicious documents that have been classified as and/or verified to be malicious. In one example, identifying module 104 may generate or collect malicious documents 122 by receiving a data set from a security vendor or researcher that includes a set of documents that have been classified as and/or verified to be malicious by the security vendor or researcher. In at least one example, identifying module 104 may generate or collect malicious documents 122 by convicting unknown documents as being malicious using the systems and methods described herein or any other suitable method.
Additionally or alternatively, identifying module 104 may identify benign documents 124 by receiving and/or collecting a set of benign documents that have been classified and/or verified to be benign. For example, identifying module 104 may identify benign documents 124 by receiving a data set from a security vendor or researcher that includes a set of documents that have been classified as and/or verified to be benign by the security vendor or researcher.
Returning to
The systems described herein may perform step 304 in any suitable manner. In general, identifying module 104 may identify component objects 126 by extracting component objects from malicious documents 122. In some examples, identifying module 104 may identify the component objects contained within malicious documents 122 by parsing or decomposing each of malicious documents 122 into separate and distinct component objects. Upon parsing or decomposing each of malicious documents 122 into its separate and distinct component objects, identifying module 104 may store unique component objects and/or representations of the unique component objects (e.g., hashes of the unique component objects) to component objects 126. In at least one example, identifying module 104 may also maintain an association between each unique component object stored within component objects 126 and the malicious documents within malicious documents 122 within which the component object was found.
Using
In some examples, identifying module 104 may maintain component objects 126 such that component objects 126 include only component objects that are contained exclusively within malicious documents (e.g., component objects that are contained within malicious documents but not within benign documents). In general, identifying module 104 may ensure that each component object within component objects 126 is exclusively found within malicious documents by removing any component objects contained within benign documents 124 from component objects 126.
In addition to identifying component objects 126, identifying module 104 may also track, for each component object within component objects 126, how many of malicious documents 122 contain the component object. In one example, identifying module 104 may track how many unique malicious documents contain a component object within component objects 126 by maintaining an association between the component object and each of malicious documents 122 that contains the component object. Additionally or alternatively, identifying module 104 may maintain a counter for each component object within component objects 126 that indicates the number unique malicious documents that contain the component object.
In some examples, identifying module 104 may track the manner in which each component object within component objects 126 has been used within malicious documents. In general, identifying module 104 may track the manner in which a component object has been used within a malicious document by recording the location of the component object relative to the structure of the malicious document to structural patterns 128. As will be explained in greater detail below, the systems and methods described herein may use the fact that a component object has been used as part of an unknown document in a similar manner that the component object was used as part of a malicious document to determine that an attacker likely reused the component object to create the unknown document and/or that the unknown document is likely a malicious document.
In some instances, identifying module 104 may represent the structure of a malicious document using a hierarchical tree.
Returning to
Returning to
At step 306, one or more of the systems described herein may receive an unknown document. For example, receiving module 106 may, as part of computing device 202 in
The systems described herein may perform step 306 in any suitable manner. In one example, receiving module 106 may receive unknown document 208 by intercepting unknown document 208. For example, receiving module 108 may receive unknown document 208 by intercepting an electronic message to which unknown document 208 has been attached. In at least one example, receiving module 106 may intercept the electronic message as part of intercepting all, some, or substantially all electronic messages transmitted and/or received by a computing device, such as computing device 202, over a period of time.
In another example, receiving module 106 may receive unknown document 208 by intercepting an attempt to access unknown document 208. For example, receiving module 106 may receive unknown document 208 by intercepting a user's attempt to download unknown document 208, open unknown document 208, and/or open an electronic message to which unknown document 208 has been attached. In some examples, receiving module 106 may receive unknown document 208 by scanning computing device 202 for unknown documents.
In some examples, receiving module 106 may receive unknown document 208 as part of a request to determine whether unknown document 208 is malicious or benign and/or a part of a request to disarm or neutralize unknown document 208. Additionally or alternatively, receiving module 106 may receive unknown document 208 as part of a request to determine whether an electronic message to which the unknown document 208 is attached is malicious or benign and/or a part of a request to disarm or neutralize the electronic message.
At step 308, one or more of the systems described herein may determine that at least one component object from the plurality of component objects was used to create the unknown document. For example, determining module 108 may, as part of computing device 202 in
The systems described herein may perform step 308 in any suitable manner. In general, determining module 108 may determine that at least one component object from component objects 126 was used to create unknown document 208 by extracting component objects (e.g., component object 210) from unknown document 208 and by determining if any component object of unknown document 208 is contained within component objects 126. In at least one example, determining module 108 may determine that component object 210 of unknown document 208 is contained within component objects 126 by determining that a hash of component object 210 matches that of a component object within component objects 126. In some examples, the systems and methods described herein may use the fact that a component object from component objects 126 was used to create unknown document 208 to determine that an attacker likely reused the component object to create unknown document 208 and/or that unknown document 208 is likely a malicious document.
In some instances, the systems and methods described herein may use the fact that component object 210 has been used as part of unknown document 208 in a similar manner that component object 210 was used as part of at least one of malicious documents 122 to determine that an attacker likely reused component object 210 to create unknown document 208 and/or that unknown document 208 is likely a malicious document. As such, in addition to determining that component object 210 is contained within component objects 126, determining module 108 may determine that component object 210 was used as part of unknown document 208 in a similar manner that component object 210 was used in at least one of malicious documents 122.
In general, determining module 108 may determine whether component object 210 was used as part of unknown document 208 in a similar manner that component object 210 was used in at least one of malicious documents 122 by comparing the location of component object 210 relative to the structure of unknown document 208 to structural patterns 128. In the event that the location of component object 210 relative to the structure of unknown document 208 matches one of structural patterns 128, determining module 108 may determine that component object 210 was used as part of unknown document 208 in a similar manner that component object 210 was used in at least one of malicious documents 122.
In some examples, in addition to determining that component object 210 is contained within component objects 126, determining module 108 may determine how many of malicious documents 122 contain component object 210. Determining module 108 may determine how many of malicious documents 122 contain component object 210 by querying component objects 126 using a hash of component object 210 for (1) the number of malicious documents 122 that are associated with the hash of component object 210 and/or (2) the counter associated with the hash of component object 210 that indicates the number of malicious documents 122 that contain component object 210.
At step 310, one or more of the systems described herein may perform a security action on the unknown document in response to determining that the component object was used to create the unknown document. For example, security module 110 may, as part of computing device 202 in
The systems described herein may perform step 310 in any suitable manner. For example, security module 110 may, in response to determining that component object 210 is contained within component objects 126, (1) convict unknown document 208 as being malicious, (2) scan unknown document 208 for malware, (3) flag unknown document 208 as a possible new variant of one of malicious documents 122, and/or (4) delete, quarantine, disarm, neutralize, and/or otherwise prevent a user from opening or accessing unknown document 208 and/or an electronic message to which unknown document 208 has been attached.
In some examples, as part of convicting unknown document 208 as being malicious, security module 110 may determine a confidence level for the conviction of unknown document 208. In some instances, whether component object 210 was used as part of unknown document 208 in a similar manner that component object 210 was used in at least one of malicious documents 122 may be a good indicator of whether unknown document 208 is or is not likely to be a malicious document. As such, security module 110 may calculate and associate a confidence level with the conviction of unknown document 210 based on whether component object 210 was used as part of unknown document 208 in a similar manner that component object 210 was used in at least one of malicious documents 122. For example, security module 110 may calculate a high confidence level if component object 210 was used as part of unknown document 208 in the same manner that component object 210 was used in at least one of malicious documents 122. Alternatively, security module 110 may calculate a low confidence level if component object 210 was not used as part of unknown document 208 in a similar manner that component object 210 was used in at least one of malicious documents 122.
In some instances, the number of malicious documents 122 within which component object 210 has been used may be a good indicator of whether unknown document 208 is or is not likely to be a malicious document. As such, security module 110 may calculate and associate a confidence level with the conviction of unknown document 210 based on how many of malicious documents 122 contain component object 210. For example, security module 110 may calculate a high confidence level if the number of malicious documents 122 that contain component object 210 is high. Alternatively, security module 110 may calculate a low confidence level if the number of malicious documents 122 that contained component object 210 is low.
In at least one example, security module 110 may exonerate unknown document 208 if the confidence level associated with the conviction of unknown document 208 is below a predetermine threshold. By exonerating unknown documents that have been convicted with low confidence levels, security module 110 may reduce or eliminate false-positive malicious-document convictions.
As explained above, by detecting when an unknown document (e.g., a document that is not known to be malicious or benign) contains a component object that is also contained within one or more documents that are known to be malicious and/or by detecting when the unknown document contains a component object that is exclusively contained within documents that are known to be malicious, the systems and methods described herein may enable detection of malicious documents based on component-object reuse. Furthermore, in some examples, by determining whether a component object contained within an unknown document is also contained within a large number of distinct malicious documents and/or whether the component object has been used within the unknown document in a similar manner as the component object has been used in other malicious documents, the systems and methods described herein may reduce or eliminate false-positive malicious document convictions.
Moreover, in at least some examples, the systems and methods described herein may detect malicious documents based on component-object reuse regardless of whether the component objects that are being reused are themselves malicious. For example, the systems and methods described herein may convict an unknown document as being a malicious document in response to detecting that the unknown document contains a benign component object that is also contained within a document that is known to be malicious.
For example, the systems and methods described herein may determine that an unknown document is a malicious or potentially malicious document by (1) identifying documents that are known to be malicious or benign, (2) identifying component objects that are contained exclusively within the documents that are known to be malicious, and (3) determining that the unknown document contains at least one of these component objects. In at least one example, the systems and methods described herein may determine that an unknown document is not a malicious or potentially malicious document by determining that the unknown document does not contain one of these component objects.
Computing system 710 broadly represents any single or multi-processor computing device or system capable of executing computer-readable instructions. Examples of computing system 710 include, without limitation, workstations, laptops, client-side terminals, servers, distributed computing systems, handheld devices, or any other computing system or device. In its most basic configuration, computing system 710 may include at least one processor 714 and a system memory 716.
Processor 714 generally represents any type or form of physical processing unit (e.g., a hardware-implemented central processing unit) capable of processing data or interpreting and executing instructions. In certain embodiments, processor 714 may receive instructions from a software application or module. These instructions may cause processor 714 to perform the functions of one or more of the exemplary embodiments described and/or illustrated herein.
System memory 716 generally represents any type or form of volatile or non-volatile storage device or medium capable of storing data and/or other computer-readable instructions. Examples of system memory 716 include, without limitation, Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), flash memory, or any other suitable memory device. Although not required, in certain embodiments computing system 710 may include both a volatile memory unit (such as, for example, system memory 716) and a non-volatile storage device (such as, for example, primary storage device 732, as described in detail below). In one example, one or more of modules 102 from
In certain embodiments, exemplary computing system 710 may also include one or more components or elements in addition to processor 714 and system memory 716. For example, as illustrated in
Memory controller 718 generally represents any type or form of device capable of handling memory or data or controlling communication between one or more components of computing system 710. For example, in certain embodiments memory controller 718 may control communication between processor 714, system memory 716, and I/O controller 720 via communication infrastructure 712.
I/O controller 720 generally represents any type or form of module capable of coordinating and/or controlling the input and output functions of a computing device. For example, in certain embodiments I/O controller 720 may control or facilitate transfer of data between one or more elements of computing system 710, such as processor 714, system memory 716, communication interface 722, display adapter 726, input interface 730, and storage interface 734.
Communication interface 722 broadly represents any type or form of communication device or adapter capable of facilitating communication between exemplary computing system 710 and one or more additional devices. For example, in certain embodiments communication interface 722 may facilitate communication between computing system 710 and a private or public network including additional computing systems. Examples of communication interface 722 include, without limitation, a wired network interface (such as a network interface card), a wireless network interface (such as a wireless network interface card), a modem, and any other suitable interface. In at least one embodiment, communication interface 722 may provide a direct connection to a remote server via a direct link to a network, such as the Internet. Communication interface 722 may also indirectly provide such a connection through, for example, a local area network (such as an Ethernet network), a personal area network, a telephone or cable network, a cellular telephone connection, a satellite data connection, or any other suitable connection.
In certain embodiments, communication interface 722 may also represent a host adapter configured to facilitate communication between computing system 710 and one or more additional network or storage devices via an external bus or communications channel. Examples of host adapters include, without limitation, Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) host adapters, Universal Serial Bus (USB) host adapters, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1394 host adapters, Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA), Parallel ATA (PATA), Serial ATA (SATA), and External SATA (eSATA) host adapters, Fibre Channel interface adapters, Ethernet adapters, or the like. Communication interface 722 may also allow computing system 710 to engage in distributed or remote computing. For example, communication interface 722 may receive instructions from a remote device or send instructions to a remote device for execution.
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
In certain embodiments, storage devices 732 and 733 may be configured to read from and/or write to a removable storage unit configured to store computer software, data, or other computer-readable information. Examples of suitable removable storage units include, without limitation, a floppy disk, a magnetic tape, an optical disk, a flash memory device, or the like. Storage devices 732 and 733 may also include other similar structures or devices for allowing computer software, data, or other computer-readable instructions to be loaded into computing system 710. For example, storage devices 732 and 733 may be configured to read and write software, data, or other computer-readable information. Storage devices 732 and 733 may also be a part of computing system 710 or may be a separate device accessed through other interface systems.
Many other devices or subsystems may be connected to computing system 710. Conversely, all of the components and devices illustrated in
The computer-readable medium containing the computer program may be loaded into computing system 710. All or a portion of the computer program stored on the computer-readable medium may then be stored in system memory 716 and/or various portions of storage devices 732 and 733. When executed by processor 714, a computer program loaded into computing system 710 may cause processor 714 to perform and/or be a means for performing the functions of one or more of the exemplary embodiments described and/or illustrated herein. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the exemplary embodiments described and/or illustrated herein may be implemented in firmware and/or hardware. For example, computing system 710 may be configured as an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) adapted to implement one or more of the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein.
Client systems 810, 820, and 830 generally represent any type or form of computing device or system, such as exemplary computing system 710 in
As illustrated in
Servers 840 and 845 may also be connected to a Storage Area Network (SAN) fabric 880. SAN fabric 880 generally represents any type or form of computer network or architecture capable of facilitating communication between a plurality of storage devices. SAN fabric 880 may facilitate communication between servers 840 and 845 and a plurality of storage devices 890(1)-(N) and/or an intelligent storage array 895. SAN fabric 880 may also facilitate, via network 850 and servers 840 and 845, communication between client systems 810, 820, and 830 and storage devices 890(1)-(N) and/or intelligent storage array 895 in such a manner that devices 890(1)-(N) and array 895 appear as locally attached devices to client systems 810, 820, and 830. As with storage devices 860(1)-(N) and storage devices 870(1)-(N), storage devices 890(1)-(N) and intelligent storage array 895 generally represent any type or form of storage device or medium capable of storing data and/or other computer-readable instructions.
In certain embodiments, and with reference to exemplary computing system 710 of
In at least one embodiment, all or a portion of one or more of the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein may be encoded as a computer program and loaded onto and executed by server 840, server 845, storage devices 860(1)-(N), storage devices 870(1)-(N), storage devices 890(1)-(N), intelligent storage array 895, or any combination thereof. All or a portion of one or more of the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein may also be encoded as a computer program, stored in server 840, run by server 845, and distributed to client systems 810, 820, and 830 over network 850.
As detailed above, computing system 710 and/or one or more components of network architecture 800 may perform and/or be a means for performing, either alone or in combination with other elements, one or more steps of an exemplary method for detecting malicious documents based on component-object reuse.
While the foregoing disclosure sets forth various embodiments using specific block diagrams, flowcharts, and examples, each block diagram component, flowchart step, operation, and/or component described and/or illustrated herein may be implemented, individually and/or collectively, using a wide range of hardware, software, or firmware (or any combination thereof) configurations. In addition, any disclosure of components contained within other components should be considered exemplary in nature since many other architectures can be implemented to achieve the same functionality.
In some examples, all or a portion of exemplary system 100 in
In various embodiments, all or a portion of exemplary system 100 in
According to various embodiments, all or a portion of exemplary system 100 in
In some examples, all or a portion of exemplary system 100 in
In addition, all or a portion of exemplary system 100 in
In some embodiments, all or a portion of exemplary system 100 in
According to some examples, all or a portion of exemplary system 100 in
The process parameters and sequence of steps described and/or illustrated herein are given by way of example only and can be varied as desired. For example, while the steps illustrated and/or described herein may be shown or discussed in a particular order, these steps do not necessarily need to be performed in the order illustrated or discussed. The various exemplary methods described and/or illustrated herein may also omit one or more of the steps described or illustrated herein or include additional steps in addition to those disclosed.
While various embodiments have been described and/or illustrated herein in the context of fully functional computing systems, one or more of these exemplary embodiments may be distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, regardless of the particular type of computer-readable media used to actually carry out the distribution. The embodiments disclosed herein may also be implemented using software modules that perform certain tasks. These software modules may include script, batch, or other executable files that may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium or in a computing system. In some embodiments, these software modules may configure a computing system to perform one or more of the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein.
In addition, one or more of the modules described herein may transform data, physical devices, and/or representations of physical devices from one form to another. For example, one or more of the modules recited herein may receive a plurality of malicious and/or benign documents to be transformed, transform the plurality of malicious and/or benign documents into a plurality of component objects that are contained within at least one of the plurality of malicious documents and/or not contained within any of the plurality of benign documents, output a result of the transformation to a system for detecting malicious documents based on component-object reuse, use the result of the transformation to detect a malicious or potentially malicious document by determining that an unknown document was created using one of the component objects from the plurality of component objects, and store the result of the transformation to the system for detecting malicious documents based on component-object reuse. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the modules recited herein may transform a processor, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, and/or any other portion of a physical computing device from one form to another by executing on the computing device, storing data on the computing device, and/or otherwise interacting with the computing device.
The preceding description has been provided to enable others skilled in the art to best utilize various aspects of the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein. This exemplary description is not intended to be exhaustive or to be limited to any precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the instant disclosure. The embodiments disclosed herein should be considered in all respects illustrative and not restrictive. Reference should be made to the appended claims and their equivalents in determining the scope of the instant disclosure.
Unless otherwise noted, the terms “connected to” and “coupled to” (and their derivatives), as used in the specification and claims, are to be construed as permitting both direct and indirect (i.e., via other elements or components) connection. In addition, the terms “a” or “an,” as used in the specification and claims, are to be construed as meaning “at least one of.” Finally, for ease of use, the terms “including” and “having” (and their derivatives), as used in the specification and claims, are interchangeable with and have the same meaning as the word “comprising.”
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/839,363, filed 25 Jun. 2013, the disclosure of which is incorporated, in its entirety, by this reference.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61839363 | Jun 2013 | US |
