Skip to main content

Anatomy of Exploit Kits

Preliminary Analysis of Exploit Kits as Software Artefacts

  • Conference paper
Engineering Secure Software and Systems (ESSoS 2013)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNSC,volume 7781))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

In this paper we report a preliminary analysis of the source code of over 30 different exploit kits which are the main tool behind drive-by-download attacks. The analysis shows that exploit kits make use of a very limited number of vulnerabilities and in a rather unsophisticated fashion. Their key strength is rather their ability to support “customers” in avoiding detection, monitoring traffic, and managing exploits.

Work partly supported by the European Union by the Erasmus Mundus Action 2 Programme and the Project EU-FP7-SEC-CP-SECONOMICS.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 72.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Internet security threat report (April 2012), http://www.symantec.com/threatreport (Checked on September 10, 2012)

  2. Coogan, P.: Fragus exploit kit changes the business model (February 2010), http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/fragus-exploit-kit-changes-business-model (Checked on September 10, 2012)

  3. Cova, M., Kruegel, C., Vigna, G.: There is no free phish: an analysis of ‘free’ and live phishing kits. In: Proceedings of WOOT 2008, pp. 4:1–4:8 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Franklin, J., Paxson, V., Perrig, A., Savage, S.: An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of internet miscreants. In: Proceedings of CCS 2007, pp. 375–388 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Fraser, H.: Exploring black hole exploit kit (March 2012), http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/exploring-the-blackhole-exploit-kit (Checked on September 10, 2012)

  6. Grier, C., Ballard, L., Caballero, J., Chachra, N., Dietrich, C.J., Levchenko, K., Mavrommatis, P., McCoy, D., Nappa, A., Pitsillidis, A., Provos, N., Rafique, M.Z., Rajab, M.A., Rossow, C., Thomas, K., Paxson, V., Savage, S., Voelker, G.M.: Manufacturing compromise: the emergence of exploit-as-a-service. In: Proceedings of the 2012 ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, CCS 2012, pp. 821–832. ACM, New York (2012)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  7. Guido, D.: A case study of intelligence-driven defense. IEEE Security Privacy 9(6), 67–70 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Herley, C., Florencio, D.: Nobody sells gold for the price of silver: Dishonesty, uncertainty and the underground economy. In: Economics of Information Security and Privacy (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Motoyama, M., McCoy, D., Savage, S., Voelker, G.M.: An analysis of underground forums. In: Proceedings of ICM 2011 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Namestnikov, Y.: IT threat evolution: Q1 2012 (May 2012), http://www.securelist.com/en/analysis/204792231/IT_Threat_Evolution_Q1_2012 (Checked on September 10, 2012)

  11. Naranie, R.: Drive-by downloads. The web under siege (April 2009) (Checked on September 10, 2012)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Preuss, M., Diaz, V.: Exploit kits - a different view (February 2011), http://www.securelist.com/en/analysis/204792160/Exploit_Kits_A_Different_View (Checked on September 10, 2012)

  13. Zhuge, J., Holz, T., Song, C., Guo, J., Han, X., Zou, W.: Studying malicious websites and the underground economy on the chinese web. In: Proceedings of MIRES, pp. 225–244 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Kotov, V., Massacci, F. (2013). Anatomy of Exploit Kits. In: Jürjens, J., Livshits, B., Scandariato, R. (eds) Engineering Secure Software and Systems. ESSoS 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7781. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36563-8_13

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36563-8_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-36562-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-36563-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics