[Plugins-writers] New Spyware Project with Nessus and Bleeding Snort!!!

From: Matt Jonkman (matt@private)
Date: Fri Oct 15 2004 - 15:51:50 PDT


I'm very excited to announce a new project to fight spyware!!

A bleeding snort user's suggestion has brought about a very promising
idea and relationship fostered along by Renaud Deraison of Nessus. The
goal of the project is to enhance the detection and identification of
spyware.

What we intend to do is build a partnership between the Nessus
community, the Bleeding Snort community, and a spyware
detection/cleaning project. The aim will be to identify new and existing
spyware packages to simultaneously:

1. Write a Nessus plugin to detect it's presence

2. Write a snort signature to detect it on the network

3. Add the package to the applicable spyware cleaning package

4. Make the spyware and it's cleaning procedures publicly known and
accessible

We hope this project will help keep all of the detection and cleaning
methods moving forward at the same pace, thus making it much more
difficult for the spyware makers to slip past us.

Using Nessus to detect some of these things will be difficult. But that
functionality will bring Nessus another even further ahead of it's
commercial peers. Adding more snort signatures to bleeding snort will
only make the project more effective as well. We hope the benefit to a
spyware detection project will be just as clear.

What we need to get the project going are snort and nessus volunteers
and a partner in the spyware field. We welcome as many spyware experts
as possible into the project.

There has been a great deal of research done on the registry keys and
propagation methods of spyware. This project will be starting out a good
deal behind, but with plenty of information available. We need a spyware
expert that can guide the project toward the more important packages,
and toward identifying the newest spyware as it's released. We hope that
the benefit for the spyware expert will be not just to participate in a
worthwhile cause, but to benefit from the new spyware that can be
identified through the methods developed within the project.

We need a number of people that have experience with Nessus and writing
  NASL plugins. As most spyware in windows based, some windows expertise
would be helpful, but certainly not required.

We intend to draw on the existing snort rule writing resources in the
bleeding snort community that have been so forthcoming with their time
to date. However any volunteers on the snort side that want to be
directly involved or have a particular interest please let us know.

All volunteers can email bloodyspyware@private to get
involved. Remember, extensive experience is not a requirement, just a
desire to learn and time to chip in.

While this is a purely volunteer and open-source spirited project, we do
welcome commercial involvement from organizations that can contribute to
these efforts. Please email at the above address or myself directly if
you're interested. All queries will remain confidential if a
relationship does not materialize.

Thanks all, and we hope to hear from you soon. Watch Bleedingsnort.com
and Nessus.org for updates and links to the coming home of the project.

Matthew Jonkman
Bleedingsnort.com

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