Symantec Corporation

Nicholas Graf

Spencer Dale Smith

Adam Glick

Okan Okcu

Sourabh Satish

Jason Andrew Miller

Ian Oliver

Shane Pereira

Scott D Sullivan

Uriel Mann

Mitchell Mikula

Adam Lyle Glice

Lachlan Orr

A method for restoring applications may include: 1) identifying an installation file that includes an application; 2) monitoring the installation file to identify a set of application files generated as a result of installing the application from the installation file; 3) assigning, to each application file in the set of application files, an application identifier that associates each application file in the set of application files with the application; 4) backing up the application by copying each application file in the set of application files to a backup storage system; 5) receiving a request to restore each application file in the set of application files; and 6) restoring the application by using the application identifier to locate each application file in the set of application files within the backup storage system. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for restoring applications

A computer-implemented method for using reputation information to evaluate the trustworthiness of files obtained via torrent transactions may include (1) identifying a torrent file that includes metadata for facilitating a torrent transaction for obtaining a target file via a peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol, (2) identifying at least one entity involved in the torrent transaction, (3) obtaining reputation information associated with the entity involved in the torrent transaction, wherein the reputation information identifies a community's opinion on the trustworthiness of the entity, (4) determining, based at least in part on the reputation information associated with the entity involved in the torrent transaction, that the target file represents a potential security risk, and then (5) performing a security action on the target file. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for using reputation information to evaluate the trustworthiness of files obtained via torrent transactions

A method and apparatus for detecting malware transmission through a web portal is provided. In one embodiment, a method for detecting malicious software transmission through the web portal comprises accessing a security scan history that comprises information regarding a plurality of executables that are scanned upon executable creation and comparing current executable creation activity with the security scan history to identify at least one executable that is not scanned.

Method and apparatus for detecting malicious software transmission through a web portal

A computer-implemented method for detecting fraudulent software applications that generate misleading notifications is disclosed. In one example, such a method may comprise: 1) detecting a notification generated by an application installed on the computing device, 2) accessing criteria for determining, based at least in part on characteristics of the notification, whether the application is trustworthy, 3) determining, by applying the criteria, that the application is untrustworthy, and then 4) performing a security operation on the application. Corresponding systems and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for detecting fraudulent software applications that generate misleading notifications

A computer-implemented method for user-directed malware remediation may include 1) identifying a window within a graphical user interface of a computing environment, 2) identifying a user-directed interface event directed at the window, 3) determining, based at least in part on the user-directed interface event, that a process represented by the window poses a security risk, and 4) performing a remediation action on the process based on determining that the process poses the security risk. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for user-directed malware remediation

Computer-implemented methods and systems for using tiered signing certificates to manage the behavior of executables are disclosed. In one example, a method for performing such a task may include: 1) identifying an executable file, 2) identifying a signing certificate associated with the executable file, 3) identifying, within the signing certificate, a privilege level associated with the executable file, and then 4) managing behavior of the executable file in accordance with the privilege level associated with the executable file. Corresponding methods and systems for generating tiered signing certificates for executable files are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for using tiered signing certificates to manage the behavior of executables

An endpoint on a network uses detection data to detect a malicious software attack. The endpoint identifies content associated with the attack, such as a component of a web page, and generates a description of the content. The endpoint sends the description to a security server. The security server analyzes the content and identifies characteristics of the content that are present when the content is carried by network traffic. The security server generates a traffic signature that specifies the identified characteristics and provides the traffic signature to inspection points. The inspection points, in turn, use the traffic signature to examine network traffic passing through the inspection points to detect network traffic carrying the content. The attack detection at the endpoint thus informs the traffic signature-based detection at the inspection points and reduces the spread of malicious software.

Signature creation for malicious network traffic

A computer-implemented method for automatically detecting and preventing phishing attacks may include (1) maintaining a credentials store for a user of the computing device that identifies both at least one known-legitimate website and credentials associated with the known-legitimate website, (2) detecting an attempt by the user to enter the same credentials that are associated with the known-legitimate website into a new website that is not associated with the credentials in the credentials store, and then, prior to allowing the credentials to pass to the new website, (3) automatically warning the user that the new website potentially represents an attempt to phish the credentials associated with the known-legitimate website from the user. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for automatically detecting and preventing phishing attacks

Malware with fake or misleading anti-malware user interfaces (UIs) are detected. Processes running on a computer system are monitored and their window creation events are detected. The structures of the created windows are retrieved to detect presence of UI features that are commonly presented in known fake or misleading anti-malware UIs ('fakeAVUIs'). If a window includes a UI feature commonly presented in known fakeAVUIs, that window is determined suspicious and additional tests are applied to determine the validity of information in the window. If the information in the window is determined invalid, then the process that created the window is determined to be malware and a remediating action is applied to the process.

User interface based malware detection

Behavior based signatures for identifying applications are generated. An application is monitored as it runs. Specific behaviors concerning the execution of the application are detected, and a behavior based signature representing detected behaviors is created, such that the behavior based signature can be used subsequently to identify instances of the application. Behavior based signatures identifying known malicious and/or non-malicious applications can be used to determine whether other applications comprise malware. To do so, a running application is monitored, and specific behaviors concerning the execution of the application are detected. The detected behaviors are compared to one or more behavior based signatures. Responsive to whether the detected behaviors match, a behavior based signature, it can be determined whether the application comprises malware. An additional malware detection test, such as a heuristic analysis, can also be performed and used in determining whether the application comprises malware.

Behavior based signatures

A computer-implemented method for locating malware may include identifying a malicious behavior in a computing system. The computer-implemented method may also include determining that the malicious behavior arises from a set of interrelated executable objects. The computer-implemented method may further include identifying an executable object recently added to the set of interrelated executable objects. The computer-implemented method may additionally include attributing the malicious behavior to the recently added executable object based on when the recently added executable object was added to the set of interrelated executable objects. The computer-implemented method may also include performing a security action on the recently added executable object. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for locating malware

A method and apparatus for detecting potentially misleading visual representation objects to secure a computer is described. In one embodiment, the method includes monitoring visual representation object creation with respect to the browser, accessing verification information, wherein the verification information comprises commonly used user interface elements for forming legitimate system messages, examining web data associated with the created visual representation objects, wherein the web data is compared with the verification information to identify imitating content within the created visual representation objects and modifying at least one of the created visual representation objects to accentuate the imitating content.

Method and apparatus for detecting potentially misleading visual representation objects to secure a computer

A method and apparatus for securing a computer from malicious threats through generic remediation is described. In one embodiment, the method for securing a computer from malicious threats through generic remediation includes processing at least one malicious threat to the computer, wherein the at least one malicious threat is not associated with a specific remediation technique and examining information regarding prior remediation of the at least one malicious threat by at least one computer to determine at least one remediation technique for the at least one malicious threat.

Method and apparatus for securing a computer from malicious threats through generic remediation

A computer-implemented method may include establishing, within a parental-control software system, an academic-performance policy that defines how academic performance of a student affects at least one parental-control setting enforced on a computing system accessible to the student. The computer-implemented method may also include receiving, via an electronic communication from a school of the student, grade information that indicates the student's academic performance. The computer-implemented method may further include applying the academic-performance policy by updating the parental-control setting commensurate with the student's academic performance. In addition, the computer-implemented method may include detecting an attempt by the student to access a resource of the computing system and applying the updated parental-control setting to control the student's access to the resource of the computing system.

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Culver City, CA, United States of America

Nicholas Graf