What counts as ‘malware’? AWS clarifies its definition

Amazon Net Companies had sturdy phrases this week about analysis revealed on a brand new pressure of malware, which was found in its serverless computing service, AWS Lambda.

In a press release (screengrab shared beneath), the general public cloud big went to some lengths to dispute the findings — and within the course of, made an uncommon assertion.

Particularly, the AWS assertion circulated this week to a number of media shops together with VentureBeat mischaracterized what constitutes “malware,” numerous safety consultants confirmed.

The assertion got here in response to research concerning the “Denonia” cryptocurrency mining software program, found by Cado Safety researchers in a Lambda serverless surroundings.

From the AWS assertion: “For the reason that software program depends completely on fraudulently obtained account credentials, it’s a distortion of details to even seek advice from it as malware as a result of it lacks the flexibility to achieve unauthorized entry to any system by itself.”

It’s the second line right here — “it’s a distortion of details to even seek advice from it as malware” — that isn’t appropriate, in accordance with safety consultants.

“Software program doesn’t have to achieve unauthorized entry to a system by itself so as to be thought of malware,” mentioned Allan Liska, intelligence analyst at Recorded Future. “In reality, a lot of the software program that we classify as malware doesn’t achieve unauthorized entry and is as an alternative deployed in a later stage of the assault.”

Malicious intent

Defining the character of a chunk of software program is all concerning the intention of the individual utilizing it, in accordance with Ken Westin, director of safety technique at Cybereason.

Merely put: “If their purpose is to compromise an asset or data with it, then it’s thought of malware,” Westin mentioned.

Some malware variants do have the aptitude to autonomously achieve unauthorized entry to methods, mentioned Alexis Dorais-Joncas, safety intelligence workforce lead at ESET. Probably the most well-known circumstances is NotPetya, which massively unfold by itself, by way of the web, by exploiting a software program vulnerability in Home windows, Dorais-Joncas famous.

Nonetheless, “the overwhelming majority of all packages ESET considers malware do not need that functionality,” he mentioned.

Thus, within the case of Denonia, the one issue that actually issues is that the code was meant to run with out authorization, mentioned Stel Valavanis, founder and CEO of OnShore Safety.

“That’s malware by intent,” Valavanis mentioned.

Cryptomining software program

Denonia seemed to be a custom-made variant of XMRig, a well-liked cryptominer, famous Avi Shua, cofounder and CEO at Orca Safety.

Whereas XMRig can be utilized for non-malicious cryptomining, the overwhelming majority of safety distributors take into account it to be malware, Shua mentioned, citing knowledge from risk intelligence website VirusTotal.

“It’s fairly clear that [Denonia] was malicious,” he mentioned.

The underside line, in accordance with Huntress senior risk researcher Greg Ake, is that malware is “software program with a malicious intent.”

“I might assume an inexpensive jury of friends would discover software program that was put in with the intent to abuse obtainable pc assets — with out the proprietor’s consent, utilizing stolen credentials for private revenue and achieve — could be categorized as malicious intent,” Ake mentioned.

Not a worm

Nonetheless, whereas Denonia is clearly malware, AWS Lambda will not be “susceptible” to it, per se, in accordance with Bogdan Botezatu, director of risk analysis and reporting at Bitdefender.

The malware was seemingly planted via stolen credentials, and “issues would have been utterly completely different if the Denonia malware would be capable to unfold itself from one Labmda occasion to a different — reasonably than get copied on cases via stolen credentials,” Botezatu mentioned. “This could make it a worm, which might have devastating penalties.”

And this distinction, finally, appears to have been the actual level that AWS was making an attempt to make.

VentureBeat contacted AWS for touch upon the truth that many safety consultants don’t agree that deeming Denonia to be malware is a “distortion of details.” The cloud big responded Friday with a brand new assertion — suggesting that what the corporate meant to say was that Denonia will not be actually “Lambda-focused malware.”

“Calling Denonia a Lambda-focused malware is a distortion of truth, because it doesn’t use any vulnerability within the Lambda service,” AWS mentioned within the new assertion.

“Denonia doesn’t goal Lambda utilizing any of the actions included within the accepted definition of malware,” the assertion says. “It’s merely malicious software program configured to efficiently execute by way of Lambda, not due to Lambda or with any Lambda-exclusive achieve.”

So there you could have it. The sooner AWS assertion is included beneath.