• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

U.S. CISA adds Citrix NetScaler ADC and Gateway flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

UK NCA arrested four people over M&S, Co-op cyberattacks

 | 

PerfektBlue Bluetooth attack allows hacking infotainment systems of Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Skoda

 | 

Qantas data breach impacted 5.7 million individuals

 | 

DoNot APT is expanding scope targeting European foreign ministries

 | 

Nippon Steel Solutions suffered a data breach following a zero-day attack

 | 

Iranian group Pay2Key.I2P ramps Up ransomware attacks against Israel and US with incentives for affiliates

 | 

Hackers weaponize Shellter red teaming tool to spread infostealers

 | 

Microsoft Patch Tuesday security updates for July 2025 fixed a zero-day

 | 

Italian police arrested a Chinese national suspected of cyberespionage on a U.S. warrant

 | 

U.S. CISA adds MRLG, PHPMailer, Rails Ruby on Rails, and Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

IT Worker arrested for selling access in $100M PIX cyber heist

 | 

New Batavia spyware targets Russian industrial enterprises

 | 

Taiwan flags security risks in popular Chinese apps after official probe

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Google Chromium V8 flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Hunters International ransomware gang shuts down and offers free decryption keys to all victims

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 52

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 531 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

North Korea-linked threat actors spread macOS NimDoor malware via fake Zoom updates

 | 

Critical Sudo bugs expose major Linux distros to local Root exploits

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Malware
  • URLhaus identified and shut down 100,000 malware sites in 10 Months

URLhaus identified and shut down 100,000 malware sites in 10 Months

Pierluigi Paganini January 23, 2019

Security experts participating in the abuse.ch project called URLhaus have identified and shut down roughly 100,000 malware distribution sites

The abuse.ch project called URLhaus was launched in March 2018 to track websites used to spread malware, it involved 265 researchers worldwide.

In a 10-month period, 265 security researchers around the world have identified in average 300 malware sites each day.

“End of March 2018, abuse.ch launched it’s most recent project called URLhaus. The goal of URLhaus is to collect and share URLs that are being used for distributing malware.” read the post published by Abuse.ch.

“The project is a huge success: with the help of the community, URLhaus was able to takedown almost 100,000 malware distribution sites within just 10 months!

The experts currently identify between 4,000 and 5,000 active malware distribution sites daily. The URLhaus is very important especially for hosting providers because helps them to identify and take over websites hosted in their network

URLhaus

In average, a malware distribution site remains active for more than a week (8 days, 10 hours, 24 minutes) that is considered a sufficient time to infect thousands of device every day.

The analysis of the top malware hosting networks revealed that 2 out of three of the malware URL are hosted in the US or China.

One of the most disconcerting data emerged from the project is related to the takedown time of malware sites hosted in China, Chinese malware hosting networks are very slow in taking action against the abuses, they have an average abuse reaction time of more than a month.
A large number of malware distribution websites tracked by URLhaus are related to Emotet (aka Heodo) that is propagated through spam, followed by the ones related to the Gozi malware and GandCrab ransomware.

“The weight that Emotet has in the current threat landspace also becomes more clear when having a look at the identified malware families associated with the payloads URLhaus received from the tracked malware distribution sites.” continues the analysis published by Abuse.ch. “Across the 380,000 malware samples (payloads) that URLhaus has collected over the past 10 months, Emotet/Heodo is the top malware as the following chart documents.”

The experts pointed out that for the success of the URLhaus project it is crucial an active participation of the entire community.

“URLhaus wouldn’t be successful without the help of the community. But we are not where we should be yet.” concludes the post published by
abuse.ch.

“There is still a long way to go with regards to response time of abuse desks. An average reaction time of more than a week is just too much and proves a bad internet hygiene.” 

[adrotate banner=”9″] [adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Malware, Abuse.ch)

[adrotate banner=”5″] [adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

EMOTET Security Affairs

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 11, 2025
U.S. CISA adds Citrix NetScaler ADC and Gateway flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 10, 2025
UK NCA arrested four people over M&S, Co-op cyberattacks
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    U.S. CISA adds Citrix NetScaler ADC and Gateway flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

    Hacking / July 11, 2025

    UK NCA arrested four people over M&S, Co-op cyberattacks

    Cyber Crime / July 10, 2025

    PerfektBlue Bluetooth attack allows hacking infotainment systems of Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Skoda

    Hacking / July 10, 2025

    Qantas data breach impacted 5.7 million individuals

    Data Breach / July 10, 2025

    DoNot APT is expanding scope targeting European foreign ministries

    APT / July 10, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT