14 DAY TRIAL // Qualys, a global provider of on-demand vulnerability scanning and standards compliance certification, has launched a new malware detection service aimed at webmasters. Named QualysGuard Malware Detection, the free service can identify infections in Web pages and alert website owners.
Web infections have risen up to become one of the major conduits of malware distribution on the Internet. Tens of thousands of legit Web pages are compromised each day and riddled with malicious IFrames or scripts that load exploit cocktails from remote servers.
The purpose of these attacks is generally to silently install malware onto visitors' computers, a technique known as a drive-by-download. This is done by exploiting vulnerabilities in outdated versions of popular software such as Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Reader, Internet Explorer or Firefox.
Most of the times, websites are infected through cross-site scripting weaknesses or SQL injection vulnerabilities, but other methods, such as using stolen FTP credentials, have also been observed. While the new service announced by Qualys at the RSA conference on Monday will not determine how the website was compromised, it promises to detect any suspicious behavior on websites with a low false positive rate.
QualysGuard Malware Detection uses two methods of analysis – static and behavioral. The static type involves scanning the source code for known malware patterns, while for the behavioral analysis, the Web page is loaded with a vulnerable browser in a virtual environment and observed.
The service will scan websites on a daily basis and will notify the admin of any suspicious behavior or code snippets. "We created QualysGuard Malware Detection as a way to fight against cybercrime and to make the Web a safer place for everyone. This is a comprehensive free solution that arms businesses of all sizes to monitor malware threats on their web sites and take steps to remediate vulnerabilities," commented Qualys' Chairman and CEO, Philippe Courtot.