Malware Challenge Results

After longer than I would have liked, the malware challenge results are in and posted!

There were alot of great submissions but unfortunately, we could only choose so many to receive prizes. In the end, we looked at the ones we felt gave the most information, presented it the best and would allow someone to learn from their paper.

Some quick stats on the challenge, we had over 900 downloads of the malware sample. Fortunately, we didn't have that many submissions. Most of the hits on the site came from the US, followed by Romania and Russia. Also, over 50% of the hits on the site were from Firefox!

I'd like to send a thank you to all the sponsors who donated prizes. Without them, we would not have been able to have such a great turnout. We're already thinking about the 2009 Challenge!

Any suggestions on how we could have done better? Send them our way!

Malware Challenge Contest In Full Swing!

The malware challenge contest began yesterday and from what we can tell its very popular. According to our logs, we had over 100 downloads of the malware for the challenge from over a dozen countries.

For those who don't know yet, the malware challenge is a contest to analyze a piece of malware and find out what it does. The contest runs from October 1 to October 26 and the results will be presented at the Ohio Information Security Summit. Of course, we have lots of cool prizes to give away!

We have made the contest so that if you are new to malware analysis you'll still have a great shot at winning prizes. We're going to be looking more at the way people analyze the malware as opposed to if they get the right answers. In other words, if you unsure about it still participate. The worst that can happen is you learn something in the process and win a cool prize!

Also, thanks to all who have been helping advertise it! Without you no one would know about the contest.

I look forward to seeing everyone's submission!

Malware Analysis Contest

Last night at the NE Ohio Information Security Forum and the Security Justice podcast, I made an announcement about a malware analysis contest that Greg and I are putting on.

Starting from October 1, 2008 and ending October 26, 2008 we will be running a malware analysis challenge at http://www.malwarechallenge.info. In the challenge participants will download a malware sample to analyze. The site will have a list of questions for participants to answer and send in. We will judge the answers and those scoring the highest will win prizes.

We have some great prizes donated by some very cool companies. To only name some, Hex-Rays is donating a copy of IDA Pro and No Starch Press is donating a copy of Chris Eagle's IDA Pro book. Addison-Wesley and KoreLogic Security are also donating prizes (yet to be announced).

I want to emphasize that you don't need to be a malware analysis expert in order to have a chance to win. The challenge is about learning. You don't need to get the answers 100% correct in order to win a prize. The goal is to learn malware analysis skills, try out new tools and have some fun in the process.

We're also looking for more companies to donate prizes. If you think your company would like to donate something for the contest, please contact me.

Please spread the word about the challenge. I'll be posting again once the challenge goes live to remind everyone!