Malware authors quickly adopt SHA-2 through stolen code-signing certificates

As the IT industry is working to phase out the aging SHA-1 hashing algorithm it’s not just website owners and software developers who are scrambling to replace their digital certificates: Cybercriminals are following suit too.

Researchers from Symantec have recently found new samples of the Carberp.B online banking Trojan that were digitally signed with not one, but two stolen certificates: one using a SHA-1 signature and one using a SHA-2 signature.

“It can be safely surmised that the malware author used certificates containing differing algorithms with the hope of thwarting detection,” the Symantec researchers said in a blog post.

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