Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Half of the Websites Using WebAssembly Use it for Malicious Purposes

posted by martyb on Thursday January 09 2020, @08:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the noscript dept.

NPC-131072 writes:

From ZDNet:

Around half of the websites that use WebAssembly, a new web technology, use it for malicious purposes, according to academic research published last year.

WebAssembly is a low-level bytecode language that was created after a joint collaboration between all major browser vendors.

[...] However, while the vast majority of samples were used for legitimate purposes, two categories of Wasm code stood out as inherently malicious.

The first category was WebAssembly code used for cryptocurrency-mining. These types of Wasm modules were often found on hacked sites, part of so-called cryptojacking (drive-by mining) attacks.

The second category referred to WebAssembly code packed inside obfuscated Wasm modules that intentionally hid their content. These modules, the research team said, were found [as] part of malvertising campaigns.

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Half of the Websites Using WebAssembly Use it for Malicious Purposes | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 30 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 09 2020, @09:10PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 09 2020, @09:10PM (#941596)

    You've made a great argument against JavaScript, but a very poor one in favor of WebAssembly.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +3  
       Troll=1, Touché=4, Total=5
    Extra 'Touché' Modifier   0  
    Total Score:   3  

  • (Score: 2) by Unixnut on Thursday January 09 2020, @09:11PM (1 child)

    by Unixnut (5779) on Thursday January 09 2020, @09:11PM (#941598)

    > You've made a great argument against JavaScript, but a very poor one in favor of WebAssembly.

    How so?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 10 2020, @03:28PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 10 2020, @03:28PM (#941897)

      webpages are like books in a library.
      books with colors are maybe websites with css?
      books that pop-up are maybe websites with javascript and books written with poisonous water soluble ink are probably websites with webassembly?