The rise of malware designed to infect Linux servers' distributed denial-of-service attacks has earned greater attention from VirusTotal, the Google-owned go-to tool for malware hunters. For security researchers that need to stay on top of emerging malware threats, the VirusTotal malware database has become an integral tool.
Anyone can upload a suspicious file to the web tool to check whether the dozen or so antivirus engines, such as Kaspersky, McAfee, Symantec, and other equivalents, detect it as malware. The tool is meant for good guys, but as one researcher found last year, black hat hackers were also using the service to test their malware against antivirus products prior to releasing it in the wild - despite the tool's shortcomings for comparative analysis.

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