Understanding VirusTotal: A Comprehensive Guide

Key Highlights of VirusTotal

Multi-Scanning Aggregation: VirusTotal employs over 70 antivirus scanners and URL/domain blocklisting services to provide a comprehensive analysis of potential threats.
Versatile Threat Analysis: It analyzes files, URLs, domains, and IP addresses to detect various types of malware and malicious content.
Community-Driven Insights: Users can contribute comments and vote on content, enhancing the collective understanding of threats and identifying false positives.

What is VirusTotal?

VirusTotal is a free online service that analyzes files, URLs, domains, and IP addresses for potential malware and other malicious content. It acts as a central hub, aggregating data from numerous antivirus engines and threat detection tools to provide users with comprehensive results. By scanning suspicious items with over 70 antivirus scanners and URL/domain blocklisting services, VirusTotal helps identify viruses, worms, trojans, and other threats that might be missed by individual security solutions.

VirusTotal Alerts Interface

VirusTotal was launched in June 2004 by the Spanish security company Hispasec Sistemas and was later acquired by Google in September 2012. In January 2018, ownership transitioned to Chronicle, a subsidiary of Google. VirusTotal's primary function is multiscanning, where it combines various antivirus products and online scan engines, known as Contributors, to offer a broader perspective on potential threats. This approach allows users to verify if their own antivirus software has missed a virus or to confirm false positives.

How Does VirusTotal Work?

VirusTotal operates using a multi-scanning approach, which involves aggregating results from over 70 antivirus engines and URL/domain blocklisting services. When a user submits a file, URL, domain, or IP address, VirusTotal passes the submission through these various security tools to detect potential malware or malicious content.

Submission Methods

VirusTotal offers multiple methods for submitting files and URLs for analysis:

Public Web Interface: The primary method, allowing users to upload files or submit URLs through a web browser. This interface has the highest scanning priority among publicly available submission methods.
Desktop Uploaders: Applications that can be installed on a computer to facilitate the uploading of files directly from the desktop.
Browser Extensions: Add-ons for web browsers that enable users to quickly scan URLs or files found online.
Programmatic API: An interface that allows developers to integrate VirusTotal's scanning capabilities into their own applications and scripts. This is useful for automating submissions and accessing scan reports.

Analysis and Reporting

Once a file or URL is submitted, VirusTotal generates a detailed report that includes:

Detection Ratio: The number of antivirus engines that flagged the submission as malicious versus the total number of engines used.
Engine Labels: Specific detection labels provided by each antivirus engine (e.g., I-Worm.Allaple.gen).
Additional Information: Some engines provide extra details, such as whether a URL belongs to a botnet or the brand targeted by a phishing site.

Key Features and Capabilities

VirusTotal offers a range of features that make it a valuable tool for cybersecurity professionals, researchers, and everyday users.

Multi-Antivirus Scanning

VirusTotal's core function is to scan submitted files and URLs with over 70 different antivirus tools. This provides a comprehensive analysis, increasing the likelihood of detecting threats that might be missed by a single antivirus solution. The platform aggregates data from multiple antivirus engines and threat detection tools, providing comprehensive results for any user who uploads suspicious files or links.

URL Scanning

In addition to file scanning, VirusTotal analyzes URLs to detect malware, phishing, and other malicious content. This is particularly useful for checking the safety of links received in emails or found online.

IP and Domain Analysis

VirusTotal allows users to analyze IP addresses and domains, providing insights into their reputation and potential malicious activities. This can help identify potentially harmful websites and network infrastructure.

Community Contributions

Users can contribute to VirusTotal by adding comments and voting on files and URLs. This helps the community collectively identify threats and distinguish them from false positives. The VirusTotal Community is a network that allows users to comment on files and URLs and share notes with each other, deepening the collective understanding of potentially harmful content.

API Integration

VirusTotal offers an API that allows developers to integrate its scanning capabilities into their own applications and security systems. This enables automated scanning and analysis of files and URLs, enhancing security workflows. The API allows you to upload and scan files or URLs, access finished scan reports, and make automatic comments without using the website interface.

Advanced Search

VirusTotal provides advanced search capabilities that allow users to search for malware samples, URLs, domains, and IP addresses based on various criteria, such as binary properties, antivirus detection verdicts, and static features. An advanced modifier-based search engine over the dataset of files, domains, URLs, and IPs provides richer details and context about threats, and allows users to download files.

Retro Hunting

Retro hunting enables users to track changes over time and access the evolution of digital context, providing valuable insights into how threats evolve. This feature allows users to track changes over time and access the evolution of digital context.

YARA Rules

VirusTotal supports YARA rules, which are custom rules that can be used to identify malware based on specific patterns and characteristics. This allows users to proactively hunt for threats. Leverage YARA's advanced rule-crafting capabilities for files, urls, domains, and IPs.

Code Insight

VirusTotal leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to generate natural language summaries of the functionalities of code in executable files. This is particularly useful for malware analysis, assisting analysts in understanding the capabilities of malware under investigation.

Benefits of Using VirusTotal

Using VirusTotal offers numerous benefits for both individual users and cybersecurity professionals.

Comprehensive Threat Detection

By aggregating results from multiple antivirus engines, VirusTotal provides a more comprehensive assessment of potential threats than a single antivirus solution. It inspects items with over 70 antivirus scanners and URL/domain blocklisting services, in addition to a myriad of tools to extract signals from the studied content.

Identification of False Positives

VirusTotal helps identify false positives by comparing results from different antivirus engines. If only a few engines flag a file as malicious, it may be a false positive. Scanning reports produced by VirusTotal are shared with the public VirusTotal community where users can contribute comments and vote on whether particular content is harmful to help deepen the community’s collective understanding of potentially harmful content and identify false positives.

Enhanced Security

VirusTotal enhances overall security by allowing users to quickly check suspicious files and URLs before opening them, reducing the risk of infection.

Community Collaboration

The platform promotes collaboration by allowing users to share comments and vote on potential threats, contributing to a collective understanding of malware and malicious content.

Integration with Security Systems

The VirusTotal API enables integration with various security systems, allowing for automated threat analysis and response.

Free Access

VirusTotal is free for basic use, making it accessible to a wide range of users. However, premium features are available for enterprise-level users.

Limitations and Considerations

While VirusTotal is a powerful tool, it is important to be aware of its limitations and use it judiciously.

Not a Replacement for Antivirus Software

VirusTotal is not a substitute for traditional antivirus software. It is a supplementary tool that provides an additional layer of security. While portals such as VirusTotal can help in preliminary triage, it is not enough just to rely on VirusTotal.

Privacy Concerns

Files and URLs submitted to VirusTotal are shared with antivirus vendors and security companies to help them improve their services. Any user can select a file from their computer using their browser and send it to VirusTotal, and upon submitting a file or URL basic results are shared with the submitter, and also between the examining partners, who use results to improve their own systems. Therefore, it is crucial to avoid submitting sensitive or confidential information. Organizations that pay for access can download uploaded files.

Detection Delays

New or emerging threats may not be immediately detected by all antivirus engines. It is common with emerging threats that detections may not exist and VirusTotal may present the user with a low score (less than 10 detections) or even a clean score (0 detections).

Use Cases for VirusTotal

VirusTotal is used in various scenarios by different types of users.

Individual Users

Checking Suspicious Files: Before opening a file received via email or downloaded from the internet, users can upload it to VirusTotal to check for potential malware.
Verifying URL Safety: Users can scan URLs to ensure they are not malicious before visiting a website.

Cybersecurity Professionals

Malware Analysis: VirusTotal is an invaluable resource for malware analysts, providing a quick and comprehensive overview of potential threats.
Incident Response: Incident responders use VirusTotal to analyze suspicious files and URLs during security incidents.
Threat Intelligence: Threat intelligence specialists leverage VirusTotal to gather information about emerging threats and track malware campaigns.

Organizations

Security System Integration: Organizations integrate VirusTotal's API into their security systems to automate threat analysis and enhance security workflows.
False Positive Monitoring: VirusTotal Monitor helps organizations identify and resolve false positive detections, ensuring that legitimate software is not mistakenly flagged as malicious.

Visualizing VirusTotal's Role in Cybersecurity

The following table illustrates how VirusTotal integrates with various cybersecurity functions to enhance threat detection and analysis.

Cybersecurity Function	How VirusTotal Enhances It
Threat Detection	Aggregates results from multiple AV engines to provide a comprehensive view of potential threats.
Malware Analysis	Offers detailed reports on file behavior, including engine labels and community insights, aiding in thorough analysis.
Incident Response	Quickly assesses files and URLs during incidents to identify and contain threats.
Security Integration	Enables automated scanning and analysis through API integration with security systems.
False Positive Reduction	Helps identify and resolve false positives through community feedback and comparative engine results.

This table shows how VirusTotal supports various aspects of cybersecurity by providing a consolidated platform for threat analysis and detection.

Deep Dive into Using VirusTotal

To gain a more practical understanding of VirusTotal, consider watching the following video which provides a beginner-friendly guide on effectively using the platform for threat analysis.

This video demonstrates how to leverage VirusTotal's features to analyze files and URLs, interpret scan results, and contribute to the community. It provides valuable insights for both novice and experienced users looking to enhance their cybersecurity practices.

FAQ

Is VirusTotal a replacement for antivirus software?

No, VirusTotal is not a replacement for antivirus software. It is a supplementary tool that provides an additional layer of security by scanning files and URLs with multiple antivirus engines.

Is VirusTotal free to use?

Yes, VirusTotal is free for basic use, including scanning files and URLs. However, there are premium features available for enterprise-level users.

Are the files I upload to VirusTotal private?

No, files and URLs submitted to VirusTotal are shared with antivirus vendors and security companies to help them improve their services. Therefore, it is crucial to avoid submitting sensitive or confidential information.

How accurate is VirusTotal?

VirusTotal's accuracy depends on the detection capabilities of the antivirus engines it uses. While it provides a comprehensive analysis, it is not foolproof, and new or emerging threats may not be immediately detected by all engines.