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Malware Sample Sources for Researchers

Malware researchers have the need to collect malware samples to research threat techniques and develop defenses. Researchers can collect such samples using honeypots. They can also download samples from known malicious URLs. They can also obtain malware samples from the following sources:

• Contagio Malware Dump: Free; password required
• KernelMode.info: Free; registration required
• Malshare: Free
• Malware.lu: Free; registration required
• MalwareBlacklist: Free; registration required
• MD Pro: Commercial
• NovCon Twitter EXE Parsing: Free; provides links to live sites; may include benign files
• NovCon Twitter EXE Parsing: Free; provides links to potentially-malicious executables shared on Twitter
• Open Malware: Free
• SecuBox Labs: Free
• VirusShare: Free

Be careful not to infect yourself when accessing and experimenting with malicious software!

Thanks to Mila for outlining many of these sources in her blog posting on the topic.

My other lists of on-line security resources outline Automated Malware Analysis Services and On-Line Tools for Malicious Website Lookups.