Malware

SophosLabs: It’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow and the spammers are out in force to make the most of unwitting shoppers on the international day of love. Looking to buy a present for someone this Valentine’s Day? Ooh look what popped into my inbox, an email inviting me to buy my Valentine an *ahem* “romantic” gift. Valentine's Day, the 14th February, is the day we celebrate our feelings of affection for our boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands and wives. It is traditional to do this with a special romantic gift. Looking for a Valentine's Day Gift for him or the perfect token of love for her? Look no further than here! ...

Sorin Mustaca wrote at Avira TechBlog: In case you’ve seen this on Facebook, try to not click on it even if you understand French (it appears to be only in Franch) because it will take you on a road where you don’t want to be. But, we like to live dangerous, so we analyzed this for you. Continue Reading at Avira TechBlog: http://techblog.avira.com/2012/02/13/new-captcha-method-or-just-another-likejacking-scam/en/

SophosLabs: ComputerWorld today reports that the UK’s Metropolitan Police has warned Windows users of a malware attack that poses as a message from the computer crime-fighting cops themselves. The ransomware attack attempts to lock the computer, and posing as an unofficial notice from a law enforcement agency, claims that the victim’s PC has been determined to have visited illegal websites. Only payment for a fine, claims the message, will restore the computer’s functionality. ...

The Hacker News: Roland Dela Paz, a threat response engineer with Trend Micro have discovered a piece of malicious software that automatically uploads its stolen data cache to the SendSpace file-sharing service for retrieval. File-storage services offer several advantages for cybercriminals. SendSpace accepts files and then generates a link that can be shared with other people to download the content in the files. The malware has been configured to send files, copy the download link and send it to a command-and-control server along with the password needed to access the archive, Dela Paz wrote. ...

SophosLabs: Beware of malware lurking on news websites claiming to containing breaking news stories. I’ve seen a worrying number of Facebook users posting the same status messages today, claiming that the United States has attacked Iran and Saudi Arabia in a move heralding the beginning of World War 3. Well, that would certainly get your attention, wouldn’t it? A typical status message looks like the following: ...

The H-Security: Unknown attackers have tried to use an invitation to a prestigious conference to inject a Trojan into companies in the defense sector. The security firms Seculert and Zscaler report that opening an attached PDF flyer caused recipients’ computers to be infected with spyware via a previously undisclosed hole in Acrobat Reader. According to the report, the attack mainly targeted government-related organizations, including military and aerospace contractors, in Europe and in the US. The security firms said that the attacks started back in 2009 and peaked in autumn 2010. Talking to The H’s associates at heise Security, Seculert CTO Aviv Raff added that compromised computers, some of which had been infected for two years, were only discovered a few weeks ago. ...

GFI: You’re probably aware that Megaupload has wandered into what can only be described as a bit of a pickle, assuming said pickle is roughly the size of a Vogon Constructor Fleet. Given that lots of people probably want to take a peek at the FBI Anti-Warning currently pasted across the front of Megaupload.com (or maybe even just see if the site is back online), it’s a fair bet that Ye Olde Typo Fairy will be called into action and some of them will end up going to Megaupload(dot)cm. ...

Earlier today we have seen a new Facebook clickjacking scam which spreads quite fast. I KNOW WHEN YOU LOOK AT MY PROFILE USING THIS: http://bit.ly/ NEW! See who views your profile! www..com Do you want to know who is looking at your photos right now? Find out who looks at your profile the most and what they look at! or other variant even more provocative: CLICK HERE TO SEE WHO IS STALKING YOU: http://bit.ly NEW! See who views your profile! www..com Do you want to know who is looking at your photos right now? Find out who looks at your profile the most and what they look at! ...

Microsoft Malware Protection Center: Facebook malware attacks are not new. Scams spreading via status updates have been around for a long time, but in recent weeks one threat has been getting creative in terms of social engineering. Backdoor:Win32/Caphaw.A can intercept URL requests in both Firefox and Internet Explorer and it has been observed to post very personable updates on friends’ walls in Facebook, gaining access if the user is logged in. ...

The H-Security: In a blog posting, the MyBB development team has confirmed that the download package for version 1.6.4 of MyBB had been modified to include malicious code. Unknown attackers were able to exploit a vulnerability in the MyBB web site’s CMS (content management system) to inject and execute PHP code. The attackers placed a contaminated version of MyBB, containing a backdoor, on the server. It is unclear exactly when the hack took place, meaning that all downloads of 1.6.4 prior to 6 October could be affected. Users with MyBB systems are advised to check their installations and apply a patch. For rapid disinfection, the developers are advising users to replace the /index.php file with a clean version and to delete the /install/ directory. ...

GFI Labs Blog: We’ve noted this before, but Microsoft needs to get a handle on ad placements on Bing. Ok, so Bing isn’t the most widely used search engine, but remember that Yahoo plays a part here as well. In this case, we’re talking Sirefef (ZeroAccess aka Max++), probably the nastiest piece of malware circulating on the ‘net right now. Sirefef kills any attempt to remove it, and is nearly impossible to clean (short of booting onto a rescue disk and performing cleanup actions, or reformatting). ...

Schneier on Security: A newly discovered piece of malware, Duqu, seems to be a precursor to the next Stuxnet-like worm and uses some of the same techniques as the original. Link to Source Symantec: W32.Duqu: The Precursor to the Next Stuxnet Duqu is essentially the precursor to a future Stuxnet-like attack. The threat was written by the same authors (or those that have access to the Stuxnet source code) and appears to have been created since the last Stuxnet file was recovered. Duqu’s purpose is to gather intelligence data and assets from entities, such as industrial control system manufacturers, in order to more easily conduct a future attack against another third party. The attackers are looking for information such as design documents that could help them mount a future attack on an industrial control facility. Read Full Article ...

Mashable: As reports of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s death circulate on the Internet, so is a gruesome cellphone photo of what appears to be his severely wounded body and another that appears to be his dead body. Both are likely opportunities for spammers with bad intentions. The first photo was distributed by the news agency AFP after commanders for Libya’s transitional military, the National Transitional Council (NTC), said they had captured Gaddafi after invading his hometown of Sirte. On Thursday, an NTC spokesperson told the New York Times Gaddafi had been killed, but the U.S. State Department had still not confirmed his death as of 10:00 a.m. ET. ...

SophosLabs: A fascinating new example of Mac malware has been discovered, that appears to be adopting an old Windows-style disguise to fool users into running it. Despite the numerous times that cybercriminals have created boobytrapped PDF files that exploit vulnerabilities to infect unsuspecting users, many people still think that PDF files are somehow magically safer to open than conventional programs. The OSX/Revir-B Trojan plays on this by posing as a PDF file. ...

The H-Security: The BitTorrent company has confirmed that its uTorrent servers were hacked on Tuesday 13 September and, for almost two hours, anyone downloading the uTorrent client software from the servers received a scareware fake anti-virus package instead. The malware package has been identified as belonging to the “Security Shield” family of scareware; once installed, it falsely informs a user that malware has been detected on their machine and requests payment in order to clean the system. ...