|
uniqs 27 |
|
|
|
|
HowDoesItWork to mysec
Anon
2009-Apr-20 10:34 am
to mysec
Re: foxnews.com infected?So how does this infection work and is it really such a big deal? How does it actually infect your system?
Doesn't it just exploit some vulnerabilities in the usual suspects (IE, Adobe Reader, Flash, Java etc) or try to cheat the user to first click yes to the download prompt and then execute their scamware executable? If your software is patched and you have smarts enough to not click yes to everything, is this thing any threat at all? Or ks this a problem just for that mass of people who run with unpatched IE under admin account...
Thanks. | | |
said by HowDoesItWork :
If your software is patched and you have smarts enough to not click yes to everything, is this thing any threat at all? Since many users are not aware of the fact that if they try to tell the pop-up "no thanks" by clicking on the usual "close" or "Cancel" buttons they see on their screen, they will probably get the download/install anyway ... I would think that it is a threat to even those with patched machines. Not everyone knows to use Task Manager or other methods to get out of its grasp. | | moonpuppy (banned) join:2000-08-21 Glen Burnie, MD |
to HowDoesItWork
said by HowDoesItWork :
So how does this infection work and is it really such a big deal? How does it actually infect your system?
Doesn't it just exploit some vulnerabilities in the usual suspects (IE, Adobe Reader, Flash, Java etc) or try to cheat the user to first click yes to the download prompt and then execute their scamware executable? If your software is patched and you have smarts enough to not click yes to everything, is this thing any threat at all? Or ks this a problem just for that mass of people who run with unpatched IE under admin account...
Thanks. I thought my system was fully patched. I will say that I did NOT initiate any download and I NEVER click on pop-ups or any ads. In fact, IF I see something I like, I will manually copy the link and Google it first. | | | |
HowDoesItWork to katarina2
Anon
2009-Apr-20 11:09 am
to katarina2
quote: Since many users are not aware of the fact that if they try to tell the pop-up "no thanks" by clicking on the usual "close" or "Cancel" buttons they see on their screen, they will probably get the download/install anyway ... I would think that it is a threat to even those with patched machines.
Not everyone knows to use Task Manager or other methods to get out of its grasp.
Shouldn't the browser still display a download dialog prompt, even if the popup is set to download anyway when you click on anything, including the no thanks button? Seems to me that it should, unless there's a serious flaw in the browser that makes it possible to download stuff without the user accepting the download. I mean, even if you click yes on the crapware popup, shouldn't there still be a download prompt from the browser, unless the browser is just insecure by design? Like this: - you get served with the infected ad and popup - you realize what's up and click on the X mark to close the popup - the popup still tries to push the download on you - your browser should alert you now that someone wants you to download something, and ask if you want to download the file, download and run it, or to just cancel the whole download If it does work that way, then it's no threat to those who practice basic safe surfing. But I just don't know how this one works. To moonpuppy, are you saying that you got infected by doing just browsing the site, not accepting any downloads, with a fully patched browser and fully patched plugins (flash, java, the usual)? If so, how does this thing do that? I'm confused. | | |
to HowDoesItWork
The actual infection is pretty nicely covered with the existing comments here, but how does this malware actually hide?
The advertising is loaded from the advertising servers, i.e. it might be hosted there or it might be external contents that is injected in an iframe.
There are two ways that the fake av is initiated after this initial advertising loading.
Javascript redirect - done by hacking the server containing the ad and adding or modifying existing script files.
.htaccess redirect - done by hacking the server containing the ad and forcing a redirect based on the referrer. i.e. The ad can be displayed on multiple sites, but only if it is embedded in particular sites, will it trigger a redirect. - This is most often seen on search engine redirects. | | | amungus Premium Member join:2004-11-26 America |
amungus
Premium Member
2009-Apr-20 11:46 am
I am also interested in how it "hides" as well...
Last infection I got on one of my machines (first one in years), was likely due to an iframe. That, or the unlikely chance that an infected gmail "news ticker" (whatever its called above the inbox - which I've disabled since then...) did it.
iframes have also been forbidden in noscript ever since that.
Agree with a post earlier - this is why I have zero qualms about using adblockplus, and especially noscript. Two of the best plugins IMHO.
Was shocked, however, to still get an infection with these two plugins...... iFrames have only been "forbidden" on the one machine I saw the infection on. On others, I've left noscript at its default settings for the most part. | |
1 recommendation |
to HowDoesItWork
said by HowDoesItWork :
... Shouldn't the browser still display a download dialog prompt, even if the popup is set to download anyway when you click on anything, including the no thanks button? Seems to me that it should, unless there's a serious flaw in the browser that makes it possible to download stuff without the user accepting the download. ... Yes, for clarification, If you decline the scan, it will do the fake scan anyway and impose a full screen in your browser. If you then choose "cancel" for the recommended install, it will proceed with the download. The warning that the user will get is from their system alerting them to the dangers of allowing an .exe file to run. They should be able to use their system at that point to block the install. However, prior to that point, "cancel" and "no" means "Yes". Be aware that as mysec points out, the initial popup redirect will also avail of the opportunity to look for several available exploits in the users system configuration. The IP 78.47.132.222 also contains a frame that sources from: >http://redirectclicks.com/?accs=845&tid=338 <html>
<head>
<title>Advertisement</title>
</head>
<frameset rows="1,*" cols="*">
<frame src="http://78.47.132.222/a12/index2.php" name="topFrame" scrolling="no" noresize>
<frame src="http://redirectclicks.com/?accs=845&tid=338" name="topFrame" scrilling="no" noresize> </frameset>
</html>
redirectclicks.com is associated with multiple malware: » www.google.com/search?hl ··· o.com%22Redirectclicks.com is hosted once again on Hetzner Online AG (AS24940) at IP 88.198.69.115 [static.88-198-69-115.clients.your-server.de] alongside Traffic-go.com » www.google.com/search?hl ··· G=SearchBoth of those criminal domains have infected thousands of sites. While the current focus is on the exploitation of foxnews.com. This is a global problem that infects users every where:
Fox needs to quickly identify the responsible advertiser/s and remove and suspend them. You can find victim reports of infection attacks from Fox going back well over a month.
Incidentally, while wading through the cesspools of cyberspace following the trail of toppromooffer.com I bumped into our friend "Cactus" from Moscow. Small world!!
MGD
| | moonpuppy (banned) join:2000-08-21 Glen Burnie, MD |
to HowDoesItWork
said by HowDoesItWork :
To moonpuppy, are you saying that you got infected by doing just browsing the site, not accepting any downloads, with a fully patched browser and fully patched plugins (flash, java, the usual)? If so, how does this thing do that? I'm confused. Fully patched OS, IE, Java, FLASH, etc. I saw multiple popups and I did not click no but the "X" of the window. When I realized what was happening, I immediately shut the laptop down HARD. I pressed the power button until it shut off completely and restarted the system with the wi-fi off. When I saw no activity, I turned the wi-fi back on and immediately headed here to do some cleaning and that's when I found the issues I mentioned earlier. I then posted here about it. | | |
HowDoesItWork to MGD
Anon
2009-Apr-20 1:41 pm
to MGD
quote: Yes, for clarification, If you decline the scan, it will do the fake scan anyway and impose a full screen in your browser. If you then choose "cancel" for the recommended install, it will proceed with the download. The warning that the user will get is from their system alerting them to the dangers of allowing an .exe file to run. They should be able to use their system at that point to block the install. However, prior to that point, "cancel" and "no" means "Yes".
Now I feel a little stupid, but I still don't understand how it works. It's business as usual that the popup has a bogus cancel button and the X close window button, and it tries to make you download their crapware anyway. But unless the browser does something completely wrong, there should eventually be a download prompt and you should then be able to cancel the whole thing, so it can't infect your system. If this isn't the case with this particular crapware, I would sure like to know how it accomplishes this feat, technically. There are exploits, but unless it uses an unknown, unpatched zero day vulnerability, that shouldn't work against a fully patched browser and plugins... quote: Fully patched OS, IE, Java, FLASH, etc. I saw multiple popups and I did not click no but the "X" of the window. When I realized what was happening, I immediately shut the laptop down HARD. I pressed the power button until it shut off completely and restarted the system with the wi-fi off. When I saw no activity, I turned the wi-fi back on and immediately headed here to do some cleaning and that's when I found the issues I mentioned earlier. I then posted here about it.
So it could infect you without requiring any form of consent from the user? Now that is weird. For IE, I wouldn't be surprised, but if Firefox or Opera would do the same, that would be strange. I'm further confused because mysec on the previous page posted that with Opera, it does pop up a download prompt, and if you cancel the download, it can't infect you. So, is there something in Opera that prevents this thing from insta-infection without any user consent that doesn't exist in IE or even Firefox? Hate to ask that many questions, but I don't understand the technique that this thing could possibly use to infect you instantly without you accepting a download, and then executing that download... aside from unpatched vulnerabilities. I wonder if the people infected by this were running as admin... | | moonpuppy (banned) join:2000-08-21 Glen Burnie, MD |
moonpuppy (banned)
Member
2009-Apr-20 2:19 pm
said by HowDoesItWork :
So it could infect you without requiring any form of consent from the user? Now that is weird. For IE, I wouldn't be surprised, but if Firefox or Opera would do the same, that would be strange. I'm further confused because mysec on the previous page posted that with Opera, it does pop up a download prompt, and if you cancel the download, it can't infect you. Part of the infection can be done with PDF documents. Adobe even put out a warning that they wouldn't have a fix for a month. | | mysec Premium Member join:2005-11-29 1 edit
1 recommendation |
to HowDoesItWork
The fake antivirus exploit prompts for a download in IE, Opera, and Firefox because the download is an executable file for which these browsers prompt by default. I showed Opera in a previous post. Here are IE and Firefox:
The other exploits I found are automatically triggered (drive-by download): IE exploits against the browser as I showed in the previous post. PDF exploit in Firefox. This is from a previous exploit. Note that it is Acrobat calling out for the trojan and not Firefox:
Note that this is an Acrobat Reader exploit, not a browser exploit. The browser just loads the PDF file. This exploit works in all browsers. Be sure and configure your file types to Prompt for Download, or "Always Ask" Opera:
Firefox:
---- rich
| | |
Has this been cleaned? Ive gone all through foxnews on our test computer to see if our antivirus will catch it, and nothing is coming up.. Either that or its silently being stopped, tried with adblock plus and without, IE and Firefox. | | |
to mysec
quote: Be sure and configure your file types to Prompt for Download, or "Always Ask"
You can also disable the plugin for all browsers from Reader's Edit->Preferences->Internet->Display PDF in browser option, or use a different PDF reader that doesn't install a plugin. (Who wants to read a PDF stuck inside a browser window anyway?) As always, if you aren't using a plugin, remove it, and you'll reduce the attack surface of your browser and the number of things you have to worry about keeping updated. Do you really need PDF, Java, QuickTime and Real plugins? Probably not. | | |
HowDoesItWork to mysec
Anon
2009-Apr-20 3:29 pm
to mysec
quote: The fake antivirus exploit prompts for a download in IE, Opera, and Firefox because the download is an executable file for which these browsers prompt by default. I showed Opera in a previous post.
Ok, so there is a download prompt and you get a chance to cancel the whole thing, in those cases where it attempts to make you download an exe file instead of serving a browser or plugin exploit. That is good news. quote: The other exploits I found are automatically triggered (drive-by download):
IE exploits against the browser as I showed in the previous post.
PDF exploit in Firefox. This is from a previous exploit. Note that it is Acrobat calling out for the trojan and not Firefox:
Note that this is an Acrobat Reader exploit, not a browser exploit. The browser just loads the PDF file. This exploit works in all browsers. Be sure and configure your file types to Prompt for Download, or "Always Ask"
Ok, so the actual drive-by downloads (no user consent required) of this badware are based on exploits in either the browser or some other related program like PDF viewers, as usual. And the PDF exploits you can stop just by having the browser prompt for download of pdf files instead of opening them in the proper program, or even just by not giving the PDF viewer permission to go online when your firewall prompts for it. Good news, again! Thanks for all the advice, guys, I think I understand how this thing operates now. If I got it right, this thing is not a threat as long as you - have your browser set to prompt for download for exes, pdfs etc instead of having the browser run them at once, and cancel any suspicious, unwanted downloads, and - have a fully patched browser that isn't vulnerable to the browser exploits this thing tries, such as the latest Opera version. Or in other words, it's a pretty basic baddie. Sounds like I'm good to go, and have nothing to worry about this malware. It should be easy to avoid this thing: just keep the browser patched (and preferably use Opera) and have it set to prompt for downloading stuff, or disable all the pointless plugins we don't need like Adobe Reader etc. Still, Foxnews should get their ads cleaned right the F now. It's inexcusable for a big outfit like that to serve crapware via ads. I wonder if a popup blocker would help against these things. | | |
to mysec
said by mysec:.... Note that this is an Acrobat Reader exploit, not a browser exploit. The browser just loads the PDF file. This exploit works in all browsers. Be sure and configure your file types to Prompt for Download, or "Always Ask" .. ---- rich Great write up ! I was particularily interested in this driveby: quote: [Adobe Reader 6.0 from your computer wants to connect to plathost.ru [78.109.25.217], port 80]
as that location has come to my attention on several occasions. IP 78.109.25.217 appears to be hosting 3 domains: » whois.domaintools.com/78 ··· 9.25.2171. Nevervhudo.ru » whois.domaintools.com/ne ··· vhudo.ru2. Socksps.ru » whois.domaintools.com/Socksps.ru3. Stopgam.cn » whois.domaintools.com/Stopgam.cnDue to the name, Socksps.ru aroused some curiosity, however, the main page only offers a log in:
If one can overcome that restriction an account holder can purchase the use of compromised machines around the globe to use as a secure proxy:
This may be where some of the compromised victim machines are leveraged for additional income: The master list of available for rent machines is several pages long:
You can sort the available hijacked machines by country, and then buy access, daily or monthly to mask your true origin for any nefarious purpose: USA:
UK:
Iran:
Note the banner add for "carding Conference" at cashing.cc: This may be where the compromised extracted financial data ends up for sale:
It appears that the only way to obtain a log in account in order to use the services of Socksps.ru is to contact ICQ 431278403 Or you can resond directly to his promotion on forum.zloy.org a cyber criminals one stop shop for carding, hacking exploits, money transfers, banking etc. His translated add posting on the forum.zloy.org for Socksps.ru services is here: The main zloy.org page is translated here: MGD | |
|