1. BitDefender
Angelina Angelina Jolie,
Britney Spears and Barack Obama
Comprise BitDefender’s Trojan of the
Week
Spammers continuing to use sensationalized headlines to lure unsuspecting computer users
A new malware distribution scheme performed via spam messages aimed at tricking computer users to download
and install malicious applications on their computers has been identified by BitDefender®, an award-winning
provider of antivirus software and data security solutions, today.
: http://www.bitdefender.com/files/News/img/player.jpg: http://www.bitdefender.com/files/News/img/player.jpg
: http://www.bitdefender.com/files/News/img/spam_message.jpg:
http://www.bitdefender.com/files/News/img/spam_message.jpg
The malware distribution campaign is based on news fragments involving Angelina Jolie, Britney Spears and
Barack Obama. The e-mail messages direct unsuspecting users to a webpage that allegedly contains a video clip.
However, upon visiting the compromised page, they are shown an image impersonating a video player, linking
to a binary executable file.
In order to be able to watch the clip, users are advised to download an alleged update for Adobe’s popular Flash
player, which turns to be infected with Trojan.Downloader.Tibs.GZM. Additionally, the binary file starts
downloading automatically, a practice known as “drive-by download”, and this should be enough of a warning
for the user about the file’s legitimacy. When executed, the Trojan installs other pieces of malware, including the
infamous Trojan.Peed.JPU, used on large scale in the Storm botnet.
The new mail distribution campaign mostly targets computer users with limited knowledge of data security, as
well as users who would deliberately ignore the common safety rules in order to gain access to sensational news.
“These e-mail messages are part of a larger wave that attempts to infect the user with miscellaneous Trojans,”
said Bogdan Dumitru, BitDefender’s chief technology officer. “Initially designed as messages with a single
structure, the number of variants quickly escalated to three: a category including a single-part, plain text body,
another one with a HTML part, and a third category that uses the Opera Mail Client templates.”
: http://www.bitdefender.com/files/News/img/tibs.jpg: http://www.bitdefender.com/files/News/img/tibs.jpg
In order to increase the success rate of the attack, the spammer uses a series of catchy keywords that are
displayed alternatively inside the message body. Despite the fact that each message uses different fake news
flashes and headlines, all of them send the user to an URL that ends with either stream.html or watchit.html.
Although the approach is extremely similar to a previous spam campaign involving Angelina Jolie and Michael
Jackson, the pieces of malware and their hosting servers have been changed. The new Trojan has been repacked
with another utility in order to avoid detection.
BitDefender’s professional security solutions are currently filtering and detecting both the spam message and the
malicious code the „install_flash_player_update” binary is infected with (Trojan.Downloader.Tibs.GZM). In
order to enjoy a safe experience while surfing the web, BitDefender recommends that users install a complete
anti-malware protection solution.