funsec mailing list archives
Re: Bin Laden death brings malware explosion
From: Nick FitzGerald <nick () virus-l demon co uk>
Date: Tue, 03 May 2011 21:57:44 +1200
Jeffrey Walton wrote:
"With the biggest news in a decade dominating the Internet, it didn't take long for rogue viruses, Trojans and other malware to mess with [...] http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/02/6570503-bin-laden-death-brings-malware-explosion
What's funny about that? It's totally predictable and expected... What was a tad funnier on that site was this: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/02/6570126-malware-attack-specifically-targets-mac-users and the presumably/supposedly/whetever "somehwat security expert" author of the piece above linking to it thus: So be extra careful on the Interwebs today, kids. Don't do what I did - click on a link that I thought was legitimate, only to be hit with a rogue installation of a Windows "Total Security Removal" Trojan that flashed fake security alerts and installed itself on my computer without my permission. I'm working to get if off the laptop right now, and writing this on another computer. It's a Mac, but from colleague Rosa Golijan's report today, I see that's not safe, either. Web drive-by malware sites with Windows/Mac browser detection and serving different pages, or at least the same come-on page (usually of the "you need to install a new codec/Flash update to play this video" kind) but with (apparent) OS-appropriate malware was new, what four, maybe even five?, years ago. Oh, and auto-installing malware on a Mac -- could be for real (there are certainly many older (particularly Safari) Mac browser vulns that could be used for that) but most likely this power user was running Safari and had the anti-security "autorun signed downloads" setting enabled (you know -- the setting that even Microsoft was never so stupid as to put in their browser...). It's pleasing to see that tech sites assign their most security conscious and experienced reporters to cover our little corner of the world, isn't it... Regards, Nick FitzGerald _______________________________________________ Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts. https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.
Current thread:
- Bin Laden death brings malware explosion Jeffrey Walton (May 02)
- Re: Bin Laden death brings malware explosion Nick FitzGerald (May 03)