Rogue AV/AS prolific

[AplusWebMaster]

Arrgghh...

- http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/incredible-c-netmedia-still-continues.html
February 19, 2008 - "It was last week, on the 14th, that Ben Edelman* showed that C-NetMedia (not to be confused with CNET) was using highly deceptive advertising to lure people to its sites. It’s still going on, despite press on the matter.
This morning, a search for SpyBot again shows C-NetMedia trying to trick people into thinking their site (spywarebot.com) is Spybot’s... And a search for Ad-Aware still has their ad for adwarealert.com. HIGHLY deceptive... (And we all know that many people will click on the first result, not fully understanding that it’s a sponsored link). Then, look what these crooks are doing with Microsoft Antispyware... I’m afraid it’s going to take the FTC to handle this one. Apparently the search engines aren’t self-policing on this one."
(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

-------------------------------------------------

* http://www.benedelman.org/news/021408-1.html
February 14, 2008 - "Not every "anti-spyware" program is what it claims to be. Some truly have users' interests at heart - identifying and removing bona fide risks to privacy, security, stability, or performance. Others resort to a variety of tricks to confuse users about what they're getting and why they purportedly need it. This article reports the results of my examination of anti-spyware software from C-NetMedia...
> Deceptive advertising, deceptive product names, and deceptive web site designs falsely suggest affiliation with security industry leaders...
> The use of many disjoint product names prevents consumers from easily learning more about C-Net, its reputation, and its practices...
> High-pressure sales tactics, including false positives, overstate the urgency of paying for an upgraded version...
Note that C-NetMedia is unrelated to the well-known technology news site CNET Networks..."
(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

:mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

- http://preview.tinyurl.com/2m8h33
March 4, 2008 (Symantec Security Response Weblog) - "We have analysed samples of malware that is calling itself 'MonaRonaDona'... it seems the sole purpose of the malware is to prompt the user to enter the term "MonaRonaDona" into a search engine. This is an attempt to lead them to an application that can remove the unwelcome threat - a fix that has obviously been conveniently provided by the very people who created the virus in the first place. When the Trojan executes, it creates the file SRVSPOOL.EXE in the startup folder of all user accounts... Once the user enters the name 'MonaRonaDona' into an Internet search engine, some of the top search results will be the "fix" that the malware authors have - in all probability - also conveniently created in order to solve the problem... this is a scam and warn victims against downloading the Trojan author's application created to remove the malware, which they were charging US$39.90 for (the Unigray Web site was down at the time of writing). While the software does in fact remove the MonaRonaDona Trojan - it is the ONLY malware it removes, despite the fact that it (falsely) reports to have cleaned over 200 other threats..."
(Screenshots available at the URL above.)
:fear:

Removal:
> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20088377-Re-MonaRonaDona-virus
2008-03-01
:bigthumb:

- http://blog.trendmicro.com/the-art-drama-and-sophistication-of-monaronadona/
March 6, 2008 - "...Unconfirmed reports of initial infection happens when users click on a certain ad banner for Registry Clean Fix, a possible rogue program, to initiate stealth download of MonaRonaDona onto a system. The malware remains inactive (and impervious to detection) until users restart their systems.... Trend Micro advises users to refrain from clicking ad banners, which might lead to unexpected download of malicious files on a system or redirection to a malicious Web site. Trend Micro also implores users to be more wary of new social engineering techniques being practiced in the wild."

[AplusWebMaster]

VirusHeat... new coat - same color

This link (from some good guys) shows you how the bad guys defraud users into getting whacked:
http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/ihs/alex/anymp3.htm (turn up your sound so you can hear it)

...just so you can see how deceitful it is. 'Guess we need a sign:

"Use EXTREME CAUTION when clicking on search engine results".

:sad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Another fake MS spam
- http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/another-fake-ms-spam.html
July 15, 2008 - "...The file being pushed, free.exe, is an installer for Antivirus XP 2008, a nasty rogue antispyware program... SPAM has stopped just being a nuisance, and become a serious potential security threat..."

(Screenshot available at the URL above.)

:fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Fake AV Trojans Ramping Up
- http://blog.trendmicro.com/fake-antivirus-trojans-ramping-up/
August 14, 2008 - "...new set of rogue antivirus software circulating in the wild. Based on initial analysis, these threats arrive mainly via spammed email messages that contain a link to a bogus celebrity video scandal, although we have also received reports that the said link is also circulating in instant messaging applications and private messages in social networking Web sites. Once the said URL link is clicked, the Web threat infection chain begins and ultimately leads to the downloading of a Trojan detected by Trend Micro as TROJ_FAKEAV.CX, a rogue antivirus that displays very convincing (and for some, alarming) messages... TROJ_FAKEAV.CX also drops another malware, detected as TROJ_RENOS.ACG. RENOS Trojans are known to have very visual payloads that may further alarm users (for example, they modify the system’s wallpaper and screensaver settings to display BSOD). Thus, users may be more convinced that something’s wrong with their system, not knowing that their new software is the one causing it. Rogue antispyware isn’t entirely new, although our researchers have been seeing an increase in activity for the past couple of months... Perhaps it’s because this is also the time of the year when the more legitimate security suites are releasing their latest software updates, and cybercriminals are riding on this season to ramp up their profits. Bad news for the infected users though, as their latest versions of “antivirus software” are actually adding more threats to their system..."

(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

:fear::spider::fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/22/anatomy_of_a_hack/page8.html
22 August 2008 - "...One can only wonder how many users have been duped into installing ineffective security software, and what happened to their private information and credit card data when they paid for it. The presence of such software, and the overall very high quality of the ruse it presents, is frightening. More than likely, thousands of people have been fooled. In fact, this type of deception has been around for several years now, and it would not still be here if it did not work well.
This should serve as a dire warning to all: be extremely careful what you trust, and question everything that looks even remotely suspicious..."
(Many screenshots shown in the article - well worth your time to review.)

You may also want to visit TeMerc's site on this subject:
- http://www.temerc.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=5053

...and this tool: RogueRemover FREE (i.e.: XP Antivirus 2008, etc. - 444 different suspicious applications)
> http://www.malwarebytes.org/rogueremover.php

:fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Phish that bites back
- http://www.secureworks.com/research/blog/index.php/2008/08/25/the-phish-that-bites-back/
August 25th, 2008 - "We all get phishing emails. Some of us more than others, so it’s no surprise that sometimes people take out their frustrations on the phishing form, letting the phisher know just what they think of him or her... While it might make you feel better, it isn’t always a good idea. For instance, if you were to do this on a phishing page hosted by the Asprox botnet, you might get more than you bargained for. The Asprox phishing form backend has a bit of extra logic added to it. If the form looks like it has been filled out with legitimate data, you get redirected to the main page of the bank website. However, fill it out incompletely or use certain words like “phish” or NSFWUYAS (Not Safe For Work Unless You’re a Sailor) language, and your browser will be subjected to a number of exploits. If you are running Windows and haven’t recently installed your security updates and patched all your browser plugins/ActiveX controls, you might find yourself infected with your very own copy of Asprox. Not only do you then get the opportunity to unknowingly send phishing emails on behalf of the botnet, you will likely get some extra goodies, since Asprox is also a downloader trojan. You won’t notice it running, but you might notice some of the things it downloads and installs. For instance, you might find your desktop wallpaper changed to a “spyware alert” type of message, and now all your screensaver shows is scary blue-screens-of-death. Of course, if you’re familiar with the Windows desktop properties dialog, you can change all that back, right? Oops. the rogue antivirus program has removed that functionality for you... you’ll notice the lack of a “I disagree” or even a “close window” button at the top of the dialog (which can’t be minimized, and stays on top of all your other windows). So there’s no easy way to continue using your computer without clicking on the “Agree and install” button. But don’t worry, Antivirus XP 08 has already installed itself, whether you click through the license agreement or not... Of course, you’re not infected with everything this program says you are - it’s scareware, designed to get you to fork over $50 or $100 in order to clean your system of all these nasty threats. But it doesn’t actually detect or clean anything, especially not the Asprox bot you’re hosting now. And at any time, Asprox might deliver another malicious payload and install it for you - and it could be much worse: we’ve seen the Zbot banking trojan installed by Asprox in the past. So instead of a dealing with a nuisance program, you might be silently sending your banking and credit card information to the botnet owners. Something to think about before venting your frustrations on the bad guys. Sometimes phish bite back."

(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

:fear::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

XP Antivirus 2008 now with sploits, Google Adwords affected
- http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/xp-antivirus-2008-now-with-sploits.html
August 27, 2008 - "...problem of Google Adwords pushing Antivirus XP Antivirus 2008. The situation is still ongoing. However, it’s taken a turn for the worse, as these XP Antivirus pages are pushing exploits to install malware on the users system. This will also affect the many syndicators of Google Adwords... There are a variety of exploits being used, including setslice and an AOL IM exploit. Unusually, an exploit framework is not being used. Fully patched systems will not be affected by these exploits. The exploit attempts to install the following malicious file: huytegygle com/bin/ file.exe..."

(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

:fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Spammed SWF URLs Abuse ImageShack, Lead to Rogue AV
- http://blog.trendmicro.com/spammed-swf-urls-abuse-imageshack-lead-to-rogue-av/
Aug. 28, 2008 - "We’re seeing a lot of spam right now using the now annoyingly familiar Free Update Windows XP, Vista spam template. This time though, instead of linking to an .EXE file, it is now pointing to an .SWF file. The SWF file linked via the large-font text Free Update Windows XP,Vista contains Flash ActionScript... After this a EULA window appears, and then the system proceeds to install a rogue AV software from avxp-2008.net. Note that it does this automatically from the moment the install.exe is run... The technique used in the spam has two things going for it:
1. the use of SWF instead of EXE and
2. the use of an ImageShack-hosted file, both of which may suggest to normal users that the file is possibly harmless.
So it seems the siege of rogue AV is not only not dying down, its proponents are becoming more creative in their “advertising” schemes. We detect this rogue AV as TROJ_FAKEAV.IG."

(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

:fear::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Fake AV 2009 and search engine results
- http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=5042
Last Updated: 2008-09-16 01:15:04 UTC - "Web servers have been compromised and their .htaccess files have been modified. Here you can see an example of a modified .htacces
http://forums.devnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=85984 ...
Another site that was compromised and searches redirected is discussed here:
http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Webmaster_Help-Indexing/msg/0cd2cafd907a0380 ...
Their .htaccess is being modified to rewrite requests. Specifically they are redirecting to sites that "advertise" antivirus2008 or antivirus2009 when several search engines try to spider the original site. They redirect most of the search engines there (google, yahoo, altavista...). I believe that is how they are getting their fake av into the search engines with a HIGH hit rate. The site I was seeing in use was int3rn3t-d3f3ns3s .com Which is an "ad" for anti-virus2009... used to convince victims to load this fake-av software...
int3rn3t-d3f3ns3s .com is at 84.16.252.73 I recommend blocking that at your enterprise gateway. Prt3ctionactiv3scan .com which is mentioned in the sunbelt blog is at 78.159.118.168 blocking that at your gateway is also recommended.
There is a blog here about some of these fake av sites.
http://ddanchev.blogspot.com/2008/08/diverse-portfolio-of-fake-security.html
Microsoft mvp Harry Waldron blogged about it here.
http://msmvps.com/blogs/harrywaldron/archive/2008/08/15/antivirus-2009-avoid-these-fake-antivirus-trojan-attacks.aspx ...
Sunbelt did a good write up of it here and has been tracking the sites involved.
http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/scam-sites-update-iii.html
If you need antivirus software icsa labs has a useful collection of valid links here:
https://www.icsalabs.com/icsa/topic.php?tid=cfe0$3d83e732-011a28d6$5ac9-0f77e15b "

:fear::fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

More "scareware"...
- http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001508.html
September 30, 2008 - "WinDefender 2008 is a rogue application. Rogues are also sometimes known as scareware... Looks sort of familiar, doesn't it? Do you recognize the shape of the box? The website creators appear to have "borrowed" a few things. Let's check out the legal disclaimer... From where else we can find really legal stuff? Spyware Rogue: Antivirus XP 2008... Oh, Antivirus XP 2008. That particular rogue is a huge pain in the… neck. The guys that produce this stuff are crooks and swindlers... Here's a tip: If they claim to be REALiable — they're probably FAKE..."
(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

- http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001509.html
October 1, 2008 - More rogue apps/screenshots...

:fear: :mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

- http://blog.trendmicro.com/rogue-av-tactics-continue-to-threaten/
Oct. 2, 2008 - "October has just begun and Trend Micro threat researchers keep seeing more and more — slightly different, but yet increasingly more annoying — variations to the set of rogue AV infection signals... Fake BSOD (actually a screensaver) now sports a specific mention of the problem — an unregistered version of a certain AV product... even the fake reboot screen (also a screensaver) has text... malware criminals continue a “take no prisoners” approach to vandalizing PCs in their bid to convince victims to purchase bogus security software... Cybercriminals literally calling attention to themselves by using all visual means available to instill a sense of discomfort in users that may just be enough to get these users to fall for the act — an unfortunately common scare tactic... This variant is an ongoing iteration of the Antivirus 2009 campaign and is detected as TROJ_FAKEAV.SV..."

(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

:fear: :mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

New rogue: Antivirus 2010
- http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-rogue-antivirus-2010.html
October 09, 2008 - "Antivirus 2010 is a new rogue security product. This rogue is a clone evolved from IEdefender that begat XP Antivirus, that begat Antivirus 2008, that then begat Antispyware 2009... The rogue application uses the same old tricks to lure users into purchasing their worthless application... Fake Windows Security Center - Fake BSOD..."

(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

:fear::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

More rogue AV tricks...
- http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001535.html
November 10, 2008 - "We came across a rogue today called Antivirus Professional 2008 that uses GeoIP Lookup as part of its scare tactics. This site uses Flash and script to create the effect of an online scan, that then attempts to push an installer at the visitor. The NoScript extension* for Mozilla Firefox is an excellent way to mitigate against this kind of garbage... The "antivirus online scanner" site now uses the visitor's IP address to customize the so-called threat..."

(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

* https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722

:fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

- http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001545.html
November 21, 2008 - "Some rogue antivirus applications are overtly malicious. XP Antivirus 2008 and XP Antivirus 2009 have numerous affiliates utilizing rootkits and plenty of other nasty techniques in order to get themselves installed (and purchased). They're a real pain in the… neck. As an interesting aside – XP Antivirus 2008 and XP Antivirus 2009 are actually produced by two different gangs. Variants of one sometimes attempt to uninstall and disable the other...
This is how the search-and-destroy .com site appears... The site just uses a simple Flash graphic for basic animation; there are no fake "scans" that attempt to scare the visitor. It's all very quiet, relying perhaps on its name. This application, search-and-destroy, should not of course be confused with Spybot Search & Destroy, a well known and respected antispyware application. We downloaded and tested the Search-and-Destroy Antispyware application. First it prompted a warning that there were zero risks. Then we performed the scan and there were 159 "problems" discovered. All 159 were not fixable in the trial version. Within the "malicious threats" that were discovered, were invalid shortcuts. True, the links were invalid, but that's hardly a threat. So we uninstalled the application, and it left behind a registry key... Within the "malicious threats" that were discovered, were invalid shortcuts... Typical. The scan warned us about invalid shorts, and then leaves behind an invalid registry key... Based on the IP address used when posting to our comments system, Mirando lives in New Delhi, India. We suspect that he's young and that these posts are early attempts at making money via an affiliate program..."

(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

:mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

- http://preview.tinyurl.com/55b2hj
November 19, 2008 - MS Malware Protection Center - "Win32/FakeSecSen* was added to MSRT November release ... We’ve since observed MSRT removing FakeSecSen from 994,061 distinct machines. Breakdown of these removals by regions is shown as below...
Distinct Machines Cleaned:
United States - 548,218
United Kingdom - 74,343
France - 47,581
Germany - 43,347
Netherlands - 28,724
Spain - 23,027
Italy - 18,453
Australia - 16,287
Canada - 16,180
Sweden - 15,412
Other - 162,489 ..."

* http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/Entry.aspx?Name=Win32%2fFakeSecSen
Summary: Win32/FakeSecSen is a family of programs that claim to scan for malware and display fake warnings of “malicious programs and viruses”.

:fear::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

- http://www.sophos.com/security/blog/2008/12/2069.html
2 December 2008 - "Today we saw a hockey statistics website that had been compromised - it was redirecting via several hops to a fake anti-virus site detected as Mal/FakeAvJs-A... If you do go for their free scan, surprise surprise it finds malware on your computer. In fact there’s a config file on the site, telling you exactly what malware it’s going to find, and where... This wasn’t the only site we saw compromised like this today, the others pointing to the exact same fake anti-virus website after a number of hops, as if somebody had recently flicked a switch and set a number of websites redirecting in this manner..."

(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

:fear::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Nano Antivirus now making the rounds
- http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/nano-antivirus-now-making-rounds.html
December 02, 2008 - "A fresh rogue... variant of Pro Antispyware 2009*."

* http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-rogue-pro-antispyware-2009.html
October 22, 2008

(Screenshots available at both URLs above.)

:fear::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

- http://preview.tinyurl.com/ay4674
December 24, 2008 (Computerworld) - "In the second month of a campaign against fake security software, Microsoft has booted the rogue application "Antivirus 2009" from almost 400,000 PCs, the company recently claimed. December's version of the Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT), a free utility that Microsoft pushes to Windows users as part of Patch Tuesday , targeted one of the most popular phony security app, Antivirus 2009. According to Microsoft*, the MSRT erased the fake from over 394,000 PCs in the first nine days after it released this month's edition..."

MSRT Review - Win32/FakeXPA and Win32/Yektel Rogues
* http://preview.tinyurl.com/a4pku7
(blogs.technet.com) - December 17, 2008

> http://preview.tinyurl.com/6bb67
MSRT v2.5 - 12/10/2008 - 7.4MB

:santa:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

More "Fake AV" Incarnations Making The Rounds
- http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=5584
Last Updated: 2008-12-30 01:39:49 UTC - "Using obfuscated javascript techniques, more "Fake Anti Virus" malware is continuing to present itself to unsuspecting Internet users - in the hopes of gaining an installation through the use of rather effective, social engineering methods. Some of the latest incarnations observed in the past 24 hours continue to maintain low levels of AV detection (less than 15% based on VirusTotal analysis)... In terms of propagation, getting a "hit" from this malware is as easy as entering a series of search terms on your favorite search engine, and unluckily picking a search result that delivers nothing more than the misleading introductory screen and fake anti-virus pop-up alerts (with their associated "D-level" english grammar). Should you unfortunately find yourself victim to this, remember to not click anywhere on the screen, but instead use "Task Manager - Applications" to terminate the victimized web browser session."

:fear::sad:

[AplusWebMaster]

This is a real beauty:

Russians don't infect themselves...
- http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/russian-don-infect-themselves.html
January 21, 2009 - "Little snippet found in Antivirus 2009...
00420174 - Bot started.
0042018C - App name:
004201A0 - Exe name:
004201B4 - Bot ID:
004201C8 - Wait before activate:
004201E8 - Sleep period:
00420200 - Popup URL:
00420214 - Don`t install on Rus:
00420234 - Russian or Ukrainian Windows detected. Exiting ... <<<
0042027C - Looking for XP antivirus
004202A0 - Software\XP Antivirus\Options\AdvancedScan
004202D4 - Key =
004202E4 - XP antivirus detected
00420304 - Unregistering toolbar
00420324 - Unregistering self ..."

:mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Anti-virus-1 new rogue anti-spyware...
- http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/malware-removal/anti-virus-1-removal
February 18, 2009 - "Anti-virus-1 is a new rogue anti-spyware program from the same family as Antivirus 2010 and Antivirus 360. This program is promoted primarily through two methods. The first is through the use of advertisements that pretend to be online anti-malware scanners. These advertisements go through what appears to be a scan of your machine and then when finished, state that your computer is infected and that you should download Anti-virus-1 to protect yourself. Remember, though, that this is just an advertisement and it has no way of knowing what is running on your computer. The second method that is used to promote this rogue is through the use of Trojans. When certain Trojans are installed on your computer they will display security alerts stating that your computer is infected or that you have some other security risk. When you click on these alerts, it will download and install Anti-virus-1 onto your computer... When Anti-virus-1 is installed it will configure itself to start automatically when Windows starts. It will also modify your C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file so that when you visit certain sites you will be go to a site under the malware developer's control rather than the legitimate site you were expecting to go to. This allows them to show you information that further promotes the Anti-virus-1 program. When the program is started it will automatically scan your computer and then display a list of infections that cannot be removed unless you first purchase the program... Tools Needed for this fix: Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware* ..."
* http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/malwarebytes/mbam-setup.exe

(Screenshots and more detail available at the first URL listed above.)

:fear::spider::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

eWeek Hacked with drive-by download - Anti-Virus-1...
- http://securitylabs.websense.com/content/Alerts/3310.aspx
02.24.2009 - " Websense... has discovered that the eWeek.com Web site is serving malicious advertisements (malvertisements) to visitors...
Update 2/24/09 - eWeek has informed us that the problem has been rectified. We have verified that the Web site is now safe. eWeek.com is the online version of the popular business computing magazine. When users browse to the home page of eWeek, a malvertisement hosted on the DoubleClick advertisement network performs a redirect to a malicious Web site through a series of iframes. This causes a redirect to one of two files on hxxp ://[removed]inside .com/ - Either a pdf document containing exploit code is served, or index.php redirects to the rogue ad-server. With no user interaction, a file named "winratit.exe" (MD5: A12DA1D62B7335CBE6D6EA270247BBC1) is installed in the user's temporary files folder. Two additional files are dropped onto the user's machine and are bound to startup. The host file is also modified so that if the user tries to browse to popular software download sites to remedy the infected machine, s/he is instead directed to a malicious Web site offering further rogue AV downloads. The name of the rogue AV application is Anti-Virus-1. If the user chooses to register the rogue AV, a connection is made to hxxp ://[removed]-site .info/ which has been setup to collect payment details..."

:fear::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

- http://atlas.arbor.net/briefs/index#-1039902162
March 03, 2009 - "Over the past year or so we have been seeing a large number of "rogue AV" products being installed in drive-by sites. This is a scam program, designed to fool users into paying for software they don't need. The program will announce that the user is infected with malware and then demand $40 to remove the infection. This kind of application is usually well detected by legitimate AV software.
Analysis: This is a classic scareware program with a twist, and is usually installed without the owner's consent. We have seen a variety of tricks to get this installed on users' PCs. We encourage all sites to make sure they are not affected by this issue.
Source: http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/rogue_w32_xpantivirus.shtml
"...large rogueware family. Members of the XPAntivirus family are distributed under several different names, including:
• XP Antivirus
• Antivirus 2009
• Antivirus 2010
• Antivirus 360 ..."

:fear::spider::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

New rogue: Antispyware Pro 2009
- http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-rogue-antispyware-pro-2009.html
March 08, 2009

New rogue: Malware Defender 2009
- http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-rogue-malware-defender-2009.html
March 06, 2009 - "Malware Defender 2009 is a new rogue security product and a clone of System Guard 2009..."

(Screenshots available at both URLs above.)

Tornado Malware Kit
- http://atlas.arbor.net/briefs/index#1440121766
March 06, 2009 - "...This is a specific instance of such a drive by kit but demonstrates the current technology that is being sold and delivered on the Internet.
Analysis: These kits have been in used for well over a year and are responsible for many of the drive by downloads we see on the Internet these days.
Source: http://www.secureworks.com/research/blog/index.php/2009/3/5/tornado-malware-kit/
March 5, 2009 - "...Tornado is a Russian web-attack kit used by hackers to compromise as many machines as possible. “Out of the box,” it comes with 14 exploits..."

:fear::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI... More rogues...

- http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-rogue-security-products.html
March 14, 2009 - "General Antivirus and Personal Antivirus are the new clones of Internet Antivirus Pro rogue security product..."

- http://www.symantec.com/business/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2009-031311-4206-99&tabid=2
March 13, 2009
Name: System Guard 2009
Publisher: System Guard
...The program reports false or exaggerated system security threats on the computer.

- http://www.symantec.com/business/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2009-031117-4351-99&tabid=2
March 11, 2009
Name: Virus Melt
Publisher: iSystems Inc.
...The program reports false or exaggerated system security threats on the computer.

(Screenshots available at above URLs.)

:fear::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Antivirus2009 ransomware...
- http://preview.tinyurl.com/df8n2t
March 20, 2009 Security Fix/Brian Krebs - "... this version of Antivirus2009 encrypts or scrambles contents of documents... so that only users who pay $50 for a FileFixerPro license can get the decryption key needed to regain access to the files in their My Documents folder... The good news is the nice folks over at BleepingComputer.com*, a very active computer-help forum, have posted detailed instructions on how to remove FileFixerPro. The bad news is that these instructions won't help get a victim's documents back. But there is more good news: The folks over at FireEye have figured out how to decrypt documents scrambled by this thing, and have set up a free Web-based service** where victims can upload documents to have them unscrambled. Alex Lanstein, senior security researcher at FireEye, said he hopes his team can soon release a tool users can download to help decrypt the entire My Documents folder. This is the first time I've ever heard of scareware being bundled with so-called "ransomware"..."

* http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic212357.html

** http://blog.fireeye.com/research/2009/03/a-new-method-to-monetize-scareware.html

- http://www.pcworld.com/article/161649/crooks_flock_to_rogue_antivirus_apps.html
Mar 20, 2009 - "...According to the Antiphishing Working Group*, the number of fake security programs skyrocketed from average of around 2,500 per month to 9,287 in December..."
* http://www.antiphishing.org/reports/apwg_report_H2_2008.pdf

:mad::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Trafficconverter takedown...
- http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001631.html
March 20, 2009 - "One of the more notorious pay-per-install programs, Trafficconverter has been taken down today. These sites work like this:
1. Trafficconverter developes a "rogue" antivirus product
2. The product will find viruses even on clean systems
3. It won't "clean" those viruses unless you register the product
4. Trafficconverter does not market their software at all
5. Instead, all the marketing is done through affiliates
6. Affiliates have existing botnets of thousands of infected computers
7. They remotely install these rogue products to those computers
8. Confused end users see warning messages about viruses on their screens
9. ...and register the rogue product for $50 to "fix" their machine
10. Affiliates get $30 per customer, Trafficconverter get $20
11. ?? ...
12. PROFIT!
...So, it's good to see these guys going offline. Kudos to Brian Krebs*!"
* http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/03/obscene_profits_fuel_rogue_ant.html
March 16, 2009
- http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/03/sunlight_disinfects_rogue_anti.html
March 20, 2009

(Screenshots available at all above URLs.)

:fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Trafficconverter takedown - Downadup motivations
- https://forums2.symantec.com/t5/blogs/blogarticlepage/blog-id/malicious_code/article-id/254
03-23-2009 - "As the April 1 payload delivery date nears for W32.Downadup.C (also known as Conficker) speculation continues on whether the payload will be one big April Fool’s joke, or the equivalent of a cyber Pearl Harbor. While we can’t predict the future with certainty, we can look at the motivations of past Downadup variants to postulate that the payload will likely be something between the two extremes. The first Downadup variant (.A) provides the best evidence of the motivations of the Downadup authors. In a similar fashion to the recent Downadup variant, Downadup.A had a payload delivery date after its initial release, on December 1, 2008. Downadup.A attempted to download its payload file from hxxp ://trafficconverter.biz/4vir/antispyware/loadadv.exe. While Downadup.A was never able to download its payload because the payload site was shut down, the owner of the site trafficconverter.biz was heavily involved in pushing misleading applications (also known as rogue antispyware products) onto users’ machines..."

//
- http://centralops.net/co/DomainDossier.aspx
Domain Name: TRAFFICCONVERTER.BIZ ...
Registrant Country Code: GB ...
Name Server: NS1.SUSPENDED-DOMAIN.COM
Name Server: NS2.SUSPENDED-DOMAIN.COM
Created by Registrar: ESTDOMAINS INC ...
//
:fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

Some references from prior post in this thread:
- http://forums.spybot.info/showpost.php?p=298697&postcount=27

Xrupter -aka- Vundo ...
- https://forums2.symantec.com/t5/blogs/blogarticlepage/blog-id/malicious_code/article-id/255
03-24-2009 - "Over this past weekend, Symantec received news of a new twist in the behavior of Trojan.Vundo(1). Instead of simply pushing misleading applications and other threats onto the infected computers, it seems the authors of Vundo have taken a more direct hand in revenue generation. Rather than just frightening you into believing that you may have problems or threats present on your computer, Vundo now drops a file named fpfstb.dll that attempts to make sure that you do encounter problems on your computer. We currently detect this threat as Trojan.Xrupter(2). This Trojan performs a search in the My Documents folders of your hard drive... This Trojan specifically targets these files for encryption because the creators knows these are the files that you are most likely to want back if the computer was ever compromised. Once the files are encrypted, it starts to display messages stating that certain files on the computer are corrupted. If the user attempts to open any of the encrypted files, a message will also appear saying that the file is corrupt. In both windows, a repair option is available... If the user clicks on repair, a browser window will open to the domain filefixpro.com (now offline). This site offers a program named FileFix Professional (detected as FileFixProfessional), which is supposed to repair the corrupted files. Of course, FileFixPro is not a free application, so you are expected to pay in order to license it for use. FileFix Professional is obviously not what it is cracked up to be—it is, in fact, just another part of this whole scam—it only decrypts the files that its partner in crime (Trojan.Xrupter) has encrypted... The fortunate thing about this whole episode is that the makers of this scam have implemented a very weak algorithm for encryption of the files. Because of this, Symantec and various other security vendors such as FireEye have been able to decrypt the files affected by this Trojan. In fact, we are offering a tool that can be used to clean up this Trojan and recover encrypted files... If you need this fix tool, you can download it here*."

(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

1) http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2004-112111-3912-99

2) http://www.symantec.com/business/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2009-032207-0838-99&tabid=1

* http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/global/removal_tool/threat_writeups/FixXrupter.exe

:fear::fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Conficker hype used by rogue gangs
- http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001639.html
March 30, 2009 - "... We found out that rogue security software folks have picked up on this. For example, lets have a look at remove-conficker .org, a domain which was registered today... They advertise a tool called MalwareRemovalBot. It's fake. Interestingly, it doesn't always find non-existing malware infections on your PC - only sometimes. But one thing is for sure, it does not remove Conficker.C. We tried it and it didn't do a thing to remove it. When it did find something that it claimed to be malware... And then it asked us to register and pay $39.95 for the removal functionality... When following up on this we did a Google search for "remove conficker.c" and saw several purchased ads that lead to the same type of "security" software as well... Like AdwareAlert and AntiSpy2009 It's clear that it's an affiliate program going on..."

(Screenshots available at the F-secure URL above.)

:fear::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

More Conficker rogue AV...
- https://forums2.symantec.com/t5/blogs/blogarticlepage/blog-id/spam/article-id/173
04-02-2009 - "We have found spam samples attempting to capitalize on the frenzy over Conficker (a.k.a. Downadup), offering the latest in antivirus security software that purportedly protects users from the Conficker threat. Some of these SPAM messages even use names and images of software much like our own Norton AntiVirus 2009... it even mentions the name of one of our Symantec employees frequently cited in the press... In an attempt to increase financial gain, the product website is made to look like the product is one of our Norton consumer security solutions, by using the AntiVirus 2009 name and even comparing itself with other antivirus solutions such as Spybot, Kaspersky, and AVG... After clicking on the link inside the message, we find that it redirects to a website where the user is promptly given directions on how to make a payment. Whether or not any product will be made available after the payment is made is still unknown at this point. Even if it were, its effectiveness would be questionable because it will most likely be a rogue application or pirated software."
(Screenshots available at the Symantec URL above.)

:fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

- http://www.darkreading.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=216403298
April 8, 2009 - "Rogue security software infections by just one family of malware jumped 66 percent in the second half of the year, according to Microsoft's new Security Intelligence Report (SIR)*... Microsoft says the Win32/Renos scareware attack was found on 4.4 million computers, for instance, and Win32/FakeXPA and Win32/FakeSecScan on 1.5 million machines. Other rogue AV types were also detected, bringing the total numbers of those types of infections to the 10 million mark..."
* http://www.microsoft.com/sir

:fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

New rogue: P Antispyware 09
- http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-rogue-p-antispyware-09.html
April 14, 2009 - "P Antispyware 09 is yet another rogue from WinSpywareProtect family of rogue security products."

New rogue: Antivirus'09
- http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-rogue-antivirus.html
April 15, 2009 - "Antivirus'09 is a new rogue security product. This rogue uses fake/scare scanner pages to trick users into downloading the rogue application."

(Screenshots available at both URLs above.)

:fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

New rogue: AV Antispyware
- http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-rogue-av-antispyware.html
April 19, 2009 - "AV Antispyware is the latest rogue from WinSpywareProtect family of rogue security products... Sites Involved:
64.191.12.38 Av-antispyware com
195.88.81.74 Files scanner-antispy-av-files com
195.88.81.116 dl scan-antispy-4pc com
195.88.80.207 Int reporting32 com ..."

(Screenshot available at the URL above.)

:fear::fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

- http://preview.tinyurl.com/cqv4se
23 April 09 - PandaLabs blog - "... Cyber-criminals have chosen Rogue Anti-Malware as their primary method of payment because it has become easier for them to make money by affiliate systems and utilizing these types of attacks. It’s no wonder why we have seen more Rogue detections in the first quarter of 2009 then all of 2008... PandaLabs predicts that incidents of rogue AV scams will grow 100 percent quarter over quarter through the end of Q3*... Remember, It's just as important to update your web applications as it is to update your operating system. If you use Wordpress as a platform for your blog or website, then I recommend viewing the official hardening guide**."

* (Chart available at the URL above.)

** http://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress

:fear::fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

- http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001684.html
May 18, 2009 - "How big an issue are Rogue antivirus applications? Let's take a look. What is your browser's user agent? Any ideas? The Firefox browser should look something like this: You can determine yours from http://whatsmyuseragent.com . Now let's take a look at this user agent:
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; AntivirXP08; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)

Do you see it? Right there in the middle, "AntivirXP08". What is that all about? Some rogues modify the browser's user agent. We've seen hundreds of AntivirXP08 string variations. The modified string is possibly used to identify the affiliates responsible for the installation which drives "business" to the rogue's website. Modified user agents could also be used deliver different content. A victim with AntivirXP08 doesn't need to be convinced to download an installer, instead they can be targeted to complete the scam and to buy the rogue. How many infected user agents are out there? Toni examined one of our sinkholes and its April 2009 logs contained 63,000 unique IP addresses using agents that contain AntivirXP08. 63 thousand. That's a lot of infections, right? And that doesn't include other strings we've seen such as "Antimalware2009". It's a small measure of a very large problem."

(Screenshot available at the F-secure URL above.)

:fear::fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Rogue AV hosted in USA...
- http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/cavalcade-of-malware-hosted-right-here.html
June 15, 2009 - "Contrary to popular belief, not all malware is hosted in Eastern Europe or China. In fact, there’s a whole bucketload of malware hosted in Scranton, PA. Here are malware domains associated with IP 64.191.92.197..."

(Long list and screenshots available at the URL above.)

:fear::mad::spider:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Rogue AV terminates EXE files
- http://blog.trendmicro.com/rogue-antivirus-terminates-exe-files/
July 26, 2009 - "This weekend, we at TrendLabs came across a FAKEAV variant similar to the one peddled in the solar eclipse 2009 in America attack in this recent blog post. This one, however, introduces another new scare tactic (so far the latest new ploy we’ve seen is the ransomware/FAKEAV that encrypts files in the infected computer and offers a bogus fixtool for a price). This FAKEAV variant terminates any executed file with an .EXE file extension and displays a pop-up message saying that the .EXE file is infected and cannot execute... This way, users are left with no choice but to activate the antivirus product since no other application works. This Trojan is detected by Trend Micro as TROJ_FAKEAV.B. It avoids terminating critical processes to prevent system crashes. Unfortunately, cybercriminals work hard in creating so many gimmicks, that we can only guess what comes next in FAKEAV..."

(Screenshot available at the URL above.)

:fear::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Malicious Twitter Posts Get More Personal
- http://blog.trendmicro.com/malicious-twitter-posts-get-more-personal/
July 27, 2009 - "... malicious Twitter posts are getting dangerously more customized, increasing the possibility of users getting hooked into malicious schemes. A Twitter spambot is said to have been used in launching this recent attack. The spambot creates Twitter accounts and fashion them to appear as legitimate accounts by posting seemingly harmless posts like those sharing certain music they listen to, or websites they visit. The spambot accounts then posts tweets directed to unknowing users, sharing a link to a PC repair tool they allegedly came across and used... the spambot posting tweets directed to specific users is a noteworthy social engineering technique that was clearly not seen as suspicious by Twitter admins. The spambot accounts were apparently created prior to a spam cleanup recently conducted by Twitter. Additionally, the spambot uses the URL shortener Doiop.com to mask the original URL in the posts, and for a not so good reason. The URL directs to a URL that triggers a couple of redirections that ultimately lead to the download of the file RegistryEasy.exe, which is detected as TROJ_FAKEAV.DAP. TROJ_FAKEAV.DAP comes off as an application that repairs registry problems. However, in true FAKEAV style, it merely displays false results to convince the user into purchasing the product... in the root of one of the URLs the user is redirected to, an advertisement for an application dubbed as Bot Lite is posted. Bot Lite is, as the post describes, a light Twitter bot that virtually anyone can use... Bot Lite does function as a spambot for Twitter. Its file name is bot_lite_100.exe. Its detection name is HKTL_FAKEBOT. HTKL_ is the detection prefix used by Trend Micro for hacker-tools which are considered to be Grayware. Grayware refers to applications that have annoying, undesirable, or undisclosed behavior but do not fall into any of the major threat (ie. Virus or Trojan horse) categories..."

(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

- http://ddanchev.blogspot.com/2009/07/diverse-portfolio-of-fake-security_27.html
July 27, 2009

:mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Rogueware growth - 2009 ...
- http://www.darkreading.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=218700073
July 29, 2009 - "All told, 374,000 new versions of rogueware samples were released in this year's second quarter - and that number is expected to nearly double to 637,000 in the third quarter. PandaLabs researchers, who have been tracking the spread of this latest trend in cybercrime, say rogueware is easier for the bad guys than traditional banking Trojan attacks... the numbers have been spiking during the past year:
In the fourth quarter of 2008, PandaLabs found more than 50,000 rogueware samples for a total of 92,000 for the year*. "And there were two times as many in Q2 versus Q1," PandaLabs' Carrons says. "Last year, they were using typical malware distribution channels, with links that were trying to distribute the fake AV. In the second quarter of 2009, we had predicted there would be 220,000 samples [of rogueware], but it turned out to be 374,000." But now social networks, such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, are the latest vehicle for spreading rogueware. Attackers hijack user accounts and go after their friends with a video link... These fake antivirus programs alert victims that they are "infected" and lure them to click and clean their machines; when they do, they are prompted to purchase a license for the phony security application... So the bad guys are now automatically generating new, unique samples that AV engines can't recognize, according to the researchers. PandaLabs found in its research two main tiers in the rogueware business model: the creators, who develop the rogue applications and provide back-office services, such as payment gateways, and the affiliates, who distribute the fake AV. Affiliates are mostly Eastern Europeans..."
* http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/security-info/tools/reports#Monographs

Following the Money: Rogue Anti-virus Software
- http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/07/following_the_money_trail_of_r.html
July 31, 2009

:fear::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Q2-2009 - $34m in Rogueware per month...
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/07/scareware_market/
7 August 2009 - "Fraudsters are making approximately $34m per month through scareware attacks, designed to trick surfers into purchasing rogue security packages supposedly needed to deal with non-existent threats. A new study, The Business of Rogueware*, by Panda Security researchers Luis Corrons and Sean-Paul Correll, found that scareware distributors are successfully infecting 35 million machines a month. Social engineering attacks, often featuring social networking sites, that attempt to trick computer users into sites hosting scareware software have become a frequently used technique for distributing scareware. Tactics include manipulating the search engine rank of pages hosting scareware. Panda reckons that there are 200 different families of rogueware, with more new variants coming on stream all the time... Luis Corrons, PandaLabs' technical director: "By taking advantage of the fear in malware attacks, they prey upon willing buyers of their fake anti-virus software, and are finding more and more ways to get to their victims, especially as popular social networking sites and tools like Facebook and Twitter have become mainstream." In Q2 2009, four times more new strains were created than in the whole of 2008, primarily in a bid to avoid signature-based detection by genuine security packages..."
* http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/security-info/tools/reports#Monographs
"... results:
• We predict that we will record more than 637,000 new rogueware samples by the end of Q3 2009, a tenfold increase in less than a year.
• Approximately 35 million computers are newly infected with rogueware each month (approximately 3.50 percent of all computers).
• Cybercriminals are earning approximately $34 million per month through rogueware attacks..."

:fear::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Cybercrime Hub in Estonia
- http://blog.trendmicro.com/investigations-on-a-cybercrime-hub-in-estonia/
Aug. 26, 2009 - "... this company has been serving as the operational headquarters of a large cybercrime network since 2005. From its office in Tartu (Estonia), employees administer sites that host codec Trojans and command and control (C&C) servers that steer armies of infected computers. The criminal outfit uses a lot of daughter companies that operate in Europe and in the United States. These daughter companies’ names quickly get the heat when they become involved in Internet abuse and other cybercrimes. They disappear after getting bad publicity or when upstream providers terminate their contracts. Some of the larger daughter companies survived up to 5 years, but got dismantled after they lost internet connectivity in a data center in San Francisco, when webhosting company Intercage went dark in September 2008, and when ICANN decided to revoke the company’s domain name registrar accreditation. This caused a major blow to the criminal operation. However, it quickly recovered and moreover immediately started to spread its assets over many different webhosting companies. Today we count about 20 different webhosting providers where the criminal Estonian outfit has its presence. Besides this, the company owns two networks in the United States. We gathered detailed data on the cyber crime ring from Tartu and found that they control every step between driving traffic to sites with Trojans and exploiting infected computers. Even the billing system for fake antivirus software that is being pushed by the company is controlled from Tartu. An astonishing number of 1,800,000 Internet users were exposed to a bogus “you are infected” messages in July 2009 when they tried to access high traffic pornography sites."

(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

:fear::mad::fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Rogue AV goes Green
- http://securitylabs.websense.com/content/Blogs/3469.aspx
09.02.2009 - "Given the world's ever-increasing environmental concerns, it’s easy to see why malware authors are monetizing via an eco-friendly strategy. Just as the scare tactics of rogue AVs have already taken their toll, yet another ingenious twist appears - this time resorting to a friendlier, “greener” tone. Green-conscious people, beware! The latest scheme states that, for every fake AV you buy, a donation will be made to an environmental care program. It’s very simple and direct – buy the software and save the planet. Unlike other rogue AV campaigns that offer “free trial versions,” this ploy actually requires the user to buy the malware with a credit card, all the while assuring the user that a donation will be made to a green cause. This social engineering scheme appears to be picking up steam—as stories of fake AV grief from victims posted on the Web continue to pour in." (including search engine poisoning w/links to the rogue software)

(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

:fear::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

FakeAV for 9/11
- http://blog.trendmicro.com/fakeav-for-september-11/
Sep. 10, 2009 - "As the anniversary of the horrible September 11 attacks in The United States approaches, Trend Micro researchers donned their research coats and waited for the people behind FAKEAV to make their move. Predictably, they did not disappoint. Through SEO poisoning, users searching for any reports related to September 11 may find themselves stacked with Google search results that lead to a rogue AV malware... several malicious Web sites that can all be found in the poisoned Google search results... The people behind FAKEAV still show no sign of slowing down. With the holiday season coming up, users are also advised to refrain from visiting unknown sites returned in Search Engine results and rely on reputable news agencies instead."
(Screenshot available at the URL above.)

- http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/09/11/scareware-scammers-exploit-911
September 11, 2009

:mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

NY Times pushes Fake AV malvertisement
- http://countermeasures.trendmicro.eu/new-york-times-pushes-fake-av-malvertisement/
Sep. 14, 2009 - "...the New York Times issued a warning over Twitter and also on the front page of the web site. The newspaper advised visitors that they had had reports from “some NYTimes .com readers” relating to a malicious pop-up window while browsing the site... In the warning, the influential newspaper stated their belief that the pop-ups were the result of an “unauthorised advertisement”... it looks as though the problem may have been ongoing for upwards of 24 hours. The pop-up window itself... was the all-too-familiar sight of rogue antivirus software informing the NYTimes reader that their computer is infected with random, spurious, non-existent malware and promising “Full System Cleanup” for a fee of course... The malicious software being punted in this case, is the same as we were seeing in much of the black-hat SEO around the 9/11 attacks, as reported previously on the TrendLabs malware blog*. In this particular example, the malicious site and sofware is being hosted by a German provider, Hetzner AG, which has a colourful track record when it comes to spewing dodgy content, having hosted literally hundreds of malicious URLS. Here’s a really simple tip to remember. If you *ever* see a pop-up windows that arrives uninvited, telling you your PC is infected, ignore it, it is a scam. Close the window, empty your browser cache... UPDATE: Troy Davis was fortunate enough to be able to examine the attack in real-time and provides an excellent code level analysis here**".

* http://blog.trendmicro.com/fakeav-for-september-11/

** http://troy.yort.com/anatomy-of-a-malware-ad-on-nytimes-com

:fear::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Fake A/V hacks for another celebrity death...
- http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/09/15/patrick-swayzes-death-exploited-scareware-hackers/
September 15, 2009 - "Patrick Swayze, the star of movies such as "Dirty Dancing" and "Ghost", has died after fighting cancer of the pancreas for two years. Although the entertainment world mourns his loss, heartless hackers are taking advantage of the hot news story by creating malicious webpages that lead to fake anti-virus (also known as scareware) alerts... This is the same tactic used by cybercriminals after the death of Natasha Richardson and when they exploited interest amongst the public in the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack last week. Clearly the cybercriminals are no slackers when it comes to jumping on a trending internet topic, and are more professional than ever before in spreading their fake anti-virus scams..."

:fear::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Rogue Anti-Virus SEO Poisoning...
- http://securitylabs.websense.com/content/Blogs/3479.aspx
09.16.2008 - "SEO poisoning is fast becoming a trend in spreading rogue anti-virus software. This type of attack coupled with relevant news items that might be of interest to users from all walks of life is a lethal combination. Search terms related to the recent MTV Video Music Awards brouhaha and President Obama’s off-the-record comments about Kanye West, as well as updates on murdered Yale graduate student Annie Le, are the latest targets... Upon visiting these search results, visitors would be presented with the standard fake / rogue AV Web site. To make matters worse, (real) anti-virus have very poor detection rates..."

- http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/5cec85f68bbcf54399d0ef0952d68ffaa8d66b8d748617dd8466f4829ef59896-1253125434
File setup_build6_195.exe received on 2009.09.16 18:23:54 (UTC)
Result: 1/41 (2.44%)

- http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/5a97f72df8e9c64d3192ec839be632bb46e481da454d9abe7f24d01aa7b3610e-1253125440
File Soft_71.exe received on 2009.09.16 18:24:00 (UTC)
Result: 3/41 (7.32%)

(Screenshots of the fake AV Web site, as led to by the search engine, available at the Websense URL above.)

- http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=7144
Last Updated: 2009-09-17 07:36:18 UTC

:fear::mad::fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Fake Twitter accounts for Fake AV
- http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001773.html
September 20, 2009 - "We're seeing more and more fake Twitter accounts being auto-generated by the bad boys. The profiles look real. They have variable account and user names (often German) and different locations (US cities). They even upload different Twitter wallpapers automatically... All the tweets sent by these accounts are auto-generated, either by picking up keywords from Twitter trends or by repeating real tweets sent by humans. And where do all the links eventually end up to? Of course, they lead to fake websites trying to scare you into purchasing a product you don't need..."

(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

- http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/09/21/fake-antivirus-attack-twitter/
September 21, 2009

:fear::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Fake Malwarebytes - Bogus Sponsored Link Leads to FAKEAV
- http://blog.trendmicro.com/bogus-sponsored-link-leads-to-fakeav/
Sep. 24, 2009 - "Apart from SEO poisoning, cybercriminals have found another avenue to proliferate FAKEAV malware - bogus sponsored links (sitio patrocinados in Spanish). Just recently, Trend Micro researchers were alerted to malicious search engine ads that appeared in Microsoft’s Bing and AltaVista, among others, when a user searches the string “malwarebytes.” (Malwarebytes is a free antivirus product, but of course, not a FakeAV.) Clicking the malicious URL points the user to an executable file named MalwareRemovalBot.exe-1 (detected by Trend Micro as TROJ_FAKEAV.DMZ). Upon execution, the rogue antivirus displays false information that the system is infected with files that do not even exist... In the past, cybercriminals employed the same tactic when it hitchhiked on Trend Micro. Some Google searches then showed banner ads that led to a fraudulent Trend Micro website. Though the ads may not appear in all regions, all users are still strongly advised to be extra careful when clicking links in search engines..."

(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

:fear::mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Tropical Storm leads to FAKEAV
- http://blog.trendmicro.com/tropical-storm-leads-to-fakeav/
Sep. 29, 2008 - "Cybercriminals leveraged on the tropical storm, Ondoy (International name: Ketsana) that hit the Philippines and killed around 140 people... several malicious sites that appeared each time the users search the strings, “manila flood,” “Ondoy Typhoon,” and “Philippines Flood,” among others. The said sites emerged as one of the top search results. Once the user clicks the URL, they will be redirected to several landing pages where they are asked to download an EXE file, soft_207.exe. Trend Micro detects it as TROJ_FAKEAV.BND. This attack does GeoIP checks, which mean it only targets specific regions or location... Although riding on tragic events is not exactly new, what is notable is it employed once again blackhat SEO to lead users to a FAKEAV..."

(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

:fear::fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Rogue downloader uses Firefox warning screen lookalike
- http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/rogue-downloader-uses-firefox-warning.html
September 29, 2009 - "... The rogue Alpha AntiVirus page used to hijack a browser copies the Firefox warning screen... Looks like the Firefox warning page ( in Internet Explorer ), but with a difference... What makes research on these rogues very challenging is the fact that they swap the download web sites about every six hours..."

(Screenshots available at the URL above.)

:mad:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Rogue AV growth 2009-H1 585 percent
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/02/crimeware_plague/
2 October 2009 - "The prevalence of scareware packages has reached epidemic proportions, with 485,000 different samples detected in the first half of 2009 alone. The figure is more than five times the combined figure for the whole of 2008, according to statistics from the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG). The huge figures are explained by the hacker practice of changing the checksum of every file. The tactic is designed to foil less sophisticated anti-malware defences... More than half (54 per cent) or 11.9 million of the computers scanned by Panda Security, which contributed to APWG's report, were infected with some form of malware. Banking trojan infections detected by the group almost tripled (up 186 per cent) between Q4 2008 and Q2 2009. APWG's report can be found here*."
* http://www.antiphishing.org/reports/apwg_report_h1_2009.pdf

:fear::mad::fear:

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Scareware SPAM - Conficker.B infection alerts
* http://ddanchev.blogspot.com/2009/10/scareware-serving-confickerb-infection.html
October 20, 2009 - "A fake "conficker.b infection alert" spam campaign first observed in April, 2009 (using the following scareware domains antivirus-av-ms-check .com; antivirus-av-ms-checker .com; ms-anti-vir-scan .com; mega-antiviral-ms .com back then) is once again circulating in an attempt to trick users into installing "antispyware application", in this case the Antivirus Pro 2010 scareware. This campaign is directly related to last week's Microsoft Outlook update campaign, with both of these using identical download locations for the scareware..."

(Screenshots and extensive list of domains involved available at the URL above*.)

:fear::mad: