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New malware cocktail targets Microsoft Outlook Web users

New malware cocktail targets Microsoft Outlook Web users

Convincing notifications with Microsoft® Office® logos dupe users into downloading potent malware cocktail

Australia and New Zealand – January 15, 2010 – BitDefender®, an award-winning provider of innovative anti-malware security solutions, today warned of the rapid spread of malware targeted at users of Microsoft Outlook Web Access.

The unsolicited message directs users to apply a new set of settings to their mailboxes to update several ‘security upgrades’ that have been applied. The link in the e-mail leads towards a Web page with Microsoft® Office® logos and instructs users to download and launch an executable file that will supposedly update their e-mail settings.

Instead, they receive a potent malware cocktail, including Trojan.SWF.Dropper.E, a generic detection name for a family of Trojans sharing similar behavior. They are Flash files, which usually do not display any relevant images/animations, but drop and execute various malware files (by exploiting Adobe Shockwave Flash vulnerability). The dropped files may be subject to change and different variants can drop and execute different malware programs.

Statistics showed a significant increase in the number of files worldwide that have been infected with Trojan.SWF.Dropper.E – an increase of nearly 60 percent from December last year.

The countries most affected by Trojan.SWF.Dropper.E between January 1st and January 13th were:

Country
% total infected systems

United States
13

Spain
11

France
9

Romania
9

Canada
5

United Kingdom
3

Australia
3

Germany
3

Thailand
3

Turkey
2

Other countries
39

The attack also included other prolific malware, including:

1. One of the longest-lasting Trojan breeds – Trojan.Spy.ZBot.EKF, which was also intensively used into AH1N1-related malware distribution campaign.

ZBot injects code into several processes and adds exceptions to the Microsoft® Windows® Firewall, providing backdoor and server capabilities. It also sends sensitive information and listens on several ports for possible commands from the remote attackers. The latest variants are also able to steal bank-related information, login data, history of the visited Web sites and other details the user inputs, while also capturing screenshots of the compromised machine’s desktop.

2. Exploit.HTML.Agent.AM uses flash-object vulnerabilities that allow arbitrary code execution by loading a specially crafted flash object into a Web page. Once an infected Web page is opened, the Trojan creates a specially crafted SWF object which allows the execution of a payload into the heap (at the time this article was created, the downloaded file was detected as Trojan.Spy.ZBot.EKG; however, this may be subject to change).

Data provided by BitDefender’s Real-Time Virus Reporting System give an idea about the spreading of this malware: in the United States, the number of infected files increased in the first half of January by 10 percent, while Spain saw an increase of more than 400 percent compared to the last half of December.

3. Exploit.PDF-JS.Gen is a generic detection for specially crafted PDF files which exploit different vulnerabilities found in Adobe PDF Reader’s Javascript engine, in order to execute malicious code on user’s computer.

BitDefender datasets also indicate a growing trend of Exploit.PDF-JS.Gen. The first two weeks of January showed that the most affected systems pertain to the United States, Spain and Canada.

In order to stay safe, BitDefender recommends that consumers never follow links inserted in messages from unknown contacts in addition to installing and updating a complete antimalware software solution. Users who are concerned their current antimalware solution isn’t effective can check for viruses on their computer for free with BitDefender’s online scanner.