Google ad for GIMP.org served info-stealing malware via lookalike site

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Content source

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-ad-for-gimporg-served-info-stealing-malware-via-lookalike-site/

Searching for 'GIMP' on Google as recently as last week would show visitors an ad for 'GIMP.org,' the official website of the well known graphics editor, GNU Image Manipulation Program.

This ad would appear to be legitimate as it'd state 'GIMP.org' as the destination domain. But clicking on it drove visitors to a lookalike phishing website that provided them with a 700 MB executable disguised as GIMP which, in reality, was malware.

'GIMP' malvertising abuses Google ads

Up until last week, googling for 'GIMP' would bring up a Google ad that'd appear to take you to the open source graphics editor's official website 'GIMP.org.'

But instead this malvertising campaign drove visitors to a lookalike, phishing page delivering a malicious 'Setup.exe' that appeared to be the GIMP utility for Windows.

Google ad for GIMP.org served info-stealing malware via lookalike site

Searching for 'GIMP' on Google as recently as last week would show visitors an ad for 'GIMP.org,' the official website of the well known graphics editor, GNU Image Manipulation Program. But clicking on it drove visitors to a lookalike phishing website that provided them with a 700 MB executable...

www.bleepingcomputer.com

 

[enaph]

Prime example of how ad blockers are absolute necessity nowadays and how Google is loosing control over their own services making them even less trustworthy.

 

[Stenographers]

Lately Google search has become less and less useful to me. The number of ads, and the placement of them, keeps getting more pervasive. This is just another example of how ads in search engines are a bad idea. If I had it my way ads in search engines would be illegal. Not to mention the security risk of a corporation owning a profile on you built from all your search terms. It isn't /if/ it will be abused, it is /when./ DuckDuckGo doesn't have a perfect track record, but at least they let you turn the ads off in their settings.