Malware authors target Google Chrome

[jamescv7]

Every time I write about Internet Explorer, it’s usually a matter of minutes—sometimes even seconds—until someone in the Talkback section proclaims, smugly, that they’ve switched to Google Chrome or Firefox and are therefore immune from malware attacks.

They’re wrong, and malware authors have begun preying on users of alternative browsers to push dangerous software, including Trojans and scareware. The problem is that most malware attacks aren’t triggered by exploits that target vulnerabilities in code. Instead, according to one recent study, “users are four times more likely to come into contact with social engineering tactics as opposed to a site serving up an exploit.”

I found a perfect example yesterday, thanks to an alert from Silverlight developer Kevin Dente. He had typed in a simple set of search terms—Silverlight datagrid reorder columns—at Google.com, using the Google Chrome browser on Windows. You can follow along with what happened next in the screenshot gallery that accompanies this post.

Zdnet

 

[MrXidus]

Thanks for this I found it interesting to read.

 

[Ink]

I came across this sometime last week:
http://malwaretips.com/Thread-Fake-Security-scan-in-Google-Chrome

They should make their idea of this more strict, like SmartScreen in IE9:
http://malwaretips.com/Thread-Google-Chrome-and-Chromium-add-protection-against-malicious-downloads

 

[bogdan]

People need to distinguish between an exploit in a browser and this social engineering type of attack. There is no bug in chrome being exploited here. It is just a social engineering attack that happens to use the words "Google Chrome". It doesn't matter what browser you use, if you fall for this kind of "tricks". My opinion on what makes a browser secure: how fast the author reacts to newly discovered bugs. Consider this, when choosing your browser.

 

[Ink]

Bogdan, do you think these Social Engineering attacks first detect what web browser you are using then load the "appropriate-looking" fake scanner to match the browsers appearance?

 

[bogdan]

That is absolutely possible because every browser has a userAgent string. It can be used to identify your browser and an example of using it for the right purpose is making sure that the page is displayed correctly under some browsers.

 

[McLovin]

Nice find...interesting to read.

 

[jamescv7]

Well malware writers know that many users are using Google Chrome thus they are targeting with fake scanner google chrome page.