For around 48 hours between June 24 and 27, crooks used Facebook spam messages to distribute malware that hijacked user accounts to carry out operations like giving likes and sharing unwanted content.
A security researcher from Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab discovered the campaign, which was spreading among Facebook accounts in the form of a spam message received from a friend that informed users about being mentioned in a comment.
Malware used a two-stage attack scenario
Accessing the link would start the first phase of the two-stage attack, which would secretly download a trojan on the user's computer.
During the second stage, this trojan would download and secretly install an extension in the user's Chrome browser, if found on the infected system.
The Chrome extension would wait until the user tried to access Facebook again, asking him to reauthenticate. At this moment, the extension would log the user's Facebook username and password and send them to the crook's server.
The crook would then take advantage of these credentials and instruct these accounts to give likes and shares to desired content, while also spamming the infected account's friends to spread the malware further.
The crook behind this campaign was most likely selling Facebook Likes and Shares via his botnet of infected devices.
Read more: Malware Spread via Facebook Makes 10,000 Victims in 48 Hours
A security researcher from Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab discovered the campaign, which was spreading among Facebook accounts in the form of a spam message received from a friend that informed users about being mentioned in a comment.
Malware used a two-stage attack scenario
Accessing the link would start the first phase of the two-stage attack, which would secretly download a trojan on the user's computer.
During the second stage, this trojan would download and secretly install an extension in the user's Chrome browser, if found on the infected system.
The Chrome extension would wait until the user tried to access Facebook again, asking him to reauthenticate. At this moment, the extension would log the user's Facebook username and password and send them to the crook's server.
The crook would then take advantage of these credentials and instruct these accounts to give likes and shares to desired content, while also spamming the infected account's friends to spread the malware further.
The crook behind this campaign was most likely selling Facebook Likes and Shares via his botnet of infected devices.
Read more: Malware Spread via Facebook Makes 10,000 Victims in 48 Hours
