Friday, October 29, 2010

Koobface Worm Targets Mac Users On Facebook, Twitter

Computerworld - A new various of the Koobface worm that targets Mac OS X and Linux together with Windows is swelling by Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, safety researchers warned today.

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Antivirus firms initial reported the malware, dubbed "Boonana," on Wednesday when Intego and SecureMac, two Mac-only safety vendors, warned Mac OS X users that the worm was directed at them.

Boonana spreads around messages posted to amicable networking or microblogging sites. The messages attract the entice with the theme "Is this you in the video?" and a couple to a rouge site. People who punch and click the couple are then stirred to run a Java applet.

That applet is key to the malware's cross-platform capabilities, mentioned Symantec in a note posted to its investigate blog .

"The [malware] is created in Java, that is a stage eccentric language," mentioned Symantec assistant professor Jeet Morparia. "Individual modules enclose Java gathered files, that are finished in a Java runtime executable. As long as a P.C. has the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) commissioned on it, that is frequently the box opposite all the platforms, the hazard can govern itself."

Intego and Symantec remarkable that the worm includes a few components, inclusive an IRC connector used by the hacker to situation commands to hijacked computers, a keylogger to rob usernames and passwords, and a rootkit to conseal it from safety software.

Functionally, Boonana functions the same as the better-known Koobface Windows worm. Koobface has been actively infecting Windows PCs for more than two years, nonetheless destructive forms used in large-scale attacks didn't show up until early 2009.

Koobface, an anagram of Facebook , is best-known for infecting PCs by spammed messages on the hulk amicable networking service.

According to Symantec, Boonana includes a part that reads browser cookies of users logged in to Facebook, then posts extra fraudulent messages and links on the site using the Facebook accounts.

A Facebook orator downplayed the threat, adage in an e-mail respond to a solicit for criticism that it was a "small-scale attack." As is its practice, Facebook has shut off access to accounts compromised by Boonana in an endeavor to subdue the malware outbreak.

Marc Fossi, the executive of Symantec's safety response team, echoed Facebook, adage that his organisation had tracked a number of infection attempts, but that the number was "not in widespread proportions."

The critical element in Boonana, Fossi continued, is its cross-platform infection ability, kindness of Java, that is commissioned on many Windows, Mac and Linux machines. Such threats are rare, he added, as he cited the one e.g. he was aware with. "I stop [just] one square of malcode from a few years back that affected Windows and OS X, but we think it was explanation of process and didn't unequivocally go anywhere," he said.

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