60 replies to this topic

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Massive Blackhat SEO Malware Campaign Launched
- http://securehomenet...e-campaign.html
January 25, 2011 - "On January 23rd, thousands of machine generated attack sites were registered through GoDaddy via DNSPod name servers. These sites generally include a name of 5 characters in length, and utilize the .info TLD. The sites combine black hat SEO poisoning with virulent malware infections. At least one anti-virus vendor has labeled the infections as "not disinfectable". The structure of these sites take two forms. The attack sites utilize a technique known as wild card DNS. This enables an infinite number of subdomains to be created for a single domain name. Sites like pgkqy.info... refer to as the hounds, contain over 6000 links to the attack sites. The hounds' content (6000 links) consists of 200 links to the subdomains of 30 different attack domains... The hounds' large number of links serve to boost the search engine rankings of the attack sites. The attack sites themselves are littered with keywords and phrases designed to poison search engine results, and lure the unwary. These include references to celebrity sex scandals, teenage sex, and so forth. The attack sites also contain machine generated text consisting of numerous paragraph length narratives (in English and Mandarin). Inserted among these narratives are out of context messages, which resemble coded messages... One of the sites distributing malware to the visitors of the attack sites (code1.2bj.cc) has previously distributed malware deemed "exact, not disinfectable" by F-Prot. In that incident, anti-virus detection rates were approximately 50%... both hound site dsqof .info and attack site bjpwn .info are at 184.82.9.206. -All- are utilizing f1g1ns1 .dnspod .net as a DNS server. We will pinpoint more hostile IP addresses as time permits. You can pursue further investigation with the use of this file:
- http://doc.emergingt...udes_skynet.txt ..."
(Note "RussianBusinessNetwork" in the URL...)

Edited by AplusWebMaster, 27 January 2011 - 08:28 AM.

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

SEO poisoning - Google Image search...
- http://community.web...s-poisoned.aspx
21 Apr 2011 - "... Websense... has detected that Google Image search returns poisoned pictures when searching on celebrity child "Presley Walker". We first found on Monday that all the image search results took users to a notorious exploit kit – Neosploit. Later, it changed to redirecting users to rogue AV sites. As we publish this blog, the search results are -still- poisoned and are leading to Neosploit again... From the chain, we see the third URL is the malicious site holding the exploit code. We found that all the exploited sites are hosted on the same IP 66.235.180.91, and interestingly, they constructed it with the same path named TF19, which looks like a pattern of this campaign. At last it will trigger appropriate vulnerabilities targeted by this exploit kit according to the user's operating system and browser... we see it downloaded a PDF file that targeted -three- Adobe Reader vulnerabilities. This PDF file is heavily obfuscated and has a relatively low VirusTotal detection*... Neosploit is a well-known exploit kit in the black market. The authors reportedly stopped supporting and updating the exploit kit due to financial problems, but variants of Neosploit have been updated frequently. The variants may contain MDAC (CVE-2006-0003), ActiveX (CVE-2008-2463, CVE-2008-1898), and three Adobe Reader (Collab.getIcon, Util.Printf, Collab.collectEmailInfo) vulnerabilities, among others..."
* http://www.virustota...dbd4-1303201008
File name: neosploit.pdf
Submission date: 2011-04-19 08:16:48 (UTC)
Result: 6/40 (15.0%)

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Blackhat SEO and Osama Bin Laden
* http://www.securelis...n_Laden_s_death
May 2, 2011 - "As always, when big news appear in the press the bad guys start blackhat SEO campaigns in popular search engines trying to lure users to install Rogueware. It's not different this time, with the top news about Osama's Bin Laden death being everywhere. The bad guys were quite fast and started to poison searches results in Google Images. Some of the search results are now leading users to malicious pages..."

- https://www.computer...pic_on_Internet
May 2, 2011

- http://www.us-cert.g...n_laden_s_death
May 2, 2011

Edited by AplusWebMaster, 03 May 2011 - 11:10 AM.

[AplusWebMaster]

^^^ (See previous post in this thread!)
___

Blackhat SEO, Osama Bin Laden’s death, Rogue AV
- http://www.malwaredo...rdpress/?p=1796
May 3rd, 2011 || 0day, New Domains, rogue antivirus - "... Searches on “Osama Bin Laden Body” * are leading users to malicious rogueware domains:
antivirus. cz. cc/fast-scan/ and pe-antivirus. cz. cc/fast-scan/hese
... domains will be blocked on the next update but you shouldn’t wait..."

- http://research.zsca...ed-malware.html
May 2, 2011 - "... went from seeing fewer than 1,000 URLs containing the terms 'osama', 'usama' or 'laden' on Sunday afternoon, to a peak of over 4 million** by 10am PST on Monday morning..."
** http://4.bp.blogspot...es per Hour.png

- http://www.virustota...bb93-1304434879
File name: file-2191417_
Submission date: 2011-05-03 15:01:19 (UTC)
Result: 35/41 (85.4%)
___

Osama malware scams spread to Facebook
- http://www.theregist..._malware_scams/
3 May 2011

- http://www.fbi.gov/n...-computer-users
May 03, 2011

- http://blog.commtouc...cebook-malware/
May 3, 2011

- http://www.f-secure....s/00002152.html
May 3, 2011

- http://community.web...n-facebook.aspx
02 May 2011
- http://community.web...nd-malware.aspx
02 May 2011

Edited by AplusWebMaster, 04 May 2011 - 03:30 AM.

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

WebbyAwards hacked - compromised w/Blackhat SEO
- http://blog.sucuri.n...ackhat-seo.html
May 4, 2011 - "The WebbyAwards web site (www .webbyawards .com) is currently hacked and compromised with Blackhat SEO. If you try to search for it on Google you will get a warning saying that “This site may be compromised” * ... if you look at the source code of the page, you will see thousands of hidden spam links in there (about selling Windows vista, buying office, etc) pointing to gl.iit .edu:8080, www .korea .edu, www .gefassembly .org, www .ncsconline .org and car .dost .gov .ph. Yes, all “important” and high PR sites (one university, two .gov sites, etc)... We have no details on how it was compromised yet, but we will keep you posted (if we hear back from them)..."
* http://3.bp.blogspot...s1600/webby.png

- http://www.google.co...y?answer=190597

Edited by AplusWebMaster, 05 May 2011 - 12:56 AM.

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Scammers - Google Images - malware
- http://krebsonsecuri...es-for-malware/
May 6, 2011 - "A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a single tainted digital image may be worth thousands of dollars for computer crooks who are using weaknesses in Google’s Image Search to foist malicious software on unsuspecting surfers. For several weeks, some readers have complained that clicking on Google Images search results directed them to Web pages that pushed rogue anti-virus scareware via misleading security alerts and warnings. On Wednesday, the SANS Internet Storm Center posted a blog entry* saying they, too, were receiving reports of Google Image searches leading to fake anti-virus sites. According to SANS, the attackers have compromised an unknown number of sites with malicious scripts that create Web pages filled with the top search terms from Google Trends. The malicious scripts also fetch images from third-party sites and include them in the junk pages alongside the relevant search terms, so that the automatically generated Web page contains legitimate-looking content. Google’s Image Search bots eventually will index this bogus content. If users are searching for words or phrases that rank high in the current top search terms, it is likely that thumbnails from these malicious pages will be displayed beside other legitimate results... Rogue anti-virus scams almost invariably rely on malicious scripts that can be blocked by the excellent Noscript add-on for Firefox, which lets you decide which sites should be allowed to run scripts.
If you happen to stumble upon one of these fake anti-virus security alerts, stay calm and avoid the urge to click your way out of it. Instead, simply hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete (Task Manager), select the browser process you are using (firefox.exe, iexplore.exe, etc.) and shut it down..."
* http://isc.sans.edu/...l?storyid=10822
Last Updated: 2011-05-04 08:04:42 UTC
___

If someone was told there's a minefield out there, and also the area where it was located, why would anyone choose to go through it anyway? 'Don't know, but they do.
Common sense dictates avoidance, at least - look for another way to get whatever it is you're looking for. There are -always- alternatives...
> https://www.ixquick.com/

... until things calm down and they get a handle on fixing the problem.

> http://www.google.co...c?site=AS:15169

Edited by AplusWebMaster, 17 May 2011 - 11:03 AM.

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

SEO poisoning @ MS Safety and Security Center ...
- http://sunbeltblog.b...nd-malware.html
July 08, 2011 - "The MS Safety and Security Center (leads to)... porn redirects, and sleazy porn sites invariably lead to malware... blackhat SEOs are seeding illegimate search results within the Microsoft search results... It's Zugo*,a Bing-branded search toolbar with a history of being installed through exploits and other misleading/deceptive means... hope this all gets cleaned up soon..."
* http://www.virustota...8f6e-1310483975
File name: XvidSetup_US.exe
Submission date: 2011-07-12 15:19:35 (UTC)
Result: 2/43 (4.7%)

- http://www.theregist...nks_poisioning/
11 July 2011

Edited by AplusWebMaster, 17 July 2011 - 12:40 PM.

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

SEO poisoning - hijacked sites serve up exploits ...
- http://sunbeltblog.b...ploits-seo.html
September 12, 2011 - "... nasty SEO poisoning scam over the last few days, targeting 9/11 related search terms (alongwith anything else they can get their hands on) to attempt the infection of vulnerable PCs. They use a combination of the Black Hole Exploit Kit and an interesting "on the fly" SEO poisoning tactic to try and drop infections onto the target PC... an example VirusTotal link* to one of the pieces of Malware being used - as you can see, 21/44 currently detect it. As with most attacks of this nature, you can expect to see multiple domains, files and search terms used to lure potential victims. Speaking of search terms, the people behind this are doing some interesting things with their poisoned search results... Keeping your system patched and your security software up to date is a good place to start with regards to avoiding these kinds of attacks, in addition to running a Limited User Account and (perhaps) some browser based script blocking tools such as NoScript..."
(More detail at the sunbeltblog URL above.)
* https://www.virustot...4a7b-1315527862
File name: file.vxe
Submission date: 2011-09-09 00:24:22 (UTC)
Result: 21/44 (47.7%)

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Another round of bad ads in Bing
- http://sunbeltblog.b...ds-in-bing.html
September 19, 2011 - "We're seeing some more bad adverts popping up in Bing - just like the original attack, these results are served with very basic search terms so it's pretty easy to stumble into one of the bad URLs... when searching for "Flash player download"... the end-user arrives at malaysiaaktif(dot)com/flash and the fake Flash Player file is served up from dl-softonic(dot)net (a slight change from the original URL used to push the files which flatlined a few days ago*)... be careful when searching for basic tools, programs and files in Bing until these rogue adverts have a healthy dose of "put in jail and throw away the key" applied to them..."
(Screenshots available at the sunbeltblog URL above.)
* http://forums.whatth...=...st&p=750294

Edited by AplusWebMaster, 19 September 2011 - 10:54 AM.

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Blackhat SEO - mass spam Infection ...
- http://blog.sucuri.n...tes-hacked.html
September 21, 2011 - "... blackhat SEO attack that was infecting many WordPress sites with spam... the attack consists of contacting the domain wplinksforwork .com to get a list of links to be displayed on the compromised sites... sites compromised (if they have display errors enabled), have this message in their footer... we checked on Google to see how many they have found lately with this error and it is an astonishing number of almost 50k pages... At the time of our first analysis, most of the hacked sites had outdated versions of WordPress installed. Some of them were not, but we assume they upgraded after the fact, and never cleaned up the spam from their themes (yes, it hides in themes and in the database). So, if you keep WordPress updated, you’re likely safe. In any case, you can check via our free scanner to verify:
> http://sitecheck.sucuri.net
___

- http://centralops.ne...ainDossier.aspx
Domain name: wplinksforwork .com ...
Saint-Petersburg... RU

Edited by AplusWebMaster, 23 September 2011 - 12:17 PM.

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

More bad ads in Bing
- http://forums.whatth...=...st&p=751773
September 29, 2011

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

More... Rogue ads on Bing (and Yahoo)
- http://sunbeltblog.b...gue-ads-on.html
October 13, 2011 - "... Microsoft needs to get a handle on ad placements on Bing. Ok, so Bing isn't the most widely used search engine, but remember that Yahoo plays a part here as well. In this case, we're talking Sirefef (ZeroAccess aka Max++), probably the nastiest piece of malware circulating on the 'net right now. Sirefef kills any attempt to remove it, and is nearly impossible to clean (short of booting onto a rescue disk and performing cleanup actions, or reformatting). So just search for "adobe flash"... (That same search term will look identical on Yahoo, since Yahoo displays Bing ads and search results.) Which leads to an innocent-looking "download flash" page... the page isn't actually "GetAdobeFlash.com". Instead, it redirects to a directory on a compromised trucking site (arulbrothers .com), downloading a file from torreandaluz (dot) com/flash/Flash Player 10 Setup.exe . So let's download that Flash Player and run it through VirusTotal*..."
* https://www.virustot...fac0-1318507455
File name: Flash Player 10 Setup.exe
Submission date: 2011-10-13 12:04:15 (UTC)
Result: 17/43 (39.5%)

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Olympic scams in Google AdWords ...
- http://community.web...yer-Beware.aspx
1 Feb 2012 - "... a Google search for "olympic tickets" resulted in top-of-the-page placement of sponsored sites for vendors selling tickets without permission from Olympic authorities, which is a criminal offense in the U.K. under the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006... The prominent display of sponsored ads tends to confer on them a sense of legitimacy. Users may assume that Google has approved the businesses, or at least stands behind them in some way. But in response to a complaint from a would-be Olympic ticket purchaser, Google said, "While Google AdWords provides a platform for companies to advertise their services, we are not responsible for, nor are we able to monitor the actions of each company"... One URL yielded 500 backlinking URLs in categories such as Adult Material, Gambling, Proxy Avoidance, Potentially Unwanted Software, Suspicious Embedded Links, and Malicious Embedded Links. A set of 375 backlinks for another URL found that 104 (27.73%) included various kinds of objectionable content, including security risks (the remaining URLs either had no backlinks or had backlinks for legitimate sites such as News and Media, Business and Economy, and so on)... With Google searches as with everything else, do your own "due diligence" before making a transaction, even if the business is at the top of the page. In the case of London Olympics tickets, the official website includes the handy ticketing website checker* that we used to determine if a URL is recognized as an authorized vendor..."
* http://www.london201...ite-checker.php
___

EU regulators want Google to halt new privacy policy
- http://www.reuters.c...E8120OG20120203
Feb 3, 2012 - "... Google remains the subject of an inquiry by both the EU's competition authority and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into how the company ranks its search results..."

Edited by AplusWebMaster, 03 February 2012 - 08:20 AM.

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

Cyber Monday - Beware of Cyber Criminals
- http://blogs.norman....cyber-criminals
Nov 20, 2012 - "Black hat search engine optimization (SEO) attacks will be rampant this week leading up to Cyber Monday, so beware!... Throughout the year, cyber criminals -target- the most commonly searched keywords, phrases and topics and taint search engine results. They -poison- apparently relevant links, which appear higher than legitimate results, leading unsuspecting victims to malicious sites. This time of year, black hat SEO attacks typically scam those searching for Thanksgiving recipes, holiday shopping sales and gift guides. Search engines have learned cyber criminal tactics and weed out malicious links. But don’t let other SEO tricks ruin your holiday festivities... What’s the bottom line? If a deal looks too good to be true, you’re probably right! You know this already, but with fierce competition among retailers to offer the lowest price, you may be tempted to click a malicious link. If a link seems even a little suspicious, verify it first. Beyond search engines, protect yourself on social media and email as well. Expand short links with a tool like Untiny* to make sure they’re authentic. If you’re accidentally redirected to a rogue site, of course, don’t download any software or fill out any surveys..."
* http://untiny.me/

- http://community.web...ival-guide.aspx
"... the "free lunch" or more to the point 'free gift card' or 'free hugely popular consumer electronic device' is offered in return for the simply filling in an online survey or completing a qualifying purchase in order to secure that vastly more expensive item. Commonly these scams utilize emails and social network posts claiming to be from popular brands informing you that 'You have received a gift card from us' or 'Giveaway'. The links of course, if not leading you to malicious websites that could potentially compromise your machine, lead you through a series of sites to harvest your personal information and/or entice you into purchasing memberships, ebooks and other items all in order to secure that great freebie. Once harvested, your data at best could be passed to marketing organizations to further target you, or at worst for identity fraud..."

- http://aceinsight.websense.com/
"Enter a URL to see if it contains malicious content.
A free service..."
___

>> https://upload.wikim...nternet_dog.jpg
___

132 counterfeit sites seized in Cyber Monday blitz
- http://www.reuters.c...E8AP0W620121126
Nov 26, 2012 - "U.S. and European authorities seized 132 domain names in a counterfeit goods crackdown linked to Cyber Monday, the online bargain day, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. The sites, many linked to organized crime, were selling fake goods that ranged from National Football League jerseys and Nike Inc shoes to Adobe Systems Inc software, he said... ICE agents seized 101 domain names in the United States and 31 were taken over by officers in Britain, Romania, Belgium, France and Denmark and by Europol, the European Police Office, ICE Director John Morton said... The Cyber Monday seizures raise the total number of U.S. sites taken over to 1,630 since ICE began its anti-counterfeit campaign in June 2010..."

Edited by AplusWebMaster, 26 November 2012 - 08:18 PM.

[AplusWebMaster]

FYI...

MSN Messenger - now SEO malware ...
- https://www.secureli...ning_of_attacks
March 19, 2013 - "Microsoft recently announced the shutdown of its popular IM client MSN Messenger, which will be replaced by Skype, but its end represents the beginning of malicious attacks posing as the installer of the software. Cybercriminals already started to use this fact in their attacks, registering malicious domains, buying sponsored links on search engines, tricking users to download and install a malware masquerade as the MSN installer. MSN Messenger is still very popular in several countries; Microsoft informed that the service has more than 100 million users worldwide, approximately 30.5 million of them in Brazil. As an escalated migration of all users is planned, it's getting harder to find the installer of the program and this is the window of opportunity exploited by Brazilian cybercriminals aiming to infect users looking for the software. In a simple search on Google for "MSN messenger" the first result displayed is sponsored link of a malicious domain aiming to distribute the -fake- installer, which is actually a Trojan banker...
> https://www.secureli...g/208194179.png
... download of the fake MSN installer:
> https://www.secureli...g/208194182.png
Other malicious domains created with the same purpose, some of them already deactivated, are as follows:
baixarmsndownload .com.br
downloadmsnbaixar .com.br
msnmessengerlive .com.br
We believe this is the first of several expected attacks that use the end of MSN Messenger as bait. As we approach April 8, the day chosen by Microsoft to permanently shutdown the service (April 30th in Brazil), we advise all users to -avoid- looking for the MSN installer and migrate their account(s) to Skype. And the sooner the better to avoid becoming victims of attacks like this."