New Tactic By Fake MSE Alert

Discussion in 'malware problems & news' started by Franklin, Oct 18, 2010.

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  1. Franklin

    Franklin Registered Member

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    Picked up an installer for the fake Microsoft Security Essentials alert and gave it a run.

    Instead of bringing up a fake scan dialogue where you can choose to download five different rogues this one asks for a reboot to delete the fake detection and install "ThinkPoint" security.

    On reboot all you have is ThinkPoint's gui sitting on desktop with no desktop icons or Taskbar.

    All it allows you to do is pay for the app or do a scan.

    The rogue's gui is still there locking up the desktop in users safe mode.

    The way to get rid of it is to either boot into admin safe mode or boot from a live cd then find and delete hotfix.exe from C:\Documents and Settings\"USERNAME"\Application Data.

    Naturally the best thing is to stop this rogue from getting installed in the first place but I'm sure it will get installed by some.

    1.JPG

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  2. SUPERIOR

    SUPERIOR Registered Member

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    thanks for the info franklin.... so it's like ransomware ..but i guess the former way was more convincing
    is it allowed to ask u for the sample !!
     
  3. Boyfriend

    Boyfriend Registered Member

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    Thanks Franklin for reporting new fake MSE alert. Please check your PM.
     
  4. hawki

    hawki Registered Member

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    There appears to be a new variant of the MSE fake:

    "The "alert" from the threat steals the Microsoft Security Essentials brand, including the little blue fortified castle icon. The software then displays a seemingly comprehensive list of antimalware solutions--including all of the top names that users are familiar with such as Trend Micro, McAfee, Panda, and Symantec-- and identifies those that are capable of detecting and blocking this nefarious threat.

    The F-Secure blog explains, "Surprisingly, the only products that seem to be capable of handling the infection are AntiSpySafeguard, Major Defense Kit, Peak Protection, Pest Detector and Red Cross. Never heard of these? No wonder. They are all fake products."

    http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/208592/beware_fake_microsoft_security_essentials.html
     
  5. Franklin

    Franklin Registered Member

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  6. wongawallen

    wongawallen Registered Member

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    Can anybody tell me why these things don't get detected & stopped by your antivirus program, e.g. Nod32
     
  7. Franklin

    Franklin Registered Member

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    When a new rogue installer is released out in the wild the authors of all these rogue apps make sure it bypasses most AV's at release so as to infect as many as possible.

    Then they are added to defs as samples are aquired by the good guys.

    Below are some of my samples for the fake MSE alerts and there are probably many more variants out there.

    MSE.JPG
     
  8. wongawallen

    wongawallen Registered Member

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    thanks Franklin, I guess I'm being pretty naive then, expecting an antivirus to catch this stuff.
     
  9. Rmus

    Rmus Exploit Analyst

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    These scams are becoming more varied. This posted the other day:

    AV scam: is it a rogue or is it AVG’s free edition for sale?
    http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/av-scam-is-it-rogue-or-is-it-avgs-free.html
    Brian Krebs puts it well:
    ----
    rich
     
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