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It looks like the malware guys are indeed getting more tricky, and this time it has an effect on multiple parties. It deprives Google of the impressions from the adverts and potentially can infect surfers with some nasty malware.
Again it’s using the hosts file, redirecting Google’s own ads to those from a nefarious source.
A security company has identified a Trojan horse program that replaces Google text advertisements on Web pages with ads from another source, depriving Google of revenue and potentially causing problems for end users.
Google may be powerless to stop the trick since it involves the modification of an internal PC file, called the hosts file, that is used to match domain names of Web sites with IP addresses, said Romanian security company BitDefender.
It’s a pretty interesting vector and I guess in the coming year we are going to see a lot more tricks like this as the bad guys get more tricky and start thinking of new ways to get to people.
BitDefender said in an advisory this particular malware directs a browser to download advertisements from a different server than Google’s ad server.
BitDefender named the malware Trojan.Qhost.WU and said it is not spreading fast and poses a “medium” risk of damage. It did not say how the Trojan is being circulated, and company representatives did not return a call for comment.
Besides costing Google ad revenue, there is a danger that those replacement advertisements could contain links to sites with malicious software, BitDefender said. Web site owners who buy ads through Google, as well as Google itself, can lose out on both Web traffic and revenue if people are diverted from its ads.
As stated in the article there’s not much anyone can do, apart from the end-user making sure they don’t browse any malicious sites or run any software from unknown sources that might change their hosts file.
Source: Network World
Sir Henry says
One thing that I do to help maintain a safe existence on the web is to simply not click on any google text ads. I have only ever clicked a handful and really do not feel the need, no matter how appealing they may be (sorry Darknet, for not helping with your ad revenue). But, I am only one person and know that the general population is certain to click on these ads since people still seem to make a fair amount of coin from them.
Ian Kemmish says
It sounds like anyone using an ad-blocker which intercepts URLs before they ever get to the host look-up stage (such as PithHelmet for Safari) should avoid being misdirected to the malicious sites.
In fact, such an ad-blocker presumably protects against these malicious ads even better than it does against others with URLs which simply point to servers owned by the hackers, since Google’s ad server will already be in the ad-blocker’s list of rules.
goodpeople says
I’m with Sir Henry. Just don’t click on the ads.
Clicking on ads will only get you on more spamlists.
Nobody_Holme says
Sorry also for cutting your ad revenue darknet, but the google adservers are permanently on my blocklist. If i do accidentally follow any duff links, i get AVG going in the background, and poke my other self-defence stuff.
But not following links unless you trust the site it points at is the safest method available for avoiding trojans/virii
eM3rC says
Its amazing that a hacker/group of hackers was able to bypass one of the biggest websites on the internet and replace the ads with their own trojans. I would be willing to bet that sometime soon a company like microsoft, yahoo, google, etc will get hacked by a group and there will be some sort of malware breakout.