Spyware takes aim at Mozilla browsers!

Dashken · 11th Feb 2005, 02:23 PM

Quote:

As the Firefox browser grows in popularity, some security experts believe it will attract its own type of spyware

Security experts are advising that spyware targeting Mozilla browsers has been spotted, and believe the threat is likely to increase as Firefox continues to take market share from Microsoft.

Stu Sjouwerman, the founder of anti-spyware vendor Sunbelt Software, said on Tuesday that his company has discovered what it believes is the first spyware to take aim at surfers using Mozilla-based browsers.

Richard Stiennon, the vice president of threat research at Webroot, which also combats spyware, said that this piece of spyware does not target Firefox specifically.

"According to my research team this site does not target Firefox, but it does target Mozilla," said Stiennon. "Only a matter of time now until a Firefox spy is discovered."

Although the spyware is only installed if users agree to a certain download, many users are likely to click through as the download's dialogue box gives no indication of the software's malicious payload, said Sjouwerman.

"It's done in a way that people might not recognise as a normal install, and will work in Firefox," said Sjouwerman. "Ok, it's not a full fledged spyware attack yet, but it definitely shows where it's going."

Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos, said this particular spyware will only work on Mozilla browsers running on Microsoft Windows and does not affect browsers running on Linux.

Experts believe that Mozilla-based browsers such as Firefox have become a greater target for spyware as their market share has rapidly increased over the last six months -- from 2.4 percent in May to 7.4 percent in November, according to Web traffic measurement company OneStat.com. Firefox has said that it is aiming for 10 percent of Web surfers by the end of 2005.

Sjouwerman said that 'stealth spyware' targeted at Firefox is "bound to happen" as hackers are currently working hard trying to find security holes in the open source browser.

"There's a small army of rogue programmers that are tearing Firefox apart," said Sjouwerman.

But Cluley said he is not sure what type of spyware will target Firefox.

"It's hard to predict precisely what form spyware for Firefox may take, as it will depend in part on what security flaws may be found in the Firefox code in the future and how quickly the community responds to patch those vulnerabilities," said Cluley.

David McGuinness, a Mozilla contributor, said Firefox provides protection against installing software from all sites apart from update.mozilla.org by displaying a yellow information bar if a site tries to automatically install code on the user's PC. But he warned that it will be more difficult to protect users against a stealth install.

"It all boils down to user education. People can install applications with variable amounts of effort from all browsers, it's the stealth attacks that are the problem where people get infected without running anything themselves," said McGuinness. "Fortunately Firefox has a better record on this than Microsoft has."

Source: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,3...9187237,00.htm

Chai · 11th Feb 2005, 08:32 PM

This is to be expected...

Adrian Wong · 11th Feb 2005, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chai

This is to be expected...

Yup!

dbretton · 12th Feb 2005, 06:22 AM

Perhaps it's time for me to write my mozilla "download nothing" extension. It will prevent the system from ever performing a stealth install.

I think it'll look something like this: { exit(0); }

siddiq · 12th Feb 2005, 10:34 AM

is the fox is under attack

TechZ · 12th Feb 2005, 05:33 PM

It was just waiting to happen. It finally did.

u suck.com · 13th Feb 2005, 02:39 PM

darn.....but i still prefer firefox to IE...

Chai · 13th Feb 2005, 08:39 PM

What about Maxthon?

Dashken · 17th Feb 2005, 11:40 AM

Maxthon is not IE?

JD Haworth · 28th Dec 2007, 01:07 AM

When I get to the end iof the installation where net.frame2 is about to install, a game pops up on my screen and stops the Unbox download. It has a swirling picture in the middle "MYTH" and has buttons to for install and exit. It also has a streaming message at the bottom that says " please buy if you like this game"

Unbox people spent an hour on the phone with me, and cannot figure it out.
My updates are current for everything. I use Mozilla.
I have Spybot, Adaware, Threatfire, EzClean.

The Unbox support said I have a spyware that is somehow connected to the installation of Unbox, since my Spyware does not detect it.

This is the only time the "myth' thing appears, so if I dont want to use Unbox, I guess it's not a problem?

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Joan

11th Feb 2005, 08:32 PM	#2 (permalink)
Chai Administrator Join Date: 6 Oct 2002 Location: Maranello Posts: 26,757 Reputation: 3984 Rep Power: 72	This is to be expected... __________________ Chai (Contributor & Forum Admin) http://www.techarp.com/

12th Feb 2005, 10:34 AM	#5 (permalink)
siddiq Hold me back! I can't stop posting!!! Join Date: 16 Jun 2003 Location: Kuching, Sarawak , Malaysia Posts: 5,899 Reputation: 460 Rep Power: 15	is the fox is under attack __________________ JOIN ARP WHATPULSE TEAM!

12th Feb 2005, 05:33 PM	#6 (permalink)
TechZ Active Join Date: 8 Feb 2005 Location: Bahrain - Middle East Posts: 572 Reputation: 258 Rep Power: 6	It was just waiting to happen. It finally did. __________________ PC Specs---PC Games---Codecs---Gaming/News---AutoPatcher XP/2k/2k3 "In ancient times they had no statistics so they had to fall back on lies." Stephen B. Leac0ck.

13th Feb 2005, 02:39 PM	#7 (permalink)
u suck.com ■ ■ ■ ■ Join Date: 20 Nov 2003 Location: where? Posts: 3,757 Reputation: 552 Rep Power: 14	darn.....but i still prefer firefox to IE... __________________

13th Feb 2005, 08:39 PM	#8 (permalink)
Chai Administrator Join Date: 6 Oct 2002 Location: Maranello Posts: 26,757 Reputation: 3984 Rep Power: 72	What about Maxthon? __________________ Chai (Contributor & Forum Admin) http://www.techarp.com/

12th Feb 2005, 06:22 AM	#4 (permalink)
dbretton Newbie Join Date: 9 Feb 2005 Posts: 18 Reputation: 0 Rep Power: 0	Perhaps it's time for me to write my mozilla "download nothing" extension. It will prevent the system from ever performing a stealth install. I think it'll look something like this: { exit(0); }

17th Feb 2005, 11:40 AM	#9 (permalink)
Dashken Administrator! Join Date: 21 Apr 2003 Location: Penang Posts: 29,763 Reputation: 2162 Rep Power: 56	Maxthon is not IE? __________________ \| Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 @ 3.2Ghz \| ASUS P5B-E Plus \| G.SKILL 2x1GB DDR2 800 \| 6 HDDs (2TB+ only ) \| NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT \| Dell E248WFP 24" Widescreen \| Blog : Dashken's I-Blog Gallery : Dashken's I-Paintings

28th Dec 2007, 01:07 AM	#10 (permalink)
JD Haworth Newbie Join Date: 3 Sep 2005 Posts: 2 Reputation: 0 Rep Power: 0	Downloading Amazon.com Unbox problem When I get to the end iof the installation where net.frame2 is about to install, a game pops up on my screen and stops the Unbox download. It has a swirling picture in the middle "MYTH" and has buttons to for install and exit. It also has a streaming message at the bottom that says " please buy if you like this game" Unbox people spent an hour on the phone with me, and cannot figure it out. My updates are current for everything. I use Mozilla. I have Spybot, Adaware, Threatfire, EzClean. The Unbox support said I have a spyware that is somehow connected to the installation of Unbox, since my Spyware does not detect it. This is the only time the "myth' thing appears, so if I dont want to use Unbox, I guess it's not a problem? Any thoughts? Thanks, Joan