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Malware Spreading Via ... Windshield Fliers?

Posted by timothy on from the right-at-home-with-the-bug-guts dept.

wiedzmin writes "Another interesting article published by the SANS ISC Handler's Diary is describing a very unusual vector for malware distribution — windshield fliers and fake parking tickets. A website URL provided for "disputing a ticket" actually leads to a malicious website, and a "toolbar" required to find the photo of your violation is, you guessed it, a trojan posing as a fake antivirus. The best part is — according to the VirusTotal report, it doesn't look like most antiviruses have signatures for this one yet."

9 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. Neat but.. by Dyinobal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As clever as this is it seems like catching the person or persons putting these on wind shields would be simple enough.

    1. Re:Neat but.. by Captain+Spam · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Knowing at least one area in which windshield fliers are prevalent (college towns), chances are pretty high you'd be going ballistic over some poor college kid who just needed some cash and wasn't told what these fliers were for, not a malicious malware author/user hiding in an apartment somewhere while his freshly-hired lackeys unwittingly do his bidding.

      So unfortunately, catching the guy distributing the fliers wouldn't do you any good, unless you're really THAT upset with the practice of windshield fliering in the first place.

      The fake parking tickets, though, those are probably illegal in and of themselves, and the lackey distributing them would have to at least SEE what they are and thus be complicit in the activity, so they probably have some other manner of disguising themselves (official-looking police uniform, etc) so nobody questions them. Unless the REAL cops come by.

      --
      Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
    2. Re:Neat but.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      unless you're really THAT upset with the practice of windshield fliering in the first place.

      Yes, I am. There are certain behaviors everyone should know are asshattery. Being a "poor college student" does not make it okay to take a job being a total jerk (telemarketing, spammer, virus writer, and the person who sprays people unasked with perfume).

    3. Re:Neat but.. by pasv · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My god, the frustrations I could take out on him!

      Also, we could use violence.

      Do you think the people putting these flyers on cars are the real authors. i could just as easily pay some little kid 40 bux worth of weed to go around that parking lot of that nice corporate office over there and put these flyers out :P

  2. Clever idea... by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 4, Insightful

    but I can't seriously imagine this being a widespread problem.

    Maybe a few people in a town would end up affected, but the cost in time/effort required to trap victims is impractical considering what a simple email can do.

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    while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
    1. Re:Clever idea... by IamGarageGuy+2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Maybe this is supposed to be a local infection by design. Maybe to attack a local business or gov. office. Anybody have any ideas of how a local ip could be used to attack something?

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      Stay tuned for new sig...
  3. A virus I'd actually fall for by pwnies · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What scares me most is that this style of distribution is something I'd actually fall for. I mean, pop ups and stuff are easy enough to ignore, but what about local flies for bands, business cards, and these tickets? Just goes to show that no matter how much protection you have on the tech side, there's always a social engineering way around it.

    1. Re:A virus I'd actually fall for by Hyppy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      it still fails to computer literate common sense, "why would i need to install something to..."

      Flash. Silverlight. Java. Adobe Reader. Windows Update controls.

      People are getting used to installing applications to interact with "trusted" parties.

  4. Re:That is pretty clever... by damn_registrars · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Accidentally modded redundant instead of insightful. Sorry. Posting to kill moderation.

    Isn't this awesome new moderation system such a great part of this fantastic new layout? Nobody liked the "confirm" button from the previous system, right?

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    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.