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P2P Sites Spreading Obama/McCain Malware
Jason Lee Miller
Staff Writer
2008-09-29
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
Beware of downloading campaign videos via peer-to-peer networks like LimeWire and FrostWire. A large percentage of them may be carrying something worse than mudslinging.
 | | P2P Sites Spreading Obama/McCain Malware |  |
Security company Webroot is warning those keen on following this grotesque circus of an election that hackers are exploiting trusting users of Gnutella-based file sharing networks. What appear to be campaign John McCain and Barack Obama campaign videos were found to be often seeded with malware.
In one test, of 34 search results for "Obama Speech" on FrostWire, 14 of the results produced contained active malware. Of the 19 search results for "McCain Speech," five were found out.
Two lessons there: Obama speeches are more popular, and more hip to target.
"Peer-to-peer networks pose some of the greatest security risks on Internet," said Paul Piccard, director, Threat Research, Webroot. "Because P2P networks lack the security measures found in enterprise networks or trusted Web sites, users of these networks may put themselves or their companies at increased risk by downloading malicious content or leaking confidential data."
The most common malware variant found in the campaign videos was W32/Zipwire, acquired via a zip file titled with variations like "Democratic Convention 2008 -- Barack Obama Acceptance Speech.zip." Within, as one might expect is an executable file that, when run, infects the host machine with rogue antivirus applications. These phony antivirus apps detect fake security issues in order to entice users to buy fake solutions.
Webroot also found password stealers and backdoors downloadable via these campaign files.
About the Author:
Jason is a graduate of the University of Kentucky. He covers business, technology, and security issues.
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