Monday, July 15, 2013

Unusual file-infecting malware steals FTP credentials


PCWorld - A new version of a file-infecting malware program that’s being distributed through drive-by download attacks is also capable of stealing FTP (File Transfer Protocol) credentials, according to security researchers from antivirus firm Trend Micro.

The newly discovered variant is part of the PE_EXPIRO family of file infectors that was identified in 2010, the Trend Micro researchers said Monday in a blog post. However, this version’s information theft routine is unusual for this type of malware.

The new threat is distributed by luring users to malicious websites that host Java and PDF exploits as part of an exploit toolkit. If visitors’ browser plug-ins are not up to date, the malware will be installed on their computers.

The Java exploits are for the CVE-2012-1723 and CVE-2013-1493 remote code execution vulnerabilities that were patched by Oracle in June 2012 and March 2013 respectively.   More