Facebook Valentine's theme may lead to malware

With the month of hearts just around the corner, cybercrooks are hooking in victims with a supposed Valentine's Day theme for their Facebook profiles.

 

Computer security firm Trend Micro said the new attack begins with a post on affected users’ walls inviting other users to install the theme into profiles.

 

"Clicking the Install button on the page will prompt the download of the malicious file, FacebookChrome.crx which Trend Micro detects as TROJ_FOOKBACE.A. When executed, TROJ_FOOKBACE.A executes a script that is capable of displaying ads from certain websites," Trend Micro said in a blog post.

 

Trend Micro noted the attack works only on Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox browsers.

 

It said the fact that the attack itself is focused on Chrome and Firefox may mean that cybercriminals are targeting extension-compatible browsers, as well as going after more popular browser choices.

 

On the other hand, it said this is not the first attack of its kind, "but considering that extension-capable browsers are coming to the forefront now, it serves as a warning to all of us that this may be a continuing a trend that the malicious entities of the Internet are going to follow in the foreseeable future."

 

Trend Micro said the malware installs itself on users’ browsers as an extension named "Facebook Improvement |Facebook.com."

 

Once the malicious browser extension is installed, it will monitor the users’ browsing activities and redirect their page to a survey page asking them for their mobile number.

 

Users who clicked on the post using Internet Explorer (IE) will be redirected to the same survey, without them being asked to download anything.

 

Trend Micro said its findings showed the attack is much more effective if the users are employing either Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

 

"It resembles a legitimate extension download, thus requiring less user interaction than in the case where Internet Explorer is used (in which case the user is redirected to surveys)," it said.

 

"With the focus of the attack mainly built around the concept of pretending to be a valid Chrome extension, we can reasonably conclude that Chrome users are the main target of this particular attack, with the IE redirection as more of an afterthought," it added.

 

No info theft techniques - yet

 

Trend Micro said that while there is monitoring of browser activity, TROJ_FOOKBACE.A so far does not seem to have any information theft techniques.

 

"It fits the criteria of a clickjacking attack more, where it automatically ‘likes’ several Facebook pages as well as automatically posts a message on the affected user’s wall," it said. — RSJ, GMA News