Fake windows update

Fake Windows 10 updates are being used to distribute the Magniber ransomware in a massive campaign that started earlier this month. Over the past few days, BleepingComputer has received a surge of requests for help regarding a ransomware infection targeting users worldwide. While researching the campaign, we discovered a These updates are distributed under various names, with Win10.0_System_Upgrade_Software.msi [ Other downloads pretend to be Windows 10 cumulative updates, using fake knowledge base articles, as shown below. System.Upgrade.Win10.0-KB47287134.msi System.Upgrade.Win10.0-KB82260712.msi System.Upgrade.Win10.0-KB18062410.msi System.Upgrade.Win10.0-KB66846525.msi Based on the submissions to VirusTotal, this campaign appears to have started on April 8th, 2022 and has seen massive distribution worldwide since then. While it's not 100% clear how the fake Windows 10 updates are being promoted, the downloads are distributed from fake warez and crack sites. Magniber Tor payment site Source: BleepingComputer From payment pages seen by BleepingComputer, most ransom demands have been approximately $2,500 or 0.068 bitcoins. Magniber is considered secure, meaning that it does not contain any weaknesses that can be exploited to recover files for free. Unfortunately, this campaign primarily targets students and consumers rather than enterprise victims, causing the ransom demand to be too expensive for many victims. Lawrence Abrams is the owner and Editor in Chief of BleepingC...

Scammers are already taking advantage of the hype surrounding Microsoft's next Windows release to push fake Windows 11 installers riddled with malware, adware, and other malicious tools. While Windows 11 will start rolling out worldwide during early 2022, Microsoft has already made itavailable for install to all customers enrolled in the Insider program after officially unveiling it However,hundreds of users have already downloaded installers from unnoficial sources are getting infected with malware, as Kaspersky security researchers discovered. "Although Microsoft has made the process of downloading and installing Windows 11 from its official website fairly straightforward, many still visit other sources to download the software, which often contains unadvertised goodies from cybercriminals (and isn’t necessarily Windows 11 at all)," Kaspersky "Kaspersky products have already defeated several hundred infection attempts that used similar Windows 11–related schemes." Malicious installers bundled with fake Windows activators A lot of themalware distributed by attackers this way weredownloaders designed to deliver other malicious payloads on the victims' already infected computers. Windows 11 installer lures were also used to directly push a wide range of other payloads, ranging from adware (considered mostly harmless by anti-malware software) to a lot more dangerous trojans, password stealers, and similar hazardos stuff. One of the infected users downloaded a 1.75 GB fake Wi...

Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central) What you need to know • A fake Windows 11 update page was used by attackers to infiltrate PCs. • The attack used a fake Windows 11 website that directed people to download malware. • A similar campaign ran in December 2021, though that attack used a fake Discord website. Threat actors took advantage of people looking to upgrade to HP outlines its discovery of the attack on its The Threat Research Blog post breaks down the malware campaign in more technical detail. The key takeaway is that malicious actors hopped on a trending news story to try to take advantage of everyday PC users. Since Microsoft had just entered the final phase of rolling out Windows 11, many people were looking for a way to update.

(Image credit: Kaspersky ) In one example, Kaspersky spotted an installable file called '86307_windows 11 build 21996.1 x64 + activator.exe' which seems related to Windows 11 installation and some sort of license activator. This 1.76GB file may look genuine but all it has is a DLL file with some useless information. However, running the installable file, which has been made to look like a genuine Windows Installation Wizard, starts downloading other applications in the background. This second installable file even has a license agreement that states that the installer will install some sponsored apps to install Windows 11 on your PC. The moment a user agrees, it starts downloading and installing malicious files from the internet, causing a serious threat to the data saved on the device. Don't risk it Kaspersky warns against downloading any such installers from unknown sources since these could be “nothing but adware, full-fledged Trojans, password stealers, exploits, and other nasty stuff”. Windows 11 is not yet available to download or purchase commercially, with Microsoft stating the software may only be available around the end of the year. In case you’re one of the curious ones, you can join the Windows Insider program and download the relatively stable beta version of Windows 11 officially from Microsoft. Microsoft has also said that Windows 11 upgrade will be available free to all devices running on Windows 10, although it has set some • Protect your devices with these

The infamous Flame virus can infect even secure PCs by tricking them into believing its malicious payload is actually an update from Microsoft. As we already know, Flame has gained traction by tapping into security certificates for Microsoft's Terminal Server. Though they appear to be digitally signed by Microsoft, the certificates are actually cooked up by the people behind Flame, thereby tricking PCs into accepting them as legitimate. Microsoft and Symantec revealed yesterday that the virus can up the ante by using the fake certificates to spoof Microsoft's own Windows Update service. As such, Windows PCs could receive an update that claims to be from Microsoft but is in fact a launcher for the malware. Symantec described the And as Symantec explained in its blog, spoofing Windows Update is not a trivial matter. Hijacking Windows Update is not trivial because updates must be signed by Microsoft. However, Flamer bypasses this restriction by using a certificate that chains to the Microsoft Root Authority and improperly allows code signing. So when a Windows Update request is received, the GADGET module through MUNCH provides a binary signed by a certificate that appears to belong to Microsoft. The unsuspecting PC then downloads and executes the binary file, believing it to be a legitimate Windows Update file, Symantec added. The binary is not the Flame virus itself but a loader for Flame. Microsoft also "In all cases, Windows Update can only be spoofed with an unauthorized...

View Deal Turkish victims Those that fall for the trick would download a file called ChromeUpdate.exe which, in reality, is a malware loader called “Invalid Printer”. The researchers are saying that Invalid Printer is a so-called “fully undetectable” (FUD) malware loader, used exclusively by this particular, yet unnamed, threat actor. Once Invalid Printer makes it to the target endpoint, it will first check the graphic card to see if it’s installed on a virtual machine, or in a sandbox. If it determines that the device is a legitimate target, it will unpack and launch a copy of the Aurora infostealer. Aurora is a piece of malware with “extensive capabilities” and low antivirus detection, its creators claim. In reality, it took antivirus programs a few weeks to start flagging Aurora installs as malicious, Malwarebytes said. Written in Golang, Aurora is on sale on dark web forums for more than a year now. In this particular campaign, some 600 devices were compromised, the researchers believe. > A nasty new infostealer malware is landing in email inboxes > This new malware has emerged from the dark web and is after your data > These are the top ID theft protection tools today According to Jérôme Segura, director of threat intelligence at Malwarebytes, most victims are Turkish, as every time a new sample gets submitted to Virus Total, it comes from a Turkish user. "In many instances, the file name looked like it had come fresh from the compiler (i.e. build1_enc_s.exe)," the re...

View Deal Turkish victims Those that fall for the trick would download a file called ChromeUpdate.exe which, in reality, is a malware loader called “Invalid Printer”. The researchers are saying that Invalid Printer is a so-called “fully undetectable” (FUD) malware loader, used exclusively by this particular, yet unnamed, threat actor. Once Invalid Printer makes it to the target endpoint, it will first check the graphic card to see if it’s installed on a virtual machine, or in a sandbox. If it determines that the device is a legitimate target, it will unpack and launch a copy of the Aurora infostealer. Aurora is a piece of malware with “extensive capabilities” and low antivirus detection, its creators claim. In reality, it took antivirus programs a few weeks to start flagging Aurora installs as malicious, Malwarebytes said. Written in Golang, Aurora is on sale on dark web forums for more than a year now. In this particular campaign, some 600 devices were compromised, the researchers believe. > A nasty new infostealer malware is landing in email inboxes > This new malware has emerged from the dark web and is after your data > These are the top ID theft protection tools today According to Jérôme Segura, director of threat intelligence at Malwarebytes, most victims are Turkish, as every time a new sample gets submitted to Virus Total, it comes from a Turkish user. "In many instances, the file name looked like it had come fresh from the compiler (i.e. build1_enc_s.exe)," the re...

The infamous Flame virus can infect even secure PCs by tricking them into believing its malicious payload is actually an update from Microsoft. As we already know, Flame has gained traction by tapping into security certificates for Microsoft's Terminal Server. Though they appear to be digitally signed by Microsoft, the certificates are actually cooked up by the people behind Flame, thereby tricking PCs into accepting them as legitimate. Microsoft and Symantec revealed yesterday that the virus can up the ante by using the fake certificates to spoof Microsoft's own Windows Update service. As such, Windows PCs could receive an update that claims to be from Microsoft but is in fact a launcher for the malware. Symantec described the And as Symantec explained in its blog, spoofing Windows Update is not a trivial matter. Hijacking Windows Update is not trivial because updates must be signed by Microsoft. However, Flamer bypasses this restriction by using a certificate that chains to the Microsoft Root Authority and improperly allows code signing. So when a Windows Update request is received, the GADGET module through MUNCH provides a binary signed by a certificate that appears to belong to Microsoft. The unsuspecting PC then downloads and executes the binary file, believing it to be a legitimate Windows Update file, Symantec added. The binary is not the Flame virus itself but a loader for Flame. Microsoft also "In all cases, Windows Update can only be spoofed with an unauthorized...

(Image credit: Kaspersky ) In one example, Kaspersky spotted an installable file called '86307_windows 11 build 21996.1 x64 + activator.exe' which seems related to Windows 11 installation and some sort of license activator. This 1.76GB file may look genuine but all it has is a DLL file with some useless information. However, running the installable file, which has been made to look like a genuine Windows Installation Wizard, starts downloading other applications in the background. This second installable file even has a license agreement that states that the installer will install some sponsored apps to install Windows 11 on your PC. The moment a user agrees, it starts downloading and installing malicious files from the internet, causing a serious threat to the data saved on the device. Don't risk it Kaspersky warns against downloading any such installers from unknown sources since these could be “nothing but adware, full-fledged Trojans, password stealers, exploits, and other nasty stuff”. Windows 11 is not yet available to download or purchase commercially, with Microsoft stating the software may only be available around the end of the year. In case you’re one of the curious ones, you can join the Windows Insider program and download the relatively stable beta version of Windows 11 officially from Microsoft. Microsoft has also said that Windows 11 upgrade will be available free to all devices running on Windows 10, although it has set some • Protect your devices with the...

Scammers are already taking advantage of the hype surrounding Microsoft's next Windows release to push fake Windows 11 installers riddled with malware, adware, and other malicious tools. While Windows 11 will start rolling out worldwide during early 2022, Microsoft has already made itavailable for install to all customers enrolled in the Insider program after officially unveiling it However,hundreds of users have already downloaded installers from unnoficial sources are getting infected with malware, as Kaspersky security researchers discovered. "Although Microsoft has made the process of downloading and installing Windows 11 from its official website fairly straightforward, many still visit other sources to download the software, which often contains unadvertised goodies from cybercriminals (and isn’t necessarily Windows 11 at all)," Kaspersky "Kaspersky products have already defeated several hundred infection attempts that used similar Windows 11–related schemes." Malicious installers bundled with fake Windows activators A lot of themalware distributed by attackers this way weredownloaders designed to deliver other malicious payloads on the victims' already infected computers. Windows 11 installer lures were also used to directly push a wide range of other payloads, ranging from adware (considered mostly harmless by anti-malware software) to a lot more dangerous trojans, password stealers, and similar hazardos stuff. One of the infected users downloaded a 1.75 GB fake Wi...