Facebook worm

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
By Oli on Thursday, 07th August 2008. More information. Comments.

Facebook isn't all bad but here's a message that just got sent to my wall for me and all my friends to download. If they're not careful, Facebook could be going the way of email.

I received a wall message "from" an old friend today:

Screenshot of a message asking me to download a virus

It's got everything a worm needs. There's the bait, raising my intrigue. There's the payload. And there's trust.

This isn't as aimless as the random "download this file for a larger pocket-rocket"; I know the person that Facebook says sent this message. In my case, not enough to trust a random .exe, but in many people's cases, this sort of crap might fly!

Needless to say, Facebook needs to examine its security framework. I see a few possible attack vectors: XSS from fbapps and other sites, fbapp loopholes and a bot running on somebody's PC. At the very least Facebook needs to consider blocking people posting .exe files but this would only serve as a temporary fix as it would be comically trivial to post a link to a page that redirected to a .exe file.

If you get a message like this, delete it. It's on your wall so other, perhaps less educated people may see it, click it and get infected. Then tell the person that they may have a problem. They need to look closely at the apps they have installed and also strongly consider running a thorough virus scan.

But now for the really scary part: AV detection.

I submitted this to an online virus scanner which runs the file through various AVs at its end and tells you which thought the file was infected. I'm not overly sure which versions and which updates it was running, but that also applies to the real world. People are sometimes lax about applying updates. Anyway, only 36% of scans registered this as a virus.

Amongst the ones that didn't are some big names: Symantec, McAfee, Kaspersky, Sophos, AVG, Nod32, ClamAV and F-Prot. This is not an exhaustive list. There were many more failures. These brands account for what must be 95-98% of the home and enterprise AV market.

Some of the ones that passed (and also saying more than "Suspicious file"): AntiVir, Avast, BitDefender, F-Secure, Microsoft and TrendMicro.

Here's the full table of results:

File picture_dl.exe received on 08.07.2008 11:18:30 (CET)
AntivirusVersionLast UpdateResult
AhnLab-V3---
AntiVir--DR/Delphi.Gen
Authentium---
Avast--Win32:Delf-GNA
AVG---
BitDefender--Trojan.Dropper.Delf.Crypt.C
CAT-QuickHeal--(Suspicious) - DNAScan
ClamAV---
DrWeb---
eSafe--Suspicious File
eTrust-Vet---
Ewido---
F-Prot---
F-Secure--Suspicious:W32/Malware!Gemini
Fortinet---
GData--Win32:Delf-GNA
Ikarus---
K7AntiVirus---
Kaspersky---
McAfee---
Microsoft--VirTool:Win32/DelfInject.gen!T
NOD32v2---
Norman---
Panda--Suspicious file
PCTools---
Prevx1--Suspicious
Rising---
Sophos---
Sunbelt--Malware.Win32.CodeAnalyzer!cobra (v)
Symantec---
TheHacker---
TrendMicro--PAK_Generic.001
VBA32---
ViRobot---
VirusBuster---
Webwasher-Gateway--Trojan.Dropper.Delphi.Gen
 

The payload, in case you're wondering, is a trojan dropper. That can subsequently grab things for sending spam and post itself to other people's Facebook profiles.

Grav

Written by Oli on Thursday, 07 August 2008. Tagged with trojan, worm, security. Read 13431 times. If you liked it, please give it a digg.

1 to 10 of 19 < 1 2 >
#1 /* 2 years, 7 months ago */
Great bit of info. I rock Avast! on my windows box. Thanks for the info Oli.
#2 /* 2 years, 7 months ago */
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=25844207130

coincidence?
#3 /* 2 years, 7 months ago */
I klicked on that link (thought it was something useful) but i was suspicious sothat i denied the access to the internet with zone alarm when i run the .exe file. I instantly shut down the programm after that. Ive got the mcAffee scan software and you said it doesnt notice the malware... so is the spyware installed on my computer now? Kinda afraid right now hahah
Thanks for the info.
#4 /* 2 years, 7 months ago */
I scanned with ESET Smart Security and it didn't spot it!
#5 /* 2 years, 7 months ago */
Holy shit Oli, that's scary stuff. Any idea how these guys are getting into Facebook?
#6 /* 2 years, 7 months ago */
do you still get the virus if you click the link but don't download the executable?
#7 — Author comment /* 2 years, 7 months ago */
Sarah: No. You'll only become infected if you download and run the file.
#8 /* 2 years, 7 months ago */
thanks! that's great to hear. i was all paranoid. changed my fb password too. i got that window like in the screenshot you took in this post. but i just cancelled it when it said it was an executable.. so i should be okay?
#9 — Author comment /* 2 years, 7 months ago */
Yeah you'll be fine. If you're worried still, you can use the online version of Trend's virus scanner. It's free and relatively fast. It's also one of the brands that caught the virus when I tested.
#10 — Author comment /* 2 years, 7 months ago */
Just a quick update: I ran the file through the virus checker again and they did better. The most significant are the top AV providers who now catch it: Symantec, McAfee, Kaspersky and Sophos

The significant brands that still miss: AVG, Nod32, ClamAV and F-Prot. All these failures were using virus definitions from today (15th August) -- 8 days after I saw it. Probably closer to 10 before it started appearing in the wild, if not longer.

You've got to ask yourself what the point of using any AV is when the vast majority of them can't catch 0-day threats.
1 to 10 of 19 < 1 2 >

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