prog: (khan)
prog ([personal profile] prog) wrote2007-08-21 12:00 pm
Entry tags:

Clever new voluntary-virus morphology

You get an email that actually looks like it may have been composed by a native English speaker welcoming you to a web-based community you may not necessarily recall asking to join, and providing a raw numeric IP address (uh oh) as a confirmation link.

Clicking the link calls up a bare-naked web page (uh oh) with a single line of text apologetically informing you that you need to download (uh oh) a "secure login" thingum to actually see the website, and offers another link to an .exe file (uhhh ohhh).

I assume that carrying on with the download and running the file would (if I were on a Windows box) instantly zombify my PC and put it to use making DDoS attacks against the Turkish government or whatever they're up to now. When it comes down to it I guess I'm really just impressed that the initial email actually doesn't look entirely unreasonable, except for the giveaway raw IP link.

[identity profile] prog.livejournal.com 2007-08-21 05:11 pm (UTC)(link)
It was so different than the usual "This am BAnk of Ammerica! We shut down ur Account unless you Click Here -> OK!!" that I just had to see how far down it went.