pest-patrol.com is not the real PestPatrol - part II

The fake pest-patrol.com site we mentioned a few days ago has fixed its download problem and has given us a sample. Like many of these fake anti-malware sites, the executable morphs continually to avoid protection.

Detection rates are not good (VirusTotal results), and the real PestPatrol / eTrust product doesn't pick it up yet.

I strongly suspect that there's nothing good in the 85.255.112.0 - 85.255.127.255 range at all, and it is probably a good idea to block access to that entire IP block.

Antivirus;Version;Last Update;Result
AhnLab-V3;2008.5.22.1;2008.05.27;-
AntiVir;7.8.0.19;2008.05.27;SPR/Dldr.PestPatr.A
Authentium;5.1.0.4;2008.05.26;-
Avast;4.8.1195.0;2008.05.27;-
AVG;7.5.0.516;2008.05.26;-
BitDefender;7.2;2008.05.27;-
CAT-QuickHeal;9.50;2008.05.26;-
ClamAV;0.92.1;2008.05.27;-
DrWeb;4.44.0.09170;2008.05.27;-
eSafe;7.0.15.0;2008.05.26;-
eTrust-Vet;31.4.5826;2008.05.27;-
Ewido;4.0;2008.05.26;-
F-Prot;4.4.4.56;2008.05.26;-
F-Secure;6.70.13260.0;2008.05.27;-
Fortinet;3.14.0.0;2008.05.27;-
GData;2.0.7306.1023;2008.05.27;-
Ikarus;T3.1.1.26.0;2008.05.27;-
Kaspersky;7.0.0.125;2008.05.27;not-a-virus:Downloader.Win32.FraudLoad.bz
McAfee;5303;2008.05.26;-
Microsoft;1.3520;2008.05.27;-
NOD32v2;3134;2008.05.27;-
Norman;5.80.02;2008.05.26;-
Panda;9.0.0.4;2008.05.27;-
Prevx1;V2;2008.05.27;-
Rising;20.46.12.00;2008.05.27;-
Sophos;4.29.0;2008.05.27;-
Sunbelt;3.0.1123.1;2008.05.17;-
Symantec;10;2008.05.27;-
TheHacker;6.2.92.320;2008.05.26;-
VBA32;3.12.6.6;2008.05.27;-
VirusBuster;4.3.26:9;2008.05.26;-
Webwasher-Gateway;6.6.2;2008.05.27;Riskware.Dldr.PestPatr.A

chliyi.com - another injection attack

Thanks to Dancho Danchev for the heads up, it looks like there's another SQL injection attack on the loose, this time pointing to chliyi.com/reg.js, with about 10,000 hits currently on Google for a variety of sites.

Reportedly, this launches some sort of ActiveX attack via obfuscated VBscript. This is another good reason not to use Internet Explorer, as most other browsers do not support ActiveX and are not vulnerable.

Unlike some other recent injection attacks, this one seems to use a legitimate domain called chliyi.com - unfortunately for the bad guys, the registration on the domain is going to run out pretty soon.

Domain Name.......... chliyi.com
Creation Date........ 2003-06-12 11:21:39
Registration Date.... 2003-06-12 11:21:39
Expiry Date.......... 2008-06-12 11:21:39
Organisation Name.... junrong shen
Organisation Address. dongxiaoqiao3-1-104
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address. suzhou
Organisation Address. 215006
Organisation Address. JS
Organisation Address. CN

Admin Name........... shen junrong
Admin Address........ dongxiaoqiao3-1-104
Admin Address........
Admin Address........ suzhou
Admin Address........ 215006
Admin Address........ JS
Admin Address........ CN
Admin Email.......... wzh@hisuzhou.com
Admin Phone.......... +86.51265678898
Admin Fax............ +86.51257306265

Tech Name............ zhihui wang
Tech Address......... suzhou
Tech Address.........
Tech Address......... suzhou
Tech Address......... 215021
Tech Address......... JS
Tech Address......... CN
Tech Email........... wzh@hisuzhou.com
Tech Phone........... +86.5169697639
Tech Fax............. +86.5167621807

Bill Name............ zhihui wang
Bill Address......... suzhou
Bill Address.........
Bill Address......... suzhou
Bill Address......... 215021
Bill Address......... JS
Bill Address......... CN
Bill Email........... wzh@hisuzhou.com
Bill Phone........... +86.5169697639
Bill Fax............. +86.5167621807
Name Server.......... dns22.hichina.com
Name Server.......... dns21.hichina.com

The IP address of the server is 218.30.96.87 which is not in the Spamhaus DROP list which indicates again that the chliyi.com might well be legitimate, just compromised.

This is another attack that goes to show that "there is no such thing as a safe site". A scan of the Google results comes up with some interesting (and alarming) infected sites:

• forces.ca - Canadian military
• paramountcomedy.com - Paramount Comedy (Cable TV channel)
  
• kcsg.com - KCSG (Utah TV station)
• umnh.utah.edu - University of Utah
• digital.lib.ecu.edu - East Carolinia Unitersity
• chapel.duke.edu - Duke University
  
• drdrew.com - Dr Drew (relationship advice)
• gisp.org - Global Invasive Species Program
  
• sciencescotland.org - Royal Society of Scotland
  
• moffitt.org - H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute
• confetti.co.uk - Confetti (Wedding planning)
  
• buildabear.com - Build-a-Bear Workshop
  
• delluniversity.com - Dell
• trelleborg.com - Trelleborg AB (Polymer manufacturer)
  

None of these are huge sites when it comes to traffic, but there are some well-known names there and certainly some which you would hope would be more secure. Out of the other infected sites, it seems that the US Canada, Australia, the UK and Ireland seem to have the biggest cluster of infected sites with very few showing outside those countries.

This is not a comprehensive list of infected sites, and many of these sites will have been cleaned up.

If you are running an SQL server, then the rule is to secure your inputs, else you will get attacked again and again.

pest-patrol.com is not the real PestPatrol

Thanks to Dancho Danchev for pointing out pest-patrol.com, yet another dodgy looking scareware site. Of course, the real PestPatrol is a pretty well known and legitimate anti-spyware product from CA, the one with the hyphen in the middle is definitely trying to pass itself off as the real thing. (Click the thumbnail for a larger picture).



The fake pest-patrol.com is hosted on 85.255.121.181 in the Ukraine, a range of network addresses that features on the Spamhaus DROP list, and has domain registration service from Estdomains which always seems to be a popular choice with dodgy web sites.

The bottom of the page has a copyright notice claiming that it was created by "Pest Patrol, Inc.", but that is likely to be fake. A large amount of text has been copied and pasted directly from the real CA site. The "PestPatrol" name is pretty widely registered as a trademark, so apart from anything else, this fake pest-patrol.com site is clearly violating CA's trademark rights.

What's interesting about this is just how the pest-patrol.com domain ended up in the hands of a bunch of guys in Eastern Europe. Although the "PestPatrol" name is trademarked, that only applies to computer software. As is turns out, the original pest-patrol.com controlled pests of the creepy crawly variety. CA (or SaferSite Inc as it was before CA took over) would have had no claim over the domain name as it wasn't violating any trademark or causing confusion. But eventually the name expired and after being dropped a couple of times it ended up with someone who clearly is using it to violate a trademark.

The lesson for businesses is perhaps that they need to keep an eye on domains that could potentially violate a trademark or be confusing and secure them if they expire, several registrars can back order domain names. In the long run, that's probably easier than trying to track down an anonymous registrant from the former Soviet Union.

The download option on pest-patrol.com doesn't work at present, but it could be similar to this one (VirusTotal scan results) which appears on a sister site. Unfortunately, CA's genuine product doesn't seem to detect it..

Mass phpBB attack free.hostpinoy.info and xprmn4u.info

Another injection attack reported by the ISC, and this time it appears to be using one of many potential flaws in phpBB. Injected code points to free.hostpinoy.info/f.js and xprmn4u.info/f.js, and a Google search of these two terms currently comes up with 858,000 matches between them indicating that this is a very large scale attack.

phpBB is a great bit of software, but sadly it is riddled with security holes and requires constant updating. If you're running a phpBB forum then you need to patch it as a matter or urgency. If you don't run phpBB and are looking at running a forum then I've got to say.. try something else.

It looks like some version of the Zlob trojan is being served up, see here and here for more details. (Thanks sowhatx). Detection rates seem to be patchy. It's possible that the injected code is using some sort of geotargetting as the destination sites are not consistent.

free.hostpinoy.info is 209.51.196.254 (XLHost.com)
xprmn4u.info is 217.199.217.9 (Mastak.ru)

Updated: A brief analysis of some of the impacted sites shows a mix of high traffic forums and long-dead ones. Some of these forums are hit with multiple exploits and massive amounts of spam, which indicates that they are running a very out of date version of phpBB.. so folks, if you have a forum which you don't use any more, do everyone a favour and delete it.

winzipices.cn and bbs.jueduizuan.com - another SQL injection attack

The ISC has warned about another SQL Injection attack, following on from this one a few weeks ago. This time the injection is inserting a script pointing to the winzipices.cn and bbs.jueduizuan.com domains.

The malicious script is pointing to winzipices.cn/1.js, winzipices.cn/2.js, winzipices.cn/3.js, winzipices.cn/4.js and winzipices.cn/5.js and also bbs.jueduizuan.com/ip.js. As ever, don't visit these sites unless you know what you are doing.

Right at the moment, winzipices.cn is coming up with a server error, but bbs.jueduizuan.com is functioning just fine. This tries to attack visiting systems using the MS07-004 vulnerability, a RealPlayer vulnerability plus it attempts to download an executable from www.bluell.cn/ri.exe possibly using a shell vulnerability (VirusTotal analysis here, mostly detected as Trojan.Win32.Agent.lpv, Trojan.MulDrop.origin or TR/Dropper.Gen).

Some IP addresses:
www.bluell.cn is 60.191.239.219
winzipices.cn is 60.191.239.229
bbs.jueduizuan.com is 60.191.239.219

My recommendation is to block access to the entire 60.191.239.x range if you can.

The the moment, a Google search for winzipices.cn shows 1790 matches, for jueduizuan.com it is 1640 matches. Expect those figures to climb sharply.

If you are running an impacted SQL server, then you need to secure it and perform better validation, else the problem will happen again. Client machines should be protected if they are fully up-to-date on patches, if you have been infected then use the excellent Secunia Software Inspector to check your system for vulnerable apps.

As always, there are some high profile sites that have been compromised. They may well have been cleaned up by now, so inclusion here does not mean that they are unsafe or safe to visit.

bbs.jueduizuan.com

• safecanada.ca (Canadian Homeland Security again).
• breastcanceradvice.com, arthritisissues.com, menssexhealth.com, www.bipolardepressioninfo.com (Health)
• dubaicityguide.com (Travel)
• classicdriver.com (Motoring)

winzipices.cn

• imo.org (International Maritime Organisation)
• cifas.org.uk (Fraud Prevention)
• hmdb.org (Historical Marker Database)
• abbyy.com (OCR software)
• cancerissues.com, adhdissues.com, depressionissues.com, diabeticdiets.org, erectilefacts.com, prostatecancerissues.com, digestivefacts.com (Health)
• www.asiamedia.ucla.edu, www.international.ucla.edu, www.asiaarts.ucla.edu, www.isop.ucla.edu (UCLA)
• newmarket.travel (Travel)
• discoverireland.ie (Travel)
• gay.tv (Lifestyle)

Some of these sites are regularly infected with SQL injection attacks, and safecanada.ca was infected with the last major outbreak. The problem is that once a site has been attacked and enumerated, then it will be attacked again and again until it is fixed.

As mentioned before, there is no such thing as a safe site.

nihaorr1.com - there's no such thing as a "safe" site

Websense gave a heads up about yet another mass defacement, impacting a few high profile web sites. Just to make life difficult, they didn't specify the domain in use.. but it isn't exactly rocket science to find out that it is nihaorr1.com.

I'm going to make an assumption that if you're reading this blog, you're at least somewhat technically savvy. Don't visit any of these sites unless you know what you are doing.

Googling nihaorr1.com/1.js brings up several thousand matches. Surprisingly, an eximination of www.nihaorr1.com/1.js shows that it is not obfuscated at all and points to www.nihaorr1.com/1.htm.. and that has all the exploits nicely laid out - MS07-055, MS07-033, MS07-018, MS07-004 and MS06-014. Also there are exploits for RealPlayer, Ajax, QQ Instant Messenger and some sort of Yahoo! product (probably Instant Messenger).


If your site has been compromised and you're looking for answers.. well, all I can tell you is that it will have been done through some sort of SQL Injection similar to this one.

If you're supporting client PCs that are fully patched, you have a little less to worry about unless you have RealPlayer or Yahoo! IM installed. Perhaps it is a good time to consider banning these applications in any case, particularly RealPlayer which is a very common vector for attack.

Why do I say there's no such thing as a "safe" site? Well, among the compromised sites are the following:

www.redmondmag.com [Independent publication about Microsoft]
www.pocketpcmag.com [Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine]
www.careers.civil-service.gov.uk [UK Civil Service]
www.faststream.gov.uk [UK Civil Service]
www.safecanada.ca [Canadian National Security]
www.n-somerset.gov.uk [UK Local Government]
events.un.org [United Nations]
www.unicef.org.uk [UNICEF]
www.iphe.org.uk [Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering]
www.umc.org [United Methodist Church]
www.umita.org [United Methodist Information Technology Association]
www.simplyislam.co.uk [Islamic Information site]
www.rsa.org.uk [Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts]
www.24.com [Sports]
www.oddbins.co.uk [Major UK wine retailer]
www.avx.com [Electronic components]
www.advantech.com [Computer components]
www.aeroflot.aero [Airline]
www.aeroflot.ru [Airline]

In other words, you can't rely on the site you are visiting to be safe.. so the onus is on the end user to make sure their PC is fully patched and as secure as possible.

Win32/Loodok!generic.2 in SYSTEM.DLL - likely false positive

We're getting a plague of these with eTrust (pattern 5723):

[time 22/04/2008 12:54:21: ID 14: machine xxxxx.com: response 22/04/2008 12:54:46] The Win32/Loodok!generic.2 was detected in C:\DOCUME~1\XXXXX\LOCALS~1\TEMP...\SYSTEM.DLL. Machine: XXXXX, User: XXXXX\xxxxx. Status: File was cured; system cure performed.

The subdirectory varies, but it is usually %user profiles%\local settings\temp\ns???.tmp where the question marks indicate a random letter/number. You may find that the subdirectory has vanished by the time you investigate.

This appears to be happening with the installer for Firefox (also tested with Netscape Navigator). You can see the problem if you snooze the AV scanner and then fire up the Firefox installer and leave it running.. the SYSTEM.DLL is clearly there.

Apart from eTrust, VirusTotal gives it a clean bill of health.

You may be seeing this fire off by itself if a software package is autoupdating. I can't identify exactly which installer is in use here, but it is likely to be shared between many other applications.. so expect a storm of these.

As usual with false positives, expect a fix to be issued by CA very soon. The problem seems to be with pattern 5723, so updating to a later virus signature should probably cure it.

Added: Pattern 5724 also reports a positive, but the beta version of 5725 does not. You can download beta signatures from CA here.

Added: 5725 is now available for download as normal, this should cure the problem!

RavMon.exe virus on new Toshiba Satellite laptop from Comet, Part II

A few weeks ago I wrote about a new laptop with a virus preloaded that was bought from Comet. As far as I knew, I was the only person to have this problem but after carefully checking everything that I had done to set up the machine, my conclusion was that the RAVMON.EXE malware was preloaded on the PC.. but perhaps it was a one-off.

Not so. From the comments on the post, it seems that Toshiba laptops from Currys and PC World have the problem, over at the Irreverence Is Justified blog, it turns out that exactly the same thing has happened. Same virus, same model of Toshiba and Comet (again).

Detections were varied, but it appears to be a trojan that possibly loads itself on via a USB key. The implication is that some part of the manufacturing process / preparation is compromised with infected USB devices.

So Toshiba's manufacturer process is compromised? Well, it appears to be.. but almost definitely an accident rather than a malicious act. Presumably there are many more L40-18Z laptops with the same problem..

2117966.net revisited

Last month I blogged about Trend Micro's website being compromised as well as thousands of others with an IFRAME injection to 2117966.net .

The ISC has followed up with an analysis of the tool used to compromise the sites. It uses an SQL injection attack to infect the server, but the interesting thing is that it uses Google to enumerate the vulnerable sites first, a technique called Google Hacking.

I guess there are a few things to note here - despite the ubiquitousness of SQL, it can still be tricky to set up and is best left to people who know what they are doing. Keep your patches up-to-date, and consider carefully if you want Google (or any other search engine) to be able to index your WHOLE site and adjust your robots.txt if necessary.

The ISC article also links to some good resources if you want to properly secure your database.

ezBay.me.uk - or how NOT to start an online business

Sometimes, people make mistakes with their online marketing. Newbies can accidentally buy a "millions of email addresses CD" with a load of scraped email addresses and spam away. Sometimes they are not aware of trademark laws. But sometimes they are just plain stupid in so many ways that there is no excuse for not ripping into them.

Mistake One - Trademark Violation
In this case, the budding entrepreneur has gone for the name ezBay.me.uk - confusingly similar to a well-known auction company called eBay. Sure, there are other users of the "ezbay" name, but the closeness of the name and even the "camel case" capitalisation are asking for trouble, possibly some years down the line.. but trouble nonetheless.

Mistake Two - Choose a stupid domain name.
Not only does "ezbay.me.uk" possibly violate trademarks, but it uses the ".me.uk" namespace which is designed for personal use only. That could well lead to the name being revoked by the registrar. Worse, the name doesn't make sense in British English - "Ee Zed Bay"? In American English it's "Easy Bay" which *does* makes sense.. but not in conjunction with a .me.uk domain name.

Mistake Three - Spam
There's no excuse for sending out unsolicited bulk email to scraped email address, but ezBay.me.uk have done exactly that. That tends to lead to a very short life expectancy for the new auction site that you have just created.

---

EZBAY
24/7 online Auction Site

This is our new 24/7 on line auction please feel free to take a look if you like what you find please register and we will give you £20.00 sellers fee completely free there is no listing fee for items that you may want to sell so what are you waiting for sign up to day for your £20.00 and start selling at www.ezbay.me.uk feel free to take a look around at all the bargins
we have many less than 50% cheaper than the high street price so come on see
how easy it is with ezbay happy shopping

BRAND NEW AUCTION

Car DVD player starting bid 50p buy now price £139.00

MP4 player with 1.3m pixels digital camera 2.5in TFT screen starting bid 50p buy now price £32.90

12mp digital video camera with MP3/MP4 starting bid 50p buy now price £76.00

1.1 inch screen clip MP3 player starting bid 50p buy now price £8.50

12.1-inch with 4:3 display roof mount TFT-LCD monitor Starting bid 50p buy now price £62.50

MP3 player sunglasses with FM super-plastic frame and build-in 1 GB flash
memory starting bid 50p buy now price

best regards

mr a m dick
ezbay world

Mistake Four - Be offensive
Signing off an email with a name of "Mr A M Dick" is always likely to annoy people (unless that is the person's name in which case.. oh dear).

Mistake Five - Read Receipts
Not only is this spam, but it also sent out with a read receipt in a clumsy way to confirm the recipient's email address. Not only will the muppet sending out the spam be overwhelmed with receipts, but many people regard them as invasive of privacy.

---

The forensics..
The headers indicate that the mail comes from 75.125.202.82 which is also the IP address of www.ezbay.me.uk, so that's pretty much a smoking gun.

The domain name is registered to:

     Domain name:
ezbay.me.uk

Registrant:
Ezbay

Registrant type:
UK Individual

Registrant's address:
8 Calle Las Encines
Fuenta De Piedra
Malaga
295 30
ES

Last time I checked, Malaga wasn't in the UK. This address is connected with an Alibaba operation called Murrays Discount.

There's no evidence that this is a scam, but it is almost a textbook example of how to kill a business before it starts. It is notable that despite the spam run, the only person actually selling is "Murray" himself.

419 Scams and Social Engineering

One key element that scammers use when carrying out their business is social engineering. Usually, the approach is to make the victim believe that they are getting something for nothing.. it's even better when they can persuade the victim that the VICTIM is actually scamming someone else.

Take this recent example:

---

Subject: COMPENSATION,
From: eze_john1@aol.in
Date: Tue, April 8, 2008 9:15 am

My Dear Friend,
This is to thank you for your effort.I understood that your hands were tied.But Not
to worry.

I have succeeded,the money has been transfered into the account provided by a newly
found friend of mine in Australia. To compensate for your past assistance and
commitments,i have droped an International Certifie Bank Draft cheque worth of
$1,200,000,00 for you.
?
I am in London with my family presently.I do intend to establish some business
concerns here,and possibly buy some properties.Contact my Secretary in
benin-Republic? job_mike20@yahoo.fron his email below ( job_mike20@yahoo.fr) Forward
my mail to him,then ask him to send the cheque to you.Take good care of your self.
?
Best Regards,
EZE JOHN

---

Even though the English is very poor, the concept here is a bit more sophisticated than your average 419 scam. The email has been designed to look as though it has been misdelivered in some way - so the victim thinks that this should have been sent to someone else. But there's a dangling carrot of $1.2m here, and some people will see an opportunity to try to bilk "Eze John" out of the money.

Of course, there is no money.. but there will be a whole set of mysterious "fees" and expenses to try to get the money out, that at least is standard for a 419 scam. The twist is here that the VICTIM is also attempting to perpetrate a fraud, and this makes it very unlikely that the victim will ever go to the police to report it. It is also possible that the scammer might try to blackmail the victim to keep it quiet.

This approach offers a great deal of protection for the fraudsters. The original email is rather vague and might not be obvious to law enforcement. And if anyone takes the hook, then the victim too appears guilty.

This attempt is a bit of a lame one, but a truly successful con artist can use these techniques with a great deal more polish. So although you would never follow up on a misdirected email like this, it is easy to see how people can fall for it.

"uslegaljobs.net" Money Mule Scam

Money mule scams are usually associated with Eastern European criminals, but this one is slightly different originating from an IP address of 41.219.194.90 in Nigeria.

---

HILTON FINANCE HOME Inc.
Industrial & Personal Financier's
Our Ref: FMF-117-212.
MEMO: 2008-2nd Quarter-Online Search Recruitment Exercise.

HILTON FINANCE HOME Inc in-support of Magnum Building Company Int (Interior
Furniture Experts) will be opening this offer to Interested Individuals/Corporate
bodies in the United States, Canada, Australia and the Entire Europe to enable them
make an extra 10.05% commission based earning right from the convenience of their
home or office apartment and without affecting their primary occupation.

WHAT WE DO:-
We issue and help to secure loans on behalf of customers who make purchases from our
partner company Magnum Building Company Int which we also process and monitor to
make sure that our loans are used for the sole reason of financing our customer
purchases with our parent company.

ABOUT THIS JOB:-
Since most of our customers make payments in large Instrumental fractions after
securing a finance loan for them, our mother company became faced with the task of
receiving loan payments from Magnum Building Company Int customers through our
conventional method of payments remittance due to delays in processing time. Hence,
we decided to advertise and search for Individuals of GOOD STANDING who will assist
the company receive these finance payments directly from our finance houses/banks as
on behalf of our customers and then forward on to the company on a weekly/monthly
basis. Some little amounts however will come from our customers directly

YOUR EARNING:-
You will be accredited as our legal Payment representative in the United States,
Canada, Australia and the Entire Europe and will be in charge of all payments from
within your region, for this you will be paid a 10.05% of all payments you receive,
and forward on a weekly/monthly basis.

To get more Information about this Business arrangement, you should reply to our
e-mail providing the Information listed below and we will either respond by regular
mail or Fax providing you with our business prospectus.

First Name:
Last Name:
Contact Address:
Phone:
Fax Numbers:
Best Time to Call:

Please send your correspondence and Information to.
Recruit Department.
David Benson.
E-mail: register@uslegaljobs.net
IMPORTANT NOTICE:- Please be advised that this is a 100% legal business endeavor and
that it is only a contract based employment program and that it will not in any way
affect your primary employment.

Copyright 2008-2009 Hilton Finance Home Inc © All right reserved

---

This is soliciting replies to a domain of uslegaljobs.net, registered in January 2008 - this appears to be registered to a real address and possibly with genuine contact details. Usually in these cases, the contact details are false, so I've attached this as an image rather than something indexable.



The domain is hosted by Microsoft, and although there's no web site there is an MX record:
uslegaljobs.net mail is handled by 25 pamx1.hotmail.com

So, on a first inspection the domain looks legitimate.. it might even be that it is legitimately registered but has been hijacked. Nonetheless, this is a classic money mule scam where the victim thinks they are getting 10.05% commission for next to no work.. the Nigerian IP address is a clincher too. And you've got to love the phrase please be advised that this is a 100% legal business endeavor which is always another sure sign of a scam.

Telephore - advertising gone too far?

Context-sensitive ads are all the rage, but Telephore is the first one to bring them to your mobile phone.. nope, not text messages, but spoken ads that interrupt your call!

What is even more troubling is that Telephore analyses your conversations with a sophisticated voice recognition system and stores them for later reference. Is this too much power to give to a private company? Mobile Gazette have more details on this controversial system.

BBC Argh

The BBC News website is a much-loved design institution. A very neat, conservative design it has remained pretty much unchanged since its inception. It would be fair to say that it is one of the most recognisable layouts in the business, along with Google and Amazon.

So, you mess with something like this at your peril.. and hats off to the BBC for trying to update the site without being too radical. It's a wider, less cluttered design (according the their blog entry).

Unfortunately, it no longer works on 800 pixel wide screens.. now although that resolution has almost died out on desktop PCs, there are a number of existing upcoming mobile devices that use it (e.g Nokia E90, Sony Ericsson Xperia) , and one of the great things about the BBC News site was that it would work well on almost anything.

To be honest, I can't remember anyone complaining about the 800 pixel wide "old" layout. And a lot of people will be uncomfortable with the change to a favourite web site, as the comments say.

If you have a bit of time on your hands, why not take a look at how the BBC News site has evolved over the past few years at the Wayback Machine.

A 419 spam with a twist

419 scams often involve pandering to human greed. In this case, the email is clearly designed to make you think that you have lucked into $800,000 through mistaken identity. Of course, the internal logic doesn't bear close scrutiny.

What's interesting about this email is that it has a calendar invitation on the bottom - clicking on it confirms your email address and presumably is designed to give the message an authentic twist.

Of course, there isn't $800,000 sitting around for you and you can guarantee that "Eze Ike" will try and bilk you out of some money along the way.

---

Vous êtes invité ::		Dear Friend,
Par votre hôte:		Eze Ike
Message:		Dear Friend, I didnot forgot your past effort and attemps to assist me, now I'm happy to inform you that i have suceeded in getting those funds transferred under the cooperation of a new partner from Japan. Now Contact my secretary ask him for ($800.000.00)for your compensation his,name is Mr,Mike Bello, and his E-mail:(ifeany_eze01@yahoo.co.uk) 1,Your Full Name___ 2,Delivery address___ 3,phone number____ 4,email address___ Thanks and God Bless You. REGARDS Dr,Eze Ike.
Date:		vendredi, 28 mars 2008
Heure:		10 h 00 - 11 h 00 (GMT+00:00)
Viendrez-vous ?

Répondre à cette invitation

Lazy 419 spam

Is it me, or is the quality of scam spam going down these days? This fake lottery notification doesn't even try to look convincing.

Subject: Easter Notification(You have won 953,000:00gbp)
From: "UK THUNDERBALL LOTTERY" delroyclarke@nf.sympatico.ca
Date: Thu, March 27, 2008 11:50 am


You won 953,000:00Pounds in the Uk thunderball online Lottery held on
25th of
March 2008.
Contact Person.
MRS GAIL NEUVILLE
E-MAIL: ukthunderball_claimlottery4@yahoo.co.uk
contact her with your details:
1.Name.
2.Address.
3.Nationality.
4.Age.
5.Occupation.
6.Phone/Fax.
Regards
Mrs.Gail Neuville

I think I will give it a miss, thanks.

Incidentally, you can report spam like this to Yahoo through their online reporting tool. The user ID you are reporting on is everything before the @ sign on the Yahoo email address. It is worth stating that even through the spam doesn't come from the Yahoo network, it does use a drop email address at Yahoo to process replies.

Is 97885 really Vodafone?

The UK's premium rate SMS (text messaging) business is worth over £1 billion per year. It's not surprising then that scammers are in on the act, looking for a slice of that revenue.

These premium rate numbers are use "SMS shortcodes" - but these shortcodes can also be used for non-premium rate (or free) numbers. So how can you tell which is which?

Take this one for example - a text message sent to Vodafone customers that says the following:

From 97885
From Vodafone: Service Enquiry. We are always looking to improve our service. Please help us by answering 2 questions. Reply Yes to start, all replies are free.

On the surface, it all looks pretty legitimate. But wait.. isn't this the kind of approach that scammers use? There have been several cases where spammers can work out your mobile phone network, and who can tell if 97885 is a premium rate number or not?

Well, one organisation that should know is the stupidly named PhonepayPlus body (formerly ICTIS) that is meant to keep track of these premium rate texts. They have a service called SMSus which can look up a premium rate SMS number by text (why they can't do this on the web is a mystery).

So, does sending the 97885 number for SMSus help? No.

From 76787
From SMSus: No info held about this number. Have a concern? Call 0800 500 212 open 8-6, Mon-Fri. Calls free from landline, mobile network charges apply.?

So, pretty useless. Eventually though, a response to an online support call to Vodafone indicates that 97885 is Vodafone, and it is free.

But surely the problem here is that the system is so fundamentally broken that no-one can tell a real messager from a scam? Perhaps it is time that whoever is actually responsible for regulating this mess comes up with an easy way to identify the true owners of SMS shortcodes and can say how much they may cost.

Apple Safari - a driveby download or what?

Millions of people are currently wondering what a "Safari" icon is doing on their Windows desktop. Is it something they installed? Is it adware? Or has Apple turned to the dark side?

Well, I'm afraid that Apple have turned to the dark side. If it wasn't annoying enough that iTunes keeps appearing on your desktop if you just want QuickTime, Apple's latest ploy is to push their Safari web browser out as an "update" to your existing software.. even if you have never installed Safari before.

A legitimate upgrade? Or deceptive advertising? Read more about the drive-by install here, and then decide if Apple software has any place on your Windows desktop machine.

"Gold is Risky - Green is a solid investment" - eFoodSafety.com (EFSF.OB) Spam

The Boulder Pledge is an important principle when it comes to fighting spam - basically, it is a commitment to never buy a product advertised in spam. Some people take it one step further, and say that they will never do any kind of business at all with a company that spams.

It's particularly pathetic when a firm resorts to spam to try to drum up investors. And yet, in the case of eFoodSafety.com (EFSF.OB) - a stock that has lost two thirds of its value in the past 12 months - that appears to be exactly what it happening.

A mystery spam entitled "Gold is Risky - Green is a solid investment" has been circulating over the past couple of days, both by email and also on several blogs. The link in the message points to a sign-up page at http://pws.prserv.net/RevNew/EFSF_LLP01.html with the following blurb:

To the Growth-Oriented Investor...

This could be one of the best buys you make during these recessionary times. And you can be certain this recession will reek havoc on the unprepared.
Yes!
You can achieve profits in today's market!

The coming months will be a nightmare for investors seeking significant profits, except for those who successfully position themselves in key sectors like biotech.
Be among the first to learn about this new trend opportunity.
Download our Company Fact Sheet NOW!

The growth of these sector markets will be so dramatic that it can be confidently forecasted that this as an investing “mega-trend” worth billions in new market capitalization for companies with the right products at the right time.

Download the Company Fact Sheet of one of these innovative biotech companies NOW!

The email itself is just a picture of an attractive and presumably partially naked woman, the subject and sender are:

Subject: Gold is Risky - Green is a solid investment
From: "Investing Ideas" Ignite@InvestingIdeas.prserv.net
Date: Thu, March 20, 2008 2:58 am

Some detective work is required to find out where it comes from. The address on the image is 7702 E Doubletree Ranch Road, Suite 300 Scottsdale, AZ 85258. Some research shows that this is connected with eFoodSafety.com, and indeed the three products pictured are eFoodSafety products: Cinnergen, Immune Boost Bar, Talsyn Scar Cream (shown here).

So, given the address matches eFoodSafety.com, and the only three products shown in the spam and on the landing page are eFoodSafety.com's products, then it is beyond a reasonable doubt that this is an attempt to attract investors to the EFSF.OB stock.

There's no indication to say that eFoodSafety.com is anything other than a legitimate company, and it is not even clear if they send this spam out themselves or contracted a third party to do it (technical note: the spam originates from 69.60.98.141). It does not appear to be a pump-and-dump spam. We do not know if Redwood Consultants, LLC (who are listed as their IR firm) knows about this either.

So - back to the Boulder Pledge. If you feel that you've received this message and that it was unsolicited, then you certainly shouldn't invest in EFSF.OB. As we have said before, a mismanaged email campaign can seriously damage the reputation of a firm. Perhaps eFoodSafety.com would like to find the people responsible and terminate their relationship with them before more harm comes their way.

Very authentic looking Hallmark ecard trojan

A very authentic (but fake) trojan was send out overnight purporting to be from Hallmark.com

A Friend has sent you a Hallmark E-Card.

If you recognize this name, click the link to see your E-Card.
http://www.hallmark.com/ECardWeb/ECV.jsp?a=[snip]


If this name is not familiar to you and you're concerned about online security, please use the following steps:

1. Visit http://www.hallmark.com/getecard
2. Enter your e-mail address in the Original Recipient.s E-Mail Address box.
3. Enter EG0694262772475 in the Confirmation Number box.
4. Click Display Greeting.

Want to send an E-Card too ? Visit www.hallmark.com/ecards



To view Hallmark’s privacy policy or for questions, visit www.hallmark.com, and click the links at the bottom of the page.

The displayed links are all safe, however the FIRST link actually points to hxxp:||pop.ayudaenaccion.org.sv|card.exe



VirusTotal detection is not bad.

Files loaded are as follows:
%systemroot%\system32\nicks.txt
%systemroot%\system32\remote.ini
%systemroot%\system32\script.ini
%systemroot%\system32\servers.ini
%systemroot%\system32\sup.bat
%systemroot%\system32\sup.reg
%systemroot%\system32\users.ini
%systemroot%\system32\aliases.ini
%systemroot%\system32\control.ini
%systemroot%\system32\explorer.exe
%systemroot%\system32\mirc.ico
%systemroot%\system32\mirc.ini


Payload is Zapchast, basically it tries to join the machine to an IRC controlled botnet.

Added:
The remote.ini it drops onto your machine has some interesting host names you might want to block and/or investigate:

[users]
n0=100:*!*@lamerzkiller.users.undernet.org
n1=100:*!*@209.43.75.13
n2=100:*!*@estranho-colo.iquest.net
n3=100:*!*@OMGyouSUCK.users.undernet.org
n4=100:*!*@CoReCt.users.undernet.org
n5=100:*!*@hxr.users.undernet.org
n6=100:*!*@BebiDeea.users.undernet.org
n7=100:*!*@asdz.users.undernet.org
n8=100:*!*@ZmAu.users.undernet.org
n9=100:*!*@ReKt.users.undernet.org
n10=100:*!*@BebeDulce.users.undernet.org
n11=100:*!*@ReCt.users.undernet.org
n12=100:*!*@hacler.ro
[variables]
n0=%HAck1 #GangstaRap | #:">
n1=%console
n2=%utime 1205420752
n3=/away :sã îmi suge-ti cuca zdrentzelor !
n4=%ochan #GangstaRap | #:">