Twitter, Facebook accounts used in watering hole campaign

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   May 13, 2013

USAID sympathizers targeted with links from 'like-minded people'.

Two social networking accounts have been discovered that were used in a recent targeted attack.

Opinions on social networking vary, but there are many users who allow apparently like-minded people - that they may otherwise never have come across - to connect with them. Unfortunately, as blogger Eric Romang points out, this eagerness to connect with others who share the same interests has been abused by those with less sincere intentions.

When researching the watering hole campaigns that led to the discovery of IE8 zero-day vulnerability CVE-2013-1347, he found both a Twitter account and a Facebook account that had been used to spread malware as part of the same campaign.

Each account appears to belong to an enthusiastic supporter of a USAID programme to improve health systems in Cambodia - several messages related to the campaign had been posted from each account. While the Facebook account has since been suspended, the Twitter account is currently still active.

Apart from three dozen Tweets and Retweets, it shows a URL in the profile which, through the goo.gl shortener, links to a file hosted on Dropbox. While its filename suggests it is a profile picture, it is actually a copy of 'Poison Ivy', a malicious Remote Administration Tool. The analytics page for the shortened URL shows that the URL had been clicked four times before the campaign was uncovered, though it is unclear whether any of these clicks led to the malware being installed. Dropbox has since removed the file.

A number of Tweets also link to University Research Co. Cambodia, a local project supported by USAID, whose website was one of those discovered to be compromised as part of the watering hole campaign. It is not known how often these links had been clicked.

More at Eric Romang's blog here.

Posted on 13 May 2013 by Martijn Grooten

twitter.png
fb.png
linkedin.png
hackernews.png
reddit.png

 

Latest posts:

VBSpam tests to be executed under the AMTSO framework

VB is excited to announce that, starting from the Q3 test, all VBSpam tests of email security products will be executed under the AMTSO framework.

In memoriam: Prof. Ross Anderson

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of Professor Ross Anderson a few days ago.

In memoriam: Dr Alan Solomon

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of industry pioneer Dr Alan Solomon earlier this week.

New paper: Nexus Android banking botnet – compromising C&C panels and dissecting mobile AppInjects

In a new paper, researchers Aditya K Sood and Rohit Bansal provide details of a security vulnerability in the Nexus Android botnet C&C panel that was exploited in order to gather threat intelligence, and present a model of mobile AppInjects.

New paper: Collector-stealer: a Russian origin credential and information extractor

In a new paper, F5 researchers Aditya K Sood and Rohit Chaturvedi present a 360 analysis of Collector-stealer, a Russian-origin credential and information extractor.

We have placed cookies on your device in order to improve the functionality of this site, as outlined in our cookies policy. However, you may delete and block all cookies from this site and your use of the site will be unaffected. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to Virus Bulletin's use of data as outlined in our privacy policy.