Thousands Of Google Images Infected With Malware

[lakhota]

That picture of a cat licking a lollipop you found on Google Images may be infected.

According to the SANS Internet Storm Center, a number of Google Images are actually infected with malware that misdirects users to pages that try to sell fake anti-virus scareware and to makes users believe they must download the program to avoid viruses.

These scammers use photos from third-party sites so that the images appear to be legitimate, using top search terms from Google Trends so that the content on the page also seems real.

When a user clicks on an infected thumbnail, his/her browser sends a request to the infected page, which then runs the hacker's script, and then redirects to the site trying to peddle scareware. SANS guesses there are over 5,000 hacked sites, with Google referring about a half million visits to these fake sites each day.

While researcher Bojan Zdrnja has developed a Firefox add-on that displays the infected images with a border in red, it is not yet available for public use.
Google spokesman Jay Nancarrow told Krebs on Security that the company is making "active efforts to improve both the quality of the results and malware detection. We're improving, as are the people trying to put users at risk, and in the interests of those users it's best if we don't reveal everything that we're doing about this."

www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/06/google-images-malware_n_858845.html

[Deleted]

I think that is actually how i acquired my most recent issue...

[Deleted]

Malwarebytes is also very good, catches things others miss, also free. The good thing about malwarebytes is that it does not run in real time, and is compatible with other installed virus programs. I ran avast and malwarebytes on my old comp. My new one came with permanent Norton installed, so I am giving Norton one more chance. sigh..I will say Norton seems to be much better than other times I have used it. I always keep the malwarebytes because it is the only back-up protection I have been able to use on my comp without being blocked by my old Avast or my new Norton. I would guess because the free version does not run in the background like Avast or Norton, and has to be manually activated rather than auto. I'm comp dead, but it works for me.

[marshabar1]

I've had problems lately too with the images. Fortunately I use a Mac.

[mmhmm]

I've seen many a warning on Google pics. Kinda seems to go with the territory.

[marshabar1]

I've used google images a lot for as long as it has been available. It is only in the last week or so that I've had images trip a malware service. I don't use any of the services or programs since the Mac security system takes care of problems. I've wondered if the malware service that gets tripped is in itself malware? I just shut it and carry on but maybe if I run into it again I'll keep track of the information and do some research.

[marshabar1]

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a single tainted digital image may be worth thousands of dollars for computer crooks who are using weaknesses in Google’s Image Search to foist malicious software on unsuspecting surfers.For several weeks, some readers have complained that clicking on Google Images search results directed them to Web pages that pushed rogue anti-virus scareware via misleading security alerts and warnings. On Wednesday, the SANS Internet Storm Center posted a blog entry saying they, too, were receiving reports of Google Image searches leading to fake anti-virus sites. According to SANS, the attackers have compromised an unknown number of sites with malicious scripts that create Web pages filled with the top search terms from Google Trends. The malicious scripts also fetch images from third-party sites and include them in the junk pages alongside the relevant search terms, so that the automatically generated Web page contains legitimate-looking content.

A Firefox add-on in development shows malicious images in dark red.

Google’s Image Search bots eventually will index this bogus content. If users are searching for words or phrases that rank high in the current top search terms, it is likely that thumbnails from these malicious pages will be displayed beside other legitimate results.


seekerblog.com/2011/05/07/mac-security-alert-scammers-swap-google-images-for-malware/

[Deleted]

I may install firefox to go with my IE9 and chrome for now. Running on chrome I have noticed when I click on some pics, usually the best in a group, then try to copy them to post I get a long page of script, rather than the URL, so, of course, I delete and go to another pic. Wonder if that is something Chrome is doing to fight this? Does anyone else ever see that?

[Deleted]

I just remembered I am also running Norton safe search. Maybe that is what warned me off the food thread in markets a few minutes ago.

[mmhmm]

It could be, krickitt. I know it wasn't the browser because I tried several with no resultant warning. I don't run Norton, but do run Malwarebytes.

[Deleted]

Malwarebytes did NOT catch this one. I had to take it to 'the guy'... he did update my 'stuff'... you know... technically speaking