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Flame malware mimics a Windows update |
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Written by Wayne
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Wednesday, 06 June 2012 03:05 |
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New details are emerging about how Flame malware is infecting computers that run on Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Researchers at both Symantec and Kaspersky Labs studied the way the attack was being executed and determined that the malware was able to infiltrate a user’s computer when a Windows Update was performed. When a machine tries to connect to Microsoft’s Windows Update, it redirects the connection through an infected machine and it sends a fake, malicious Windows Update to the client," Alexander Gostev wrote in a Kaspersky Labs blog post. In other words, Flame tricks the machine into thinking it’s receiving code from Microsoft, a trusted user, but the computer is instead receiving the malware. In this way, experts say, Flame has been able to infiltrate even "fully patched" PCs. Microsoft says the malware can infect all the versions of the Windows operating system that the company currently supports. Microsoft first issued a security advisory about Flame on Sunday,
saying: "Microsoft is aware of active attacks using unauthorized digital certificates derived from a Microsoft Certificate Authority. An unauthorized certificate could be used to spoof content, perform phishing attacks, or perform man-in-the-middle attacks."..More details on Flame is posted on windows8newsinfo forum. |
