According to Tanya Shafir, Trustter researcher, she discovered a malware targeted at Twitter users.
Shafir stated that malware performs MitB-attacks using web-browsers of the infected PCs, which allows attackers to gain access to a Twitter account to create malicious tweets.
This type of malware was designed and used to hijack data on users’ credit cards, but now the virus is spread via social network.
As reported by Shafir, the attack is targeting the Dutch market. However, because Twitter is used by millions of users around the world, this type of attack can be used to target any market and any industry.
Attacks can be performed when introducing Javascript code into the victim’s Twitter account page:
A malicious program collects authentication credentials that enables making authorized calls to Twitter's APIs and posting new, malicious tweets on behalf of the victim.
Here are the examples of malicious tweets:
Original text: “Onze nieuwe koning Willem gaat nog meer verdienen dan beatrix. check zijn salaris”
(English translation: “Our new King William will earn even more than Beatrix. Check his salary”)
Original text: “Beyonce valt tijdens het concert van de superbowl, zeer funny!!!!”
(English translation: “Beyonce falls during the Super Bowl concert, very funny!!!!”)
Each of them contained the following malicious links (currently inactive):
hXXp :/ / yix.be/b18e9
hXXp :/ / yix.be/11efb
hXXp :/ / ow.ly/hr6a6
hXXp :/ / 01.nl/rohvj9
“This attack is particularly difficult to defend against because it uses a new sophisticated approach to spear-phishing. Twitter users follow accounts that they trust. Because the malware creates malicious tweets and sends them through a compromised account of a trusted person or organization being followed, the tweets seem to be genuine,” – concluded Trusteer.
