File sharers Exposed to Multimedia Malware

P2P users are facing a new type of multimedia malware whose targets are music and video files. Reportedly, at first, the infection happens when a user visits a 'warez' site in search of an illegal crack or serial key to run some application.

This is when malware authors trick user into downloading a Trojan which is used to infect the multimedia files on their machine. The Trojan’s purpose is to convert every music and video file to a standard format and then to embed malicious code into the file in question.Once that happens, every time the user shares those files by email, transfer or a p2p network, the recipients also receive those infected multimedia files.

Opening a file will redirect media player is to a malicious resource on the web in order to download and install a bogus codec which is actually no more than a password stealer. If it seems a bit complex, well, it is also pretty efficient as it is able, this way, to avoid detection.

According to Christoph Alme, team leader at Secure Computing's Anti-Malware Research Labs, this malware doesn’t represent a risk only to those who share content via p2p networks illegally. File sharers who go by the law and only download perfectly legal files, in doing so, might become victims to the same scam just as well.

Secure Computing strongly recommends users to avoid warez sites and also be more than suspicious when required to download an unknown codec to be able to play multimedia files.