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Virus warning - Digital Hitchhikers!

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Posted by: Spunner

Digital Hitchhikers
Quote:
Published: 2007-12-25,
Last Updated: 2007-12-25 23:24:44 UTC
by David Goldsmith (Version: 1)

We received a report this afternoon from someone who had recently received a digital picture frame. Unfortunately, it had a extra component with it. The built-in storage came with what appears to be some malware already loaded on it -- a file called 'cfhskjn.exe' was on it when unpacked.

Some of the behavior seen when the digital picture frame was connected to the computer was:

* MSCONFIG would not run - it would briefly open and then terminate
* The system would blue screen when starting in safe mode
* Going to various anti-virus websites would result in the web browser terminating
* Various popups for random name.exe "with 'not valid image' messages

This specific product was an "ADS Digital Photo Frame - 8" (sold by Sam's Club - see http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/na...t=5&item=368725) but this type of infection can, and has affected other portable devices with internal storage.

Kaspersky has a blog entry 'Adventures at altitude' (see http://www.viruslist.com/en/weblog?...187471&return=1) about one of their employees who bought a Kingston CF memory card that came with a virus on it.

Whether its a picture frame, a digital camera or any USB, CF, SD, etc memory card, the portable nature of these devices dredges up of memories of all the floppy boot viruses we used to have to deal with. [ What's a 'floppy disk' you ask? ;-) ]

Care should be taken when attaching storage devices to your computer to ensure you scan them for possible malware and handle them in as secure a fashion as is possible.

David Goldsmith (dgoldsmith -at- sans.org)


Part Two: http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=3807
Part Three: http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=3817
The moral of this story: Have an antivirus running.

You can also avoid this by disabling autorun on your computer. See: http://windowssecrets.com/2007/11/0...AutoRun-attacks and read all the way through.

It will mean that your CDs etc won't autorun, but as Bruce Schneier says, "Security is all about trade-offs." If you need to run the autorunning program, you can double-click on autorun.inf, and read what program should be run and run it yourself. Usually it will be SETUP.EXE



Posted by: golddust

Great information Spunner, thanks!



Posted by: Spunner

NP. Since many people got such items for Christmas I thought I'd get the word out as soon as I read it.

I just hope it's not too late for everyone.

The autorun disable tip would be good for everyone to do. Make sure you know what software is being run on your computer.



Posted by: Spunner

Just changed the title so people know what I'm talking about..



Posted by: forwardone

Thanks for the report, it`s always wise to try to get one step ahead of these scum.



Posted by: Spunner

And for those who don't want to take the time to disable autorun, just hold down Shift whenever you plug in an unknown device.

Yes, that includes iPods.




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