Phishing Trojans Dissected

According to the Webroot Threat Research Blog: "The use of phishing Trojans to steal game players' passwords is on the rise in a big way: In a single session, gamers can find their computer infected with dozens of malicious files.

In this silent video demonstration, we run a live malicious downloader and watch it pull down the phishers, one by one, then execute and install them. On the left is a list of the running processes, or applications, on the test system. On the right is a list of the URLs from which the downloader obtains its Trojan files.

In the video, about one minute after we launch the downloader, it begins its work. Within about 4 minutes, it has downloaded and installed 42 unique Trojans on the test system. The sole purpose for the majority of these is to steal the passwords for online games.

You'll notice that nothing flashy or even outwardly obvious -- lacking these two tools -- gives notice that the infection process is ongoing. The silent, low-key nature of these installers makes them more effective."

Vivek Ramachandran is a security evangelist and has been working in computer security related fields for the past 7 years. In 2007, Vivek spoke at world renowned conferences Defcon (WEP Cloaking Exposed) and Toorcon (The Caffe Latte Attack). The discovery of the Caffe Latte Attack was covered by CBS5 news, BBC online, Network World etc news agencies.In 2006, Vivek was announced as one of winners of the Microsoft Security Shootout contest held in India among 65,000 participants. He has also been a recipient of a Team Achievement at Cisco Systems for his work on 802.1x and Port Security modules on the Catalyst 6500 switches. Currently he spends all of his time maintaining Security- Freak.Net , SecurityTube.Net and is the co-founder of Axonize. Vivek, is a Bachelor in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.You can contact him at vivek[at]securitytube.net