RSSOnline Video May Be Virus Writers' Next Target
By Ed Oswald | Published October 2, 2007, 11:30 AM
A new study from Georgia Tech indicates that online videos may be the newest way for attackers to load viruses onto the computers of unsuspecting victims.
The report was released Tuesday ahead of the annual security conference the school holds each year. Some 300 experts and professors are expected to attend, and will discuss new security threats and prevention measures.
What may make online videos an attractive new way to deliver malware is their ever-increasing popularity. Video sites such as YouTube are some of the fastest growing on the Web, and could deliver their payloads to thousands within hours if it is done right.
In fact, some attackers have attempted to lure consumers through fake video links posted to YouTube. However, the number of successful hacks via online video still remains quite small.
In an interview with the Associated Press, IBM chief technology officer and report co-author Chris Rouland said the move towards video is part of an evolution in how hackers are operating. He said these new ways are popping up due to the success in fighting e-mail attacks, forcing hackers to be more creative.
"The next logical step seems to be the media players," he says.
The worst would be if somebody embedded malicious code into the flash file on the movie i.e. the player file. Big trouble there...
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I think the "fake video links" are links to sites that emulate youtube, but are actually hosted offsite, by using fake url's or other obfuscation techniques.
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If you watch youtube videos then there is no way a virus writer can take advantage of any video exploit. Youtube compresses all video and so the exploit would have to somehow be written to survive the compression.
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scratching my head......
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The only way a video can directly infect your system with a virus is if it takes advantage of a known exploit in the video playing software like a buffer overrun. The virus writer can embed this in a video and when the video is played on the player that contains the exploit, then it will infect the machine. Youtube compresses all video that is uploaded, therefore the exploit written in the video will be destroyed through the compression.
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Just never click on a link to an outside source promising you the full length version of whatever and you'll be fine.
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Yes i know this. This is why i am scratching my head.
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