![]() ![]() It might be sensible to roll-back your computer to a backup created before you installed that poisoned version of CCleaner.Īnd, if you’re in any doubt as to the scale of the potential threat, cast your mind back a few months when ransomware spread around the world after being seeded through a malicious automatic update to a popular Ukrainian accounting software, or when in late 2016 attackers hijacked Ask Toolbar updates to install suspicious code. After all, if you ran version 5.33 of CCleaner your PC may have been compromised. It’s worth pointing out that you may want to go one step further than just downloading a fixed version of CCleaner. (Of course, the lack of automatic updates for the free edition of CCleaner may actually have reduced the total number of users put at risk by the compromised version.) This message needs to especially get out to users of the free edition of CCleaner, as it does not feature automated updates and requires them to manually download updates. It goes without saying that anyone still using version 5.33 of CCleaner needs to update to the (safe) version 5.34 as soon as possible. Law enforcement agencies have also been informed of the situation, and the third-party server that was set up to receive stolen data has been taken down. It is also possible that an insider with access to either the development or build environments within the organization intentionally included the malicious code or could have had an account (or similar) compromised which allowed an attacker to include the code.”Ĭisco Talos researchers immediately informed Avast of the problem, and offending versions of the CCleaner installer containing the malicious payload are no longer available from the CCleaner download website. “…it is likely that an external attacker compromised a portion of their development or build environment and leveraged that access to insert malware into the CCleaner build that was released and hosted by the organization. What make things most concerning is that the malicious code was digitally signed using a valid digital certificate issued to the software’s developer Piriform, who were acquired by anti-virus firm Avast just two months ago.Ĭisco Talos researchers warn that the fact the binary was digitally signed using the software developer’s valid certificate is of particular concern: Researchers at Cisco Talos, who first identified the problem, discovered that the installer for CCleaner v5.33 – first delivered to users’ computers by the legitimate CCleaner download servers on Aug– was the culprit. The stolen data was then sent to a US-based server under the control of a hacker. Once in place, the malware would wait five minutes, determine if the user had admin privileges, and then steal information from PCs, such as the computer’s name, a list of installed software and Windows updates, running processes, MAC addresses of network adapters alongside additional information. During the cleanup, malicious files buried in the system are also deleted. The software gets rid of temporary files that eat up disk space and invalid Windows registry keys. ![]() As a security notification on CCleaner’s support forum explains, CCleaner v and CCleaner Cloud v were compromised. CCleaner is a utility program designed to delete unwanted files from a computer. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |