Flame Hijacks Microsoft Update to Spread Malware Disguised As Legit Code

It ’s a scenario security researcher have long worried about , a man - in - the - middle attack that let someone to impersonate Microsoft Update to render malware – disguised as lawful Microsoft code – to unsuspecting users .

And that ’s exactly what turns out to have come about with the recentFlame cyberespionagetool that has been infecting motorcar in the first place in the Middle East and is conceive to have been crafted by a nation - province .

According to Microsoft , which has been analyzing Flame , along with numerous antivirus research worker since it was in public unwrap last Monday , investigator there discovered that a component of Flame was designed to spread from one infected reckoner to other machine on the same web using a rogue certification get via such a man - in - the - middle attack . When clean computers update themselves , Flame intercepts the asking to Microsoft Update waiter and or else delivers a malicious practicable to the machine that is sign on with a scallywag , but technically valid , Microsoft certificate .

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“ We have pick up through our analysis that some part of the malware have been ratify by security that allow software program to appear as if it was make by Microsoft , ” Microsoft Security Response Center Senior Director Mike Reavey wrote in ablog C. W. Post published Sunday .

Microsoft has provided data to explainhow the flaw occur in its system of rules .

Reavey notes that since Flame is a extremely targeted art object of malware that is believed to have infect few than 1,000 machines , the immediate endangerment from Flame is not great . But other attackers could have been exploiting the exposure as well . And the fact that this exposure existed in the first blank space is what has security experts all alight . computer code that is officially signed by Microsoft is considered safe by millions of motorcar around the earth , something that put them all at risk .

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“ The discovery of a bug that ’s been used to duck Microsoft ’s secure codification certificate hierarchy is a major severance of corporate trust , and it ’s a heavy bargain for every Microsoft substance abuser , ” Andrew Storms , music director of security operations for nCircle , told PC World . “ It also underscores the delicate and problematic nature of the trust simulation behind every Internet dealings . ”

According to Kaspersky Lab , which expose the Flame malware about three weeks ago , the credential is used by a component of Flame called “ Gadget ” tospread the malware from one infect motorcar to others on a web . It was the use of this rogue certificate that is conceive to have reserve Flame to infect at least one fully piece Windows 7 machine , harmonise to Alexander Gostev , principal surety expert at the science laboratory .

Here ’s how it works :

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When a machine on a mesh essay to connect to Microsoft ’s Windows Update service , the connexion gets redirect through an infected motorcar first , which sends a fake , malicious Windows Update to the request machine . The fake update claims to be code that will assist exhibit gadgets on a substance abuser ’s desktop .

The fake update looks like this :

“ update description=”Allows you to display gadgets on your desktop . ”

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displayName=”Desktop Gadget Platform ” name=”WindowsGadgetPlatform ” >

If the artifice works , a malicious Indian file called WuSetupV.exe gets deposited on the machine . Since the data file is sign with a fake Microsoft certificate , it appears to the user to be logical , and therefore the user ’s machine allows the programme to extend on the machine without write out a desktop admonition .

The Gadget element was compiled by the attackers on Dec. 27 , 2010 , according to Gostev in a web log postal service , and was implemented in the malware about two week later .

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The following is exactly how the process occurs : The infected machine sets up a fake server by the name “ MSHOME - F3BE293C ” , which hosts a script that serves a full body of the Flame malware to dupe machines . This is done by the module called “ Munch ” .

When a victim updates itself via Windows Update , the query is intercept and the imitation update is pushed . The phony update issue to download the chief body and infect the computer .

The interception of the query to the prescribed Windows Update ( the man - in - the - in-between attack ) is done by announcing the infected machine as a placeholder for the domain . This is done via WPAD . To get infected , the machines do demand however to have their System Proxy options configure to “ Auto ” .

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