Twitter worm hits goo.gl, redirects to fake anti-virus

A fast-moving Twitter worm is in circulation, using Google’s goo.gl redirection service to push unsuspecting users to a notorious scareware (fake anti-virus) malware campaign. At 8:45 a.m EST today, this Twitter search shows thousands of Twitter messages continuing to spread the worm. According to malware hunters tracking the threat, the worm’s redirection chain pushes users to a Web page serving up the “Security Shield” Rogue AV.   The page is using obfuscation techniques that include an implementation of RSA cryptography in JavaScript to obfuscate the page code.
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Kaspersky Lab malware researcher Nicolas Brulez said the original “goo.gl” links in the Twitter messages are redirecting users to different domains with a “m28sx.html” page.  That page then redirects to a static domain with a Ukrainian top level address.

As if it was not enough, this domain redirects the user to another IP address which has been linked in the past to fake anti-virus distributions.  ”This IP address will then do the final redirection job, which leads to the actual Fake AV site,” Brulez explained.

Once a user’s browser session is redirected to the malicious site, a warning message claims the computer is running suspicious applications and the user is encouraged to run a scan.  As usual, the result is that the machine is infected with malicious threats and the scam is to trick the user into downloading a fake disinfection tool.

Source: ZDNet.com