Beware of malicious freebies

Sooner or later, we are all temped into downloading free software from the Internet – be it an application or a game.

Most of the time, the program is legitimate and serves the purpose it says it does, but there is also malware disguised as helpful software and it is difficult to separate the chaff from the grain because it’s difficult to make sure that the author of the software can be trusted or not.

Unfortunately, even the various download sites are of little help in this matter – few of them verify the software they make available.

SophosLabs warns about the danger of “freebies”, and presents the example of an alleged HTML editor by the name “Bifrost” that they downloaded from one of the sites mentioned above.

Upon running the application, it actually doesn’t start, and the software isn’t visible. Immediately, you must get suspicious. Yes, it could be a poorly made piece of software, but chances are you just downloaded and executed a malicious payload on your computer.

In this case, you have installed a backdoor Trojan, and you can see evidence of it if you search the Registry:

But, unless you know what to look for, this kind of clue can remain unnoticed, and your computer will be open to the attacker and he will be able to steal information, download more malware, etc.