New Web Attack Hijacks Your Clipboard - Switched An interesting new Web attack is making the rounds that hijacks your computer's clipboard and uses it against you. The code has been found lurking in Flash-based advertisements on legitimate web sites (we knew there was a reason we hated Flash). So what does this new Web attack do? It places a link (that is difficult to delete) to a Web site selling fake security software in your clipboard. The infection automatically flushes your clipboard any time you copy or cut text to it and replaces it with the bogus link. What has security experts concerned is its potential to become widespread. The software has been found on both Macs and PCs and even targets users of alternative browsers such as Firefox. This new attack is particularly hard to protect yourself and defend against, especially considering the attack's proven ability to lurk in plain sight on legitimate Web sites. Some users have reported success in thwarting the attack by simply killing Firefox from the task manager or rebooting but, as always, we recommend up-to-date security software; including virus protection and spyware protection. The truly paranoid can stop the attack before it happens by installing Flashblock, an add-on for Firefox that will prevent any Flash-based content from loading without your specific consent
You don't need to be paranoid to love and adore and use Flashblock. Flashblock is a gift from the gods and proof of their eternal love for us.
I think that may have happened to the PC I used at work. Someone else was on it before I got on it. When I went to copy and past some stuff it had this link there. I could not get rid of it. I eventually restarted the PC and I was then able to copy and past again. I guess I will have to run a scan on the PC when I get back to work.
<sigh> I had been using FlashMute, which is excellent for muting/sound control for all Flash ads, but they're still there to be seen if you care. Tipping point came while surfing a news site at work when a beer commercial started playing at high volume (well, medium high volume, I have the overall volume set one notch above can't-hear-the-error-beep, but this was louder than the beep). I tried complaining to the site's management, but it was one of those convoluted feedback things, and I doubt it made it to anybody who cares. I'll give the FlashBlock a try. I don't think I'll miss anything. Do they have this for IE6 or IE7? Before adding another reason to brag up FF I should probably see if this is unique.
Why just go against Flash when you can protect against all scripts . . . even cross-site scripting and unknown stuff. There is a reason NoScript has 286,342 weekly downloads and 25,930,660 total downloads whereas Flashblock has only 76,174 weekly downloads and 3,256,149 total downloads. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:1/cat:all/sort:popular I trust what my Silicon Valley geek friends say. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noscript https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722 Winner of the "2006 PC World World Class Award", this tool provides extra protection to your Firefox. It allows JavaScript, Java and other executable content to run only from trusted domains of your choice, e.g. your home-banking web site, and guards the "trust boundaries" against cross-site scripting attacks (XSS). Such a preemptive approach prevents exploitation of security vulnerabilities (known and even unknown!) with no loss of functionality... Experts do agree: Firefox is really safer with NoScript ;-)
Other alternative for folks who despise IE but have to run it for web specific purposes: Turn Flash Off, Disable Flash Display With FlashSwitch It enables a simple toggle for keeping active X / flash from running on your PC unless you want it to. It runs on all versions of IE, just like flashblock does on firefox.
According to this on slash dot it affects Linux also - ugh Slashdot | Adobe Flash Ads Launching Clipboard Hijack Attacks
It also affects Camino on the Mac - I had this POS thing hijack my browser the other day at work. If this happens to you, you can close the window to get rid of it. I wasn't really interested in antivirus programs for Windows, which is what it claims to be. BTW, technically I don't think it is a virus, its malware but doesn't spread by reproducing itself.
