Millions of Pornhub Users Targeted in Malvertising Attack

Megalith

Megalith

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Millions of Pornhub users were targeted with a malvertising attack that sought to trick them into installing malware on their PCs, according to infosec firm Proofpoint. By the time the attack was uncovered, it had been active “for more than a year”, Proofpoint said, having already “exposed millions of potential victims in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia” to malware by pretending to be software updates to popular browsers.

In this particular attack, visitors to Pornhub were redirected to a website which claimed to be offering a software update for their web browser, including Chrome and Firefox, or to the Adobe Flash plugin. If they downloaded and opened the file it installed Kovter, taking over their machine and using it to click on fake adverts. Those fake clicks then generated real money for the websites the adverts are hosted on - typically spam-filled sites no normal user would ever visit.
 
I just figured crapware filled web redirects, pop up/unders, call microsoft scams, etc. were all par for the course browsing for porn. Seems every family member who gets this crap has a lot of porn in their recent history.
 
It makes sense to assume almost anything is a scam on these sites. If I got one of those notices and I had even a tiny suspicion about it being real, I would simply close the browser window and go to the update site for that update directly.
 
So what you're saying is - Fidget Spinner porn probably got me infected with some type of malware?
 
I've had to fix several computers in my life. No one ever admits to watching porn - but I can find the evidence easy enough. My all-time favorite: my mother-in-law's computer had some pop-up malware that was pornographic. She is very religious and I would almost certainly bet she has not viewed porn by choice. Turns out, one of her kids (someone in their mid 40's) had used her computer to search for a recipe. Well, not sure what was in that recipe but it must have had some T&A. It took me several hours to fix her computer. The person that did it wouldn't fess up to it. I showed my wife the browser history - plain as day what they did...needless to say, my MIL did not think this was funny. I ended up locking down her computer and now the offending party can't look up any more recipes on the computer ;)
 
Recipe sites are chock-full of malware, far worse than porn sites.
 
steakman1971 said:
I've had to fix several computers in my life. No one ever admits to watching porn - but I can find the evidence easy enough. My all-time favorite: my mother-in-law's computer had some pop-up malware that was pornographic. She is very religious and I would almost certainly bet she has not viewed porn by choice. Turns out, one of her kids (someone in their mid 40's) had used her computer to search for a recipe. Well, not sure what was in that recipe but it must have had some T&A. It took me several hours to fix her computer. The person that did it wouldn't fess up to it. I showed my wife the browser history - plain as day what they did...needless to say, my MIL did not think this was funny. I ended up locking down her computer and now the offending party can't look up any more recipes on the computer ;)
Click to expand...

It baffles me that people need porn even when visiting their mother in law (addicted, maybe?). I don't even get an urge when visiting relatives as I'm not a hormonal teenager.

Maybe something is wrong with me.
 
arnemetis said:
I just figured crapware filled web redirects, pop up/unders, call microsoft scams, etc. were all par for the course browsing for porn. Seems every family member who gets this crap has a lot of porn in their recent history.
Click to expand...

You don't just have to browse for porn to get these, they are quite common on clickbait sites and I've gotten a few (especially on mobile which I keep away from the pr0n) from upstanding websites that don't monitor their ad providers as well as others do.
 
In other news, stupid users who have no business behind a keyboard infected by malware. Film at 11.
 
A porn site has potentially sketchy ads and malware? Next thing you'll tell me there are boobs too.
 
I have found that aggregate-type websites are just as bad. Aggregate manga sites (mangafox, kissmanga, basically any except for the scanlator site or batoto), video sites, etc. No, I don't need a mail order Russian bride.
 
seriously, its a porn site, its like saying the grass is green or Trump likes to tweet about N.Korea.
 
I mean honestly if you are dumb enough to take "software updates" from a third party website, you pretty much deserve whatever happens.
 
Uh oh...


I mean, jeez I bet that is a major concern to lots of people who aren't me.....


...
 
Spidey329 said:
It baffles me that people need porn even when visiting their mother in law (addicted, maybe?). I don't even get an urge when visiting relatives as I'm not a hormonal teenager.

Maybe something is wrong with me.
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I like how you give the mother in law's porn-surfing adult child the benefit of the doubt ("visiting") by implying he doesn't live in her basement.
 
How dumb do you have to be to go porn surfing on your main windows machine.. Seriously, it takes basically zero knowledge or skill to create a vm running a linux distro for your pron.
 
KarsusTG said:
How dumb do you have to be to go porn surfing on your main windows machine.. Seriously, it takes basically zero knowledge or skill to create a vm running a linux distro for your pron.
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Literally came into this thread to say this. Vm gets gets compromised... Restore from an earlier clone.
 
That reminds me of Microsoft's fake "free" Windows 10 "upgrade" offer, which led users to a bloated, buggy, and insecure OS that normally no one would have installed, and which makes Microsoft money with every click a user makes in the OS, due to its telemetry.

Maybe they got the idea from Microsoft.
 
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