Thursday, April 24, 2025
HomeMalwareGoogle Pay-Per-Click Ads in Search Lead to download Redline, Taurus, Tesla &...

Google Pay-Per-Click Ads in Search Lead to download Redline, Taurus, Tesla & Amadey Malware

Published on

SIEM as a Service

Follow Us on Google News

The cybersecurity researchers have recently detected that the threat actors are now targeting the Google PPC to promote their malware like Redline, Taurus, Tesla, and Amadey.

In a report, the experts have declared that hackers are now abusing Google Adwords to promote malware via PPC (pay-per-click) ads on Google Search.

After the investigation done by Morphisec, they declared that the pay-per-click (PPC) ads in Google’s search results are leading users to download malicious packages of AnyDesk, Dropbox, and Telegram that are specifically wrapped as ISO images.

- Advertisement - Google News

Working System of These Attack Chains

However, the security researchers were keeping a close eye on the pay-per-click (PPC) ads on Google search, and after a long investigation, the experts came to know that the threat actors are using three attack chains:-

  • Redline infostealer
  • Taurus infostealer
  • Mini-Redline infostealer

After examining these attack chains the security searchers discovered that two malware, Taurus and Redlineare using the same patterns, certificates, and Command and Control Centre (C2s).

Google Scanning Failed

Why Google Snannong Failed? Now, this is a big question, well, Google answered that there is no doubt that it uses exclusive technology and malware detection tools and they always perform a regular scan upon all the activities that take place. 

However, they responded that they strictly prohibit or ban the ad campaigns when they try to connect with the fourth party or any sub-syndication to unapproved advertisers that start pulling ads distributing malware. 

Not only that even Google put three-month of suspension on the buyer’s ad account whose ads contain malware.

Redline Infostealer

The Redline infostealer is a kind of malware that is apparently found in underground forums, and the websites of this info stealer is signed by a Sectigo certificate.

The main motive of this malware is to collect data from the browsers like the:- 

  • Saved credentials
  • Autocomplete data
  • Credit card information

The researchers affirmed that if you click on the download button that is present on their websites, it will supervise you to a script execution that confirms the IP and delivers the artifacts from the remote website.

Taurus Infostealer

Just like the third paid ad in a search for the popular apps like AnyDesk, Dropbox, and Telegram Taurus infostealer is dispatched. While in the case of website certification, it’s signed with an authentic Cloudflare certificate.

From a submitted form that’s commanded by “get.php” Taurus downloads the results, as for the Taurus website there were no redirects to websites. In short, it uses the website directly to deliver the malicious packages of those popular apps that are wrapped as ISO images.

Mini-Redline Infostealer

Mini-Redline infostealer websites are signed with Cloudflare certificates just like the Taurus Infostealer websites. But, here, to increase the file size of the ISO file it stuffs the file with unwanted zeros.

Unlike others, different communication channels are used by the Mini-Redline infostealer; but, still, it also uses the direct TCP socket connection as well.

Websites that receive the traffic from the PPC ads

  • hxxps://me.anydesk-pro[.]com
  • hxxps://desklop.telegram-home[.]com
  • hxxps://pc.anydesk-go[.]com
  • hxxps://desklop.anydesk-new[.]com
  • hxxps://desklop.pc-whatisapp[.]com
  • hxxps://anydesk-en-downloads[.]com
  • hxxps://anydesk-one[.]com
  • hxxps://anydesk-top[.]com
  • hxxps://anydesk-connect[.]com
  • hxxps://anydesk-vip[.]com

However,  all these above-mentioned sites running advertisements could be easily changed by the attackers, since, these malvertisements aren’t sophisticated attacks.

But, these types of events justify and create a situation that clearly depicts, currently, we can’t even trust the top search results of Google.

You can follow us on LinkedinTwitterFacebook for daily Cybersecurity, and hacking news updates.

Balaji
Balaji
BALAJI is an Ex-Security Researcher (Threat Research Labs) at Comodo Cybersecurity. Editor-in-Chief & Co-Founder - Cyber Security News & GBHackers On Security.

Latest articles

Verizon DBIR Report: Small Businesses Identified as Key Targets in Ransomware Attacks

Verizon Business's 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), released on April 24, 2025, paints...

Lazarus APT Targets Organizations by Exploiting One-Day Vulnerabilities

A recent cyber espionage campaign by the notorious Lazarus Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group,...

ToyMaker Hackers Compromise Numerous Hosts via SSH and File Transfer Tools

In a alarming cybersecurity breach uncovered by Cisco Talos in 2023, a critical infrastructure...

Threat Actors Exploiting Unsecured Kubernetes Clusters for Crypto Mining

In a startling revelation from Microsoft Threat Intelligence, threat actors are increasingly targeting unsecured...

Resilience at Scale

Why Application Security is Non-Negotiable

The resilience of your digital infrastructure directly impacts your ability to scale. And yet, application security remains a critical weak link for most organizations.

Application Security is no longer just a defensive play—it’s the cornerstone of cyber resilience and sustainable growth. In this webinar, Karthik Krishnamoorthy (CTO of Indusface) and Phani Deepak Akella (VP of Marketing – Indusface), will share how AI-powered application security can help organizations build resilience by

Discussion points


Protecting at internet scale using AI and behavioral-based DDoS & bot mitigation.
Autonomously discovering external assets and remediating vulnerabilities within 72 hours, enabling secure, confident scaling.
Ensuring 100% application availability through platforms architected for failure resilience.
Eliminating silos with real-time correlation between attack surface and active threats for rapid, accurate mitigation

More like this

New Malware Hijacks Docker Images Using Unique Obfuscation Technique

A recently uncovered malware campaign targeting Docker, one of the most frequently attacked services...

Hackers Deploy New Malware Disguised as Networking Software Updates

A sophisticated backdoor has been uncovered targeting major organizations across Russia, including government bodies,...

Latest Lumma InfoStealer Variant Found Using Code Flow Obfuscation

Researchers have uncovered a sophisticated new variant of the notorious Lumma InfoStealer malware, employing...