ImageGate attack – Malware through poisoned .JPG

ImageGate attack : Security people from Check Point Software Technologies identified a new malware  campaign through Facebook. Crooks leverage an image obfuscation trick, dubbed ImageGate, to spread the Locky ransomware via Facebook. Experts highlighted that the image obfuscation trick is able to bypass Facebook’s security checks.

As per the research, the attackers have built a new capability to embed malicious code into an image file and then successfully upload it to the social media website. The attackers exploit a misconfiguration on the social media infrastructure to purposely force their victims to download the image file.

This results in infection of the users’ device as soon as the end-user clicks on the downloaded file.The technique is not considered insidious for tech-savvy users, anyway, it represents a serious threat for users that could be tricked into downloading and running unknown executables.

Researchers from checkpoint uncovered the attack vector which affects major websites and social networks worldwide, including Facebook and LinkedIn. Check Point updated Facebook & LinkedIn of the attack vector early in September.

A detailed video demonstration over here..

As more people spend time on social networking sites, hackers have turned their focus to find a way in to these platforms. To protect users against the most advanced threats, Check Point strives to identify where attackers will strike next.

Preventive Measures

Check Point recommends the following preventive measures:

1. If you have clicked on an image and your browser starts downloading a file, do not open it. Any social media website should display the picture without downloading any file.
2. Don’t open any image file with unusual extension (such as SVG, JS or HTA).

We are expecting an detailed attack vector report from Check Point only after the remediation of the vulnerability in the major affected websites.For more details and source.