Almost all the available content on web (especially media format) is run with the help of HTML 5 nowadays. However, despite of being warned about Flash’s impending termination for Chrome, some people still use the Flash Player. This has caught the attention of scammers as they have recently stared targeting Flash users and it’s been reported by Confiant, a security firm, that over a million Mac systems have been subjected to the malvertising scam attack.
As the name suggests, the scam makes use of malware infected ads. The users are coaxed into updating their Flash Players. However, it’s not a genuine ad by Adobe, but rather a hack in which a malicious downloader known as Shlayer ends up getting installed on the system.
The concerning thing about this scam is that it can escape detection by a number of malware scanners It does so by retrieving the malicious data from an online repository, after successfully passing through the scanners by loading the ads in a usual manner.
However, not all scanners allow this malware to pass through them undetected. Established apps such as Avast and AVG can catch them before they inflict any damage on the system. However, a number of smaller virus scanners are simply not prepared for tackling such scams.
Thus, the best way to avoid this attack is to discard any popups that suggest you to update the Flash Player. If you are concerned about using an outdated version, simply visit Adobe’s website and update to the latest available version manually. However, as discussed above, Google has already announced that it would be completely phasing out Flash Player by next year, after Adobe’s initial announcement of ceasing development and terminating support for the application by next year’s end.
Read Next: The Pwn20wn 2019 grants researchers $270,000 for Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari Hacks
As the name suggests, the scam makes use of malware infected ads. The users are coaxed into updating their Flash Players. However, it’s not a genuine ad by Adobe, but rather a hack in which a malicious downloader known as Shlayer ends up getting installed on the system.
The concerning thing about this scam is that it can escape detection by a number of malware scanners It does so by retrieving the malicious data from an online repository, after successfully passing through the scanners by loading the ads in a usual manner.
However, not all scanners allow this malware to pass through them undetected. Established apps such as Avast and AVG can catch them before they inflict any damage on the system. However, a number of smaller virus scanners are simply not prepared for tackling such scams.
Thus, the best way to avoid this attack is to discard any popups that suggest you to update the Flash Player. If you are concerned about using an outdated version, simply visit Adobe’s website and update to the latest available version manually. However, as discussed above, Google has already announced that it would be completely phasing out Flash Player by next year, after Adobe’s initial announcement of ceasing development and terminating support for the application by next year’s end.
Read Next: The Pwn20wn 2019 grants researchers $270,000 for Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari Hacks
