ProxyBack Malware Turns Infected Computers into Internet Proxies (softpedia.com) 71
An anonymous reader writes: A new malware family called ProxyBack infects PCs and transforms them into a Web proxy. ProxyBack malware works by infecting a PC, establishing a connection with a proxy server controlled by the attackers, from where it receives instructions, and later the traffic it needs to route to actual Web servers. Each machine infected with ProxyBack works as a bot inside a larger network controlled by the attackers, who send commands and update instructions via simple HTTP requests. Some of the people infected with this malware, mysteriously found their IP listed on the buyproxy.ru Web proxy service.A technical write-up of the infection steps and various malware commands is available on the Palo Alto Networks blog.
Why is this news? (Score:4, Insightful)
Rooting a computer for the purpose of making it a proxy or a zombie to probe or attack other hosts has been a core goal of attackers for at least 20 years now. What makes this discovery special?
Re:Why is this news? (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Only if you're new to the game, perhaps? But compromised proxy lists for purchase were around back in the '90's... How is this any different now?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
>> Did you read the entire summary?
Hell no. This is SlashDot. I read the headline, glanced at the first line of the summary and then started to type my comment. :P
Re: (Score:2)
Republicans like Bill Gates? 8D
Re: (Score:1)
Republicans like Bill Gates? 8D
I don't know about Bill, but I know his father was wetting his pants trying to drum up support for an income tax in Washington state. Amazingly enough, it would have reduced his taxes, funny how that works, huh? No one bought his bullshit, though. He's given money to both parties but he sure walks and talks like a Republican.
It happens every few years here- some dickweasel scumbag tries to float an income tax proposal and it gets totally shot to pieces, the voters reject it out of hand and bury it a thousa
is this Timberlake's idea? (Score:2)
ProxyBack Malware makes proxies? (Score:2)
I wouldn't have expected that in a million years!
Huh? (Score:1)
How is this anything different than botnets and the like that have been around for years? Slahdot reporting in!
FTFY FTW (Score:5, Informative)
FTFY
I find it interesting that the article never mentions Windows in the text, or that it only runs on Windows, as indicated in the graphics. The word Windows appears 16 times (at least) but zero times in a searchable format.
* Some people claim that the term PC refers specifically to a system with Windows. Their argument invariably represents an ignorance with respect to the history of both Microsoft and the various PCs.
Ohhh, this is going to be fun! (Score:2)
Since it is somewhat unlikely that these proxies are going to be used to promote freedom of speech in countries where such a thing is unknown and rather for, let's say, less benign reasons, we may already wait for the first raids on infected machines that happened to be used to get access to child porn or even copyrighted content.
It just might make people consider that securing their machines could possibly, just maybe, be in their own interest.
Tor Exit server Zombie Malware (Score:2)
It occurred to me that one thing we haven't seen yet (or maybe?) is some sort of malware or Trojan that infects computers to run as exit nodes for TOR.
Imagine how that would affect the overall TOR network.