Rumors about the Internet as we know it dying by 2012 have been circulating for some time now, so it’s not really that surprising when the TrendLabs Content Security team was alerted that a Trojan is taking advantage of this conspiracy theory in order to trick users into running it.

Then again, spammed email with sensational headlines do make even the most cautious computer users take a peek (the latest NUWAR/Storm run being a prime example). What more when the said headlines tell them that the Internet, which has been practically their extra limbs since the last century, will suddenly be up for…TV-like subscriptions?

The malware involved in this spam run is detected by Trend Micro as TROJ_PIDIEF.JT, a Trojan that arrives as a PDF file named DOC.PDF. This file promises more information regarding the alleged Internet death, and based on the email subjects and details it arrives with (see sample messages below), it’s not easy NOT to double-click on it:

PIDIEF Trojans are known malware droppers or downloaders, so once users click on the attached PDF file — and whether or not they believe the theory — another malware is already up and running on their systems and doing malicious routines. The death of the Internet is going to be the least of their problems after that…

Trend Micro already blocks this spam with its Smart Protection Network. Other users, as always, are advised to keep their systems and applications up to date with the latest security patches and to be wary when opening suspicious email, no matter how interesting they appear to be.

Striking email subjects get the job done. Well, given another spamming operation that uses popular personalities and events, that seems to be the case. Using a variety of subject-body combinations (a lot of which are totally unrelated to each other!), these spammed messages again appeal to the curious mind, offering a link in the email body that would seem to provide more details.

TrendLabs’ Advanced Threats Researcher Joey Costoya says these messages lead users to an R.HTML Web page that also poses as an imitation of adult video-sharing site PornTube. The said page hosts the file VIDEO.EXE. We’ve seen this type of attack before in another spam run that also used pop culture as bait.

In this screenshot we see the upcoming Beijing Olympics being used to trick fans and those curious enough about the event to click the URL:

Figure 1. Spam showing unrelated subject heading
and email body, possibly the result of using spam templates.

There are several of these VIDEO.EXE URLs, and some of the detections we have seen so far include:

The Trend Micro Smart Protection Network already blocks the spam messages using this trick, and likewise blocks all related malicious URLs, so Trend Micro users are protected from downloading the Trojans. Since the download locations can be updated anytime (today a user may download TROJ_ZLOB.GBA, but tomorrow it might be an entirely new malware), only a multi-layered protection allows users to rest easy.