Facebook “Un Named App” scare leads to malware

August 2010
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Jan

A few minutes ago I noticed that a friend of mine had posted the following status to her Facebook profile:

: Facebook status

Of course this got my bat senses tingling and I smelled a panic-inducing spiral of insanity brewing, so I thought I’d have a bit of a look around.

Nothing to worry about here as far as your Facebook is concerned, this does not appear to be a genuine malicious app. In fact a thread on Yahoo answers appears to demonstrate in a reproducible fashion that “Un named App” is nothing more than your “Boxes” tab on your Facebook profile page.

Beware though, there is still real risk attached to this Chinese whisper. Criminals have picked up on the concern among Facebook users (or possibly they were responsible for starting the rumour?) and they have already started to poison Google search results.

Google search result

I queried Google for “facebook unnamed app” and the third result on the first page pointed to a malicious website set up for the purposes of distributing fake anti-virus software, this time called “Security Tool”. If you are unwary enough to click the link you will be presented with a dialogue box informing you that you have a huge number of infected files on your machine and prompting you to use Security Tool to clean them up. The software of course is no real security solution and is designed to fool the victim into parting with hard-earned cash.

Security Tool Rogue AV

Always search with caution, especially when searching for terms of high current popularity. Using search trends and conversation trends to target malicious software is now a firmly established criminal modus operandi.

If you are worried about computer security and not sure where to click, you can always contact me directly. If you feel you may have been affected by this or any other scam, then I would advise you to go and scan your PC with a real security solution, our own free HouseCall service.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, 27. January 2010 and is filed under "SEO, Web 2.0, malware". You can follow any responses to this entry with RSS 2.0. You can leave a response here, or send a trackback from your own site.

7 Comments to "Facebook “Un Named App” scare leads to malware"

	Blogs: Monday, April 25th 2010, 10:15 pm -> Wednesday, 27. January 2010 um 3:52 pm

[...] \| Author Profile I have just been reading another blog post from Rik Ferguson of Trend Micro fame about a Facebook-spread scare of the “Un Named [...]

	Facebook “Un Named App” scare leads to malware « The GANSEC Security Weblog: Monday, April 25th 2010, 10:15 pm -> Wednesday, 27. January 2010 um 4:58 pm

[...] Here is the article. [...] Nothing to worry about here as far as your Facebook is concerned, this does not appear to be a genuine malicious app. In fact a thread on Yahoo answers appears to demonstrate in a reproducible fashion that “Un named App” is nothing more than your “Boxes” tab on your Facebook profile page. [...]

	Tweets that mention Facebook “Un Named App” scare leads to malware » CounterMeasures -- Topsy.com: Monday, April 25th 2010, 10:15 pm -> Thursday, 28. January 2010 um 5:47 am

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Bev Robb , Bev Robb , Rik Ferguson, Tom Eston, Declan Waters and others. Declan Waters said: RT @rik_ferguson: New blog: Facebook "un named app" scare leads to malware – http://bit.ly/d4ob4c [...]

suzieque:
Monday, April 25th 2010, 10:15 pm -> Wednesday, 3. February 2010 um 5:14 pm

geekdrop.com has a great thread on this subject. It also has instructions on how to get it back if you have deleted it.

http://geekdrop.com/content/facebook-spybot-how-to-remove#comment-17347

	Facebook e l’Applicazione Senza Nome « Paoblog: Monday, April 25th 2010, 10:15 pm -> Friday, 5. February 2010 um 8:46 am

[...] Trend Micro conferma, ma sottolinea che c’è in realtà un rischio legato a quest’allarme: quello che i creatori di siti-trappola sfruttino le ricerche in Google delle parole dell’appello da parte degli utenti preoccupati, ottimizzando le proprie pagine per apparire in cima a questi risultati e quindi attirare vittime potenziali. Non andate in giro a casaccio per Internet, insomma. [...]

	David Oropallo: Monday, April 25th 2010, 10:15 pm -> Sunday, 21. February 2010 um 7:12 pm

My wife uses IE8 to surf Facebook, and 3 or 4 times in the last month she has called me to ask what should she click, a message has popped up that our PC has been infected or is running a risk and needs an immediate scan. I have Eset Smart Security, so that isn’t the message, what she is getting is similar to the AntiVirus 2009 maleware that made the rounds. She can’t click on anything to close it without launching it. I just have her Alt>F4 out, and then scan with Eset and Malewarebytes, but nothing comes up. This always happens when she is viewing someone’s photos. I never get this because I use FireFox for my surfing, and something isn’t enabled to allow that bug to run. I have tried different security settings in IE8, adjusting scripting and Java, but then it won’t function properly on other pages. At a loss.

	abdullah zafar: Monday, April 25th 2010, 10:15 pm -> Monday, 5. April 2010 um 4:20 pm

Well guys if its the application of facebook than facebook must have announce about it before or else this must not be there product.

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