Antivirus 360 Warning: Out-of-Date Third Party Plugins Help Distribute Antivirus 360

Antivirus 360, not to be confused with Norton's Antivirus 360 version, is a rogue anti-spyware program that has now replaced Antivirus 2009 as the new bad kid in the block.

Antivirus 360 and Antivirus 2009 makers are spreading the program through malicious websites and infecting systems by exploiting vulnerabilites in Adobe Reader. Hackers lure users with malformed pdf files which affect different versions of Adobe's pdf reader program. QuickTime Player plugins may also be used as an exploit for downloading this malware onto your system. The actual malicious file is a downloader that contains instructions to contact different websites that download several files including the Vundo trojan package.

We've seen Antivirus 2009 use the same plugin exploit methods and has been associated with Trojans rootkits versions such as Rootkit.Gen. This time it is Antivirus 360 web scanner that is advertised through popups coming from the downloaded trojan. The message is nothing but a javascipt that pretends to have scanned the infected machine and found malware.

Pcworld.com's business center reported that Adobe Systems Inc. patched the bug that was being exploited by the malicious PDF file. They go on to explain that the malicious pdf file contained a variation of the Core Security Technologies security code from a sample attack code used as part of its own advisory of the pdf file dangers. Another pdf file attack was published to milw0rm.com which was more visible to anti-virus vendors than the previously mentioned pdf file. This shows that the creators of these malicious pdf files go to great lengths to obtain coding ideal for their wicked actions.

It is important to update your third party plugins to prevent this situation from happening. Be sure that your Quicktime Player and all Adobe program plugins are up-to-date. Make sure you have obtained the latest released version of your third party plugins for these programs. It is also a great idea to detect and remove Antivirus 360 from your system. It may be difficult to tell if you have the actual Antivirus 360 program or if you are getting popup messages that ask you to install Antivirus 360 in order to eliminate a threat. Even though the popup is fake, it is a clear indication that you have a Trojan infection installed or the Antivirus 360 program is on your hard drive.

Spark a conversation. Do you suspect that your Quicktime or Adobe plugins are out of date? How often to you update or download new third party plugins? Post your reply below now.