Symantec Finds Trojan Attacking Users of Skype

Symantec states that it has discovered the public release of a source code for Trojan that attacks people using Skype.

The Trojan, named Trojan.Peskyspy, can be delivered in several ways which include e-mail links and social engineering attacks, where a user is deceived into installing the application.

More information about the modus operandi of the Trojan reveals that it is attacking Windows API hooks, a method used to modify the planned behaviour of an application, which Microsoft thought to be used by audio applications. The Trojan infects the system and then through the hooking method eavesdrops on a conversation before it reaches Skype or any other audio application.

Once a system is targeted by this threat, the threat can use an application that controls audio processing within a system and save the call data as an MP3 file. This MP3 is sent on the Internet to a known server where the hacker can then listen to the recorded talks. Recording the call as an MP3 keeps the size of the audio files low which means that there is less data to be transported across the network, helping to pace up the transfer and ignore detection by Internet security software.

Symantec states that the threat risk is low, but since the code is openly available, they (Symantec researchers) are likely to see modified dangers from malware creators. In other words, malware creators can integrate this kind of functionality into their own harmful code or tamper the dangerous Trojan.

As a safety measure, since there is no hard alleviation for the Trojan's abilities apart from uninstalling Skype, Symantec states that users should adopt safety policies, download and keep latest security software, and not click on links in unfamiliar mails.

In somewhat similar story, since the Skype Trojan can be related to phishing scams, this alert appears in the same week when Symantec stated the beginning of the phishing Season. A company spokesperson said - the number of phishing attacks have been observing a usual outline of high and low points, with the high points usually occurring in the latter half of the year, as per the news by THETECHHERALD on August 28,2009.

Related article: Sentence for American Contractor for Sabotaging Government Navy Computers

» SPAMfighter News - 9/9/2009