Internet Explorer Malware Plugin Also Infects Firefox

Malware that sticks to a web browser is no news to anyone, but now, a new threat has been discovered that after infecting Internet Explorer, it drops a piece of spyware onto your Firefox.

With the aid of Bitdefender, MalwareCity identified the virus as being Trojan.Tracur.C. When Internet Explorer users decide to update their Flash Player, the rogue plug-in that compromises the browser also infects Mozilla Firefox by snapping a malicious add-on to it .

Trojan.JS.Redirector.KY monitors all the webpages loaded in Mozilla's browser. Once the unsuspecting internaut types the URL address of a search engine, such as Yahoo, Bing or Google, a piece of Java Script code gets injected into the resulting pages, making sure that the first link points to a malware containing location.

From here on, the infection process continues, victims being subjected to attacks coming from all sorts of threats.

According to Sophos, Trojan.Tracur.C affects Windows platforms and it runs automatically in an attempt to establish a communication channel with a remote server via HTTP. It changes Internet Explorer settings by creating registries such as HKCR\.fsharproj, HKCR\Zghypcxhle, HKCU\Software\Zghypcxhle, HKCU\Software\Classes\Software\Zghypcxhle.

Trojan.JS.Redirector viruses operate by launching an SQL injection attack that inserts JavaScript into the HTML pages they target.They can also be contained in HTML-based email messages which embed the script or malevolent websites which redirect the user to unwanted locations.

To protect your computer from such infections, make sure you have a firewall enabled on the device which will filter out all the unwanted data coming from the internet. Also make sure your anti-virus solution is activated and its virus definition database is up to date.

Beware of suspicious email messages which can contain harmful links or attachments and try to secure yourself against social engineering attacks which have become very frequent lately.

Finally, strong, different passwords for each of your online accounts can protect you in many situations, as phishing campaigns in many cases rely on weak safewords.