Pirated Inception Copies Used to Spread Malware

Pirated copies of the biggest blockbuster of the summer, Christopher Nolan’s Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, are being used by attackers to spread malware. According to BitDefender, the Wimad Trojan horse has been packaged into multiple bootlegged movies offered for download free of charge through various illegal third-party sources, including BitTorrent trackers. But Inception is only one example in which attackers are preying on unsuspecting victims. Additional titles such as Robin Hood and Predators are also being used in the same manner, tricking users into infected themselves with malicious code. 

“Ranking sixth in the BitDefender half-yearly malware chart and accounting for 2.68 percent of the total infections worldwide (according to the BitDefender H1 2010 E-Threat Landscape Report, Wimad exploits a feature built into multimedia files which allows a player to search for the appropriate codec when this is not installed,” explained BitDefender’s Razvan Livintz.

Attackers have put together special packages, masquerading as the latest Hollywood blockbusters, and are spreading them through various file sharing networks. The malformed files sport extensions such as ASF, WMV or AVI, which make it extremely difficult for end users to tell them apart from valid video content. As soon as the specially crafted malicious files are being executed in Windows Media Player, the attack kicks in and invites the user to download the missing codec to watch the video. Of course, that there’s no missing or special codec, just as there isn’t an actual movie.

Users that will fall for the social engineering trick employed by attacks will download and install malware on their systems, compromising the computers. Movie fans should steer clear of pirated content as they risk getting infected with malicious code, and essentially handing over control over their machines to the attackers.

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