“Will the World End in 2012?” PowerPoint Presentation Hides Malware

These days the entire Internet is buzzing about the end of the world predictions. We still have a few hours until we learn if December 21, 2012 is the day on which the world ends, but in the meantime, don’t forget about best security practices that will keep your computer malware-free.

Sophos experts warn users about a malicious PowerPoint presentation entitled “Will the world end in 2012?” which is designed to unleash a piece of malware.

Similar to the Excel Sudoku puzzle generator, this particular presentation also uses macros in order to drop the malware.

The macros are basically utilized to construct a Windows Portable Executable (PE) file that represents the malware dropper. This dropper extracts another executable file which downloads a picture of an owl (it’s uncertain why), and contacts the command and control server.

According to the researchers, the website of the US preacher that created the original PowerPoint presentation, one without any malware attached to it, has been compromised by cybercriminals and used in all sorts of scams.