14 DAY TRIAL // Believe it or not, perverse promises of a scantly clothed and sexually lavish pop idol Britney Sp ears, have been associated numerous times with Windows vulnerabilities, although the two do not natively mix. I am of course referring to the pop singer and security flaws and exploits impacting the Windows platform. Pornography is one of the most facile incentives for social engineering. When an attack or an exploit lurks just one click away, the promise of sexually explicit content will serve to convince unsuspecting users to access malformed websites.
Security company Sophos issued a warning related to a new spam campaigns that marries Britney Spears to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. The spam appears to come from Yahoo News, in order to offer some credibility. Users that ignore the obvious reality, are redirected to a website hosting malicious code. Still, the incentives just keep coming. Just in case a Spears Gates union in matrimony will not interest Windows users, the spammed messages also promise OEM discounts for Windows Vista Business from $299 to only $49.95.
"The phrase "Everything but the kitchen sink" describes (this) spam very well. As well as the Britney Spears news (a popular target for malware authors) and the cheap software spam, SophosLabs have seen spam from this campaign spamvertising replica watches, viagra, weightloss and dubious job offers," Sophos stated adding that the messages will execute the JS/Dload-E Trojan horse, which - following infection - will download and install another Trojan Troj/DwnLdr-GVM.
In April 2007, Britney Spears - along with porn actress Jenna Jameson and Paris Hilton - have been tied to attacks via spam campaigns against Windows. Spears, absent from stage and from the social life, was the star of Windows Vista attacks through exploits targeted at the Windows Animated Cursor Handling vulnerability. Sophos did not confirm that the latest attack impacts Windows Vista.