Security threats Toolkit

Trojans being spread via Google's Orkut

Elinor Mills CNET News

Published: 26 Nov 2008 08:57 GMT

Orkut is being used to spread Trojan links in a message disguised as an official email from the Google-owned social network, according to an alert from security firm Websense, released on Tuesday.

The message, written in Portuguese to appeal to Orkut's many Brazilian members, looks like it is sent from an Orkut member who is looking for love, Websense said.

"The message contains several links that appear to lead to the official Orkut website. Clicking on a link actually leads to a malicious executable file, which is a Trojan downloader named 'imagem.exe'," the Websense alert states. "The malicious file opens the legitimate Orkut network login page, and in the background downloads a password-stealing Trojan named 'msn.exe'."

The Trojans are hosted on a compromised labour-union website from southern Brazil, according to Websense.

A Google spokesman said the company was investigating the matter.

Credit: Security firm: Google's Orkut being used to spread Trojans from CNET News