Attacks to make Ask.com Toolbar a conduit for malware are nipped in the bud

Attackers who were trying to turn the Ask.com Toolbar into a malware dispensary got caught early on when their scheme was picked up by security services that were looking for anomalies.

The malicious actors are unknown but they managed to get the legitimate Ask.com toolbar update feature to place a dropper/uploader into the browsers of several customers of security firm Red Canary.

Once installed, the dropper would bring in secondary malware including banking Trojans and other online-fraud code, says Keith McCammon, CSO of Red Canary. The secondary payloads varied, and some of the dozen or so compromised machines his team found had downloaded more than one kind, he says.

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