Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

admin
Pinned September 5, 2020

<> Embed

@  Email

Report

Uploaded by user
Google Drive flaw may let attackers fool you into installing malware
<> Embed @  Email Report

Google Drive flaw may let attackers fool you into installing malware

Jon Fingas, @jonfingas

August 22, 2020
 
Google Drive flaw may let attackers fool you into installing malware | DeviceDaily.com

Google Drive may have a way for hackers to trick you into installing rogue code. System administrator A. Nikoci has told The Hacker News about a flaw in Drive’s “manage versions” feature that could let attackers swap a legitimate file with malware. The cloud storage service reportedly doesn’t check to see if a file is of the same type, or even enforce the same extension. An innocuous cat photo may be a program in disguise.

The online preview doesn’t hint at any changes or raise alarms, so you might not know there’s a problematic file until you’ve already installed it. Chrome seems to “implicitly trust” the Drive downloads even when other antivirus programs detect something amiss.

The approach could be used for spear phishing attacks that trick users into compromising their systems. You might get a notification of a document update and grab the file without realizing the threat.

Nikoci said he notified Google about the issue, but that it was still unpatched as of August 22nd. We’ve asked Google for comment.

This would mainly be useful for attacking companies that rely on Google Drive for sharing documents, but that’s increasingly common. The description also suggests that this would require a significant change to Drive’s version control. For now, the best solutions may be to use antivirus software and be wary of Google Drive file update alerts, especially if you weren’t expecting them.

Update August 25th 4:09PM ET: According to Google, the files referenced by the researcher were not yet flagged as malicious, and that files are regularly scanned for viruses and malware prior to download. The company said that attackers cannot evade virus scanning by changing file attributes and that Chrome will always warn users for known malware, even if it comes from Drive.

Engadget RSS Feed

(33)