View Full Version : Hackers Are Using PowerPoint
seacue
24th Oct 2014, 13:17
Hackers Are Using Microsoft PowerPoint To Attack Computers
Does this affect Open/Libre Office "Impress" when running on Windows PCs? I presume so.
mixture
24th Oct 2014, 13:54
First it should come as no surprise hackers are using powerpoint... they've been using PDFs and Word files for ages, so widening their toolkit was inevitable....
You should make the assumption of yes. Perhaps not specifically in relation to the exact same exploits that Powerpoint is, but if Open/Libre are attempting to mimick the functionality of Powerpoint then many of the attack vectors will be very similar....
Received an email purporting to be from a company in the UK midlands last Tuesday. In a moment of absent mindedness I clicked the attached 'invoice.doc.' file thinking it was from one of a number of recent ebay purchases. It opened MS Word sure enough, but the page was empty. Not recognising the name of the company I rang them to see which purchase it referred to, only to be told I was the umteenth caller that day inquiring about emails sent supposedly under their name. Well OF COURSE it was fake. OF COURSE I shouldn't have clicked the attachment (but then again I WAS expecting something relating to the ebay purchases). My Malwarebites Antimalware flagged up nothing so hopefully the wrong-doers stuffed up their attempts at mischief, on this occasion at least!
Yez can't be too careful out there!
Capetonian
24th Oct 2014, 17:57
I had an email the other day which looked as if it came from a company with whom I had done business, headed : "Your outstanding invoice with us." In the text it said something like : "Your in owing to us the amount of $437.32 and before we get legal acting you are invited to pay." Very authentic. There was also a .pdf which I didn't open.
I wrote back to them and said words to the effect of : "Disappear and sue me ........" No further response.
mixture
24th Oct 2014, 18:16
Received an email purporting to be from a company in the UK midlands last Tuesday. In a moment of absent mindedness I clicked the attached 'invoice.doc. Well OF COURSE it was fake. OF COURSE I shouldn't have clicked the attachment (but then again I WAS expecting something relating to the ebay purchases). My Malwarebites Antimalware flagged up nothing
Actually Ant... it was probably malware (unless it was phishing wanting your bank details ?)
I received a series of those a few weeks ago... Malwarebytes and the other freebie AV companies were slowest to get new definitions out.
If you've still got the file, upload it to VirusTotal and see what it says there.... if the file has been doing the rounds a few days then there will likely be at least a few AV vendors who've got it listed.
If its a new one, you might have been one of the first lucky recipients.
Unfortunately, as soon as I realised this was a fake I got rid pronto. Would have been interesting to see what VirusTotal would have made of it. Will be coming back to VirusTotal in the future I'm sure!