Firefox Vietnamese Language Pack Malware Warning
A malicious program warning was issued by Mozilla on Wednesday for the Vietnamese Language Pack for Firefox 2. The malware in question was the Xorer Trojan, a malicious program that inserts adware code as the user visits websites.
Anyone who downloaded the Vietnamese Language Pack for Firefox 2 since Feburary 18th of 2008 received an infected copy of the plugin. Unfortunately, the Mozilla virus scan did not detect the problem until recently, several months after the initial upload. Mozilla says that the pack has been downloaded nearly 17,000 times. Of course, if you didn’t install this language pack you’re OK. If you did, you’ll need to disable this plugin and wait for an uninfected replacement pack.
Developers at Mozilla suspect that the developer of the pack had their system or local network infected by this trojan virus. This in turn infected the plugin’s code. According to sources, the malware causes an annoying banner to be displayed but is unable to propagate itself onto other systems or programs’ code. This particular piece of malware works by inserting in a bit of Javascript into HTML files. Mozilla is in the process of adding additional virus scans to their software to prevent something like this in the future.
Problems like this happen from time to time because, yes, even software developers will get a virus or trojan program on their systems. That’s why you should be careful even with commercial software.
Is your virus software up to date? Did you download this language pack? Are you concerned about getting malware from downloading plugins for Firefox or other programs you use? Leave me a comment and let me hear from you on the topic of malware.
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[…] » Firefox Vietnamese Language Pack infected with Trojan horse by Ajay Pathak, OpTempo » Firefox Vietnamese Language Pack Malware Warning by J. Frank Carr, Byzone » Firefox AddOn Comes with Adware by FyreVortex, […]
Yes, I’m always very concerned about downloading plug-ins and language packs, particularly from Firefox.
Given the large number of people who can and do developed for Firefox, it is not unlikely that occasionally a problem will slip through. It certainly doesn’t stop me using it — Firefox is streets ahead of the competition, but I am conscious that there are some risks involved.
But gosh knows, Microsoft software isn’t exactly free of risks either!
My personal experience is that this is an unusual occurrence. Mozilla software has generally been very reliable and secure. Unlike Bill Gates and his Internet Explorer problems.
Becoming infected from any downloads is something to be avoided. But you are at a far greater risk from malware payloads attached to filesharing network downloads than from Firefox plugins - generally.
In answer to your questions: Yes - my virus software is up to date; I did download the language pack and I am very concerned that I might have downloaded malware with plugins.
It is essential that those posting components that will be used by lots of people - check the files thoroughly before making them available.
Although I can read Vietnamese, I am not going to use this language pack. Thanks God!
Virus everywhere now. duhh
And I’m totally agree with this All About Nothing said :”But gosh knows, Microsoft software isn’t exactly free of risks either!”