With the advent of Instagram’s popularity, an entirely new opportunity for hackers and creators of malware has arisen.
A popular fad among Instagram’s users is to use outside developer’s software in order to view and save photos off of the image site. Instagram has now surpassed Twitter in number of users, which means that there are more people out there vulnerable to these schemes than ever before. How do these Potentially Unwanted Programs– or PUPs, as they’re called in tech jargon– work, and how do you avoid getting duped by them?
“The bundle” is never a good deal.
Much like how some telecom companies offer bundle deals with a lot of hidden baggage and fees, bundling software is the number one way for these potentially unwanted programs to find their way onto unassuming consumer’s computers and devices.
Basically, you may see a bit of software that looks cool– and when you download it, it comes with other programs cleverly hidden in the installation. Sometimes, these are shown in the install wizard if there is one– but only as very small check boxes with limited descriptions that can easily be missed if you’re in a hurry and happen to be the trigger happy type when it comes to the “next” button. Usually, there will be a check box and a mention of some “great” software that has been included (free of charge!) that’s in smaller text than everything else on the screen in wizard. More often than not though, these things will be attached and installed without giving you the courtesy of a choice in the matter.
Discretion isn’t always enough.
Sometimes, these malicious programs simply come with a neat-sounding name with Instagram in it and no other frills. They are disguised as these image viewing and image saving/downloading apps and programs. Everything about these Potentially Unwanted Programs is geared towards one thing: tricking users into downloading and running them. Even worse is the fact that some of these programs can be even more potentially dangerous to you and your information than the typical phishing websites out there. The harmful programs detected have ranged from just plain annoying to trojans and more harmful malware.
In the end, the best thing to do is try to use your best judgment when downloading these types of programs. Also, make sure you have a good, up-to-date anti malware program installed on your machine. If you do decide to download and use one of these types of programs, make sure that you keep an eye out for those sneaky extra programs that might be included in an installation; slow down and read everything in the install wizard carefully, and if it mentions installing something extra that isn’t the program you wanted, make sure you uncheck that box!
Here are some of the programs out there that the people at antimalwarebytes found to contain PUPs that carried harmful software in the form of trojans and malware:
- File name: instagramdownloader-1.0.0.0.exe
- SHA256: d6495ffb6a0c388ae4d5b81c16ef4bdaee4604491b21d857d0955378336d4c84
- Detected as: PUP.Optional.OpenCandy (13/51)
- File name: instagramdownloader-1.0.0.0.exe
- SHA256: d6495ffb6a0c388ae4d5b81c16ef4bdaee4604491b21d857d0955378336d4c84
- Detected as: PUP.Optional.OpenCandy (9/51)
- File name: free-instagram-downloader-230-32-bits.exe
- SHA256: d65fd9b672bfc1093df20f0b9a7c6f812426c7b45085d04137d07b4a794830ba
- Detected as: PUP.Optional.InstallCore.A (12/52)
- File name: Setup_Instagram_Hacker.exe
- SHA256: ba2211beec48e3ea3e56b2e6374901133829c9451edb17a013cf0e3dadc4b37b
- Detected as: Trojan.Hacktool.Agent (7/52)
- File name: instagram-downloader-20-32-bits.exe
- SHA256: 7a855afccb23dedbb722b322d960b70ff63aa1c4dcdacf7c8c65a6f60748c829
- Detected as: PUP.Optional.InstallCore (12/51)
- File name: Instagram_Downloader-2.3.0.exe
- SHA256: 31538a48a02049d75facecec8d0ba028cbbe0e8e6918dab61346e7cdf926f62f
- Detected as: PUP.Optional.OpenCandy (13/51)
Sources:
http://blog.malwarebytes.org/security-threat/2014/05/more-pups-sighted-using-instagram-as-lure/
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/fake-instagram-pups,news-18748.html
