Blackhole malware attack spread via ‘Your photos’ email

A malware attack has been spammed out widely via email to internet users, posing as a message about photos.

In the attack, cybercriminals attempt to trick unsuspecting users into opening an attached file in their browser, redirecting them to a webpage hosted on a Russian website that takes advantage of the Blackhole exploit kit.

The notorious Blackhole exploit kit then attempts to infect visiting computers through a wide number of vulnerabilities.

Here’s a typical message that has been spammed out – in this case, pretending to come from a LinkedIn user:

Subject: Your Photos

Message body:
Hi,
I have attached your photos to the mail (Open with Internet Explorer)

The attached file has a name of Image_DIG[random number].htm. If you make the mistake of opening the file attachment in your…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

Found this article interesting? Follow Graham Cluley on Twitter or Mastodon to read more of the exclusive content we post.

Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.