Backdoor Trojan disguised as flight confirmation email hits German internet users

German internet users should be on their guard today, after malware was widely spammed out posing as a flight confirmation from Lufthansa.

Subject: Flugdetails & Reiseinformationen
Attached file: Flugscheindetails.zip

Falls Sie diese Reiseinformation nicht oder nur teilweise lesen konnen, offnen Sie bitte die angehangte PDF-Version. Bitte antworten Sie nicht auf diese E-Mail. Direkt-Antworten an den Absender konnen nicht bearbeitet werden. Um mit Lufthansa in Kontakt zu treten, rufen Sie bitte den Hilfe & Kontakt-Bereich auf www.lufthansa.com auf.

Flugscheindetails & Reiseinformationen in der beigefugten Datei

* Den Passenger Receipt (Rechnungsbeleg) erhalten Sie durch einen Klick auf die Flugscheinnummer bis 30 Tage nach Reisebeginn.

Of course, the emails don’t really come from Lufthansa – but it’s likely that some internet users will have been duped into clicking on the attachment, even if they aren’t planning to travel anywhere, our of sheer curiousity.

The attached ZIP file contains a file called Flugsheindetails.PDF.exe, clearly named in an attempt to trick the unwary into believing it is a PDF.

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity 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 analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.