TROJ_ARTIEF.ZIGS

The 2012 Olympic Games, to be held in London, are the most awaited sports event in the last years. Taking advantage of this anticipation, criminals have decided to use the Olympic Games as part of a social engineering scam in order to distribute the TROJ_ARTIEF.ZIGS Trojan. A common Trojan downloader installs other malware on the victim's computer system. This Trojan is being distributed in a spam email that declares that the victim is a winner of a lottery ticket and vacation package for free to the Olympic Games. This is nothing new; criminals commonly use breaking news stories and important events in order to attempt to convince victims to download malicious files.

In fact, a spam campaign claiming that the victim had won tickets for the 2012 Olympic Games was observed as far back as fall of 2008! Popular sports events like the FIFA World Cup, the Super Bowl, and the Olympic Games are commonly used in these kinds of spam email attacks. In fact, ESG security researchers detected numerous scams similar to the TROJ_ARTIEF.ZIGS Trojan scam connected to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. As the date for these games approaches, ESG security researchers warn that the number of these kinds of malicious emails is only likely to increase. Because of this, ESG security researchers recommend using a strong spam filter and common sense in order to filter scam-related email messages. It is also important to avoid opening messages containing unsolicited file attachments or embedded links, and never to open these without being absolutely sure of their source and their content.

How the TROJ_ARTIEF.ZIGS Trojan Attacks Your Computer System

The TROJ_ARTIEF.ZIGS Trojan is contained in a malicious DOC file attached to the spam email mentioned above. This attachment uses a known exploit in order to take advantage of the CVE-2010-3333 vulnerability, also known as the RTF Stack Buffer Overflow Vulnerability. The TROJ_ARTIEF.ZIGS Trojan will use this exploit to install the BKDR_CYSXL.A Trojan, a backdoor Trojan that allows a criminal to gain full access to the infected computer system, much like a burglar can take advantage of an open backdoor in order to enter and ransack a victim's house. ESG security researchers consider the TROJ_ARTIEF.ZIGS Trojan a severe threat to any computer system, especially since an infection can eventually lead to a criminal gaining access to the victim's private information and being able to control the infected computer system from a remote location.

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