Warning: Some Paid Yahoo and Bing Ads Link to Malware

Warning to users that use Yahoo! and Bing search engines to find software downloads: their paid advertisements may link to malicious websites.

In a blog post published early Friday morning on the GFI Labs Blog, Chris Boyd outlined the dangers that are currently lurking in the shadows for users who may be seeking to download Mozilla’s Firefox, Skype, Adobe Flash Player, or even uTorrent client.

Despite the convincing appearance of websites served to folks that click one of the bad links, unsuspecting users may be downloading malicious content onto their PCs instead of the desired applications. In his post, Chris from GFI Labs Blog wrote:

“As an example, the fake Firefox file installs a rootkit, runs IE silently in the background attempting clickfraud and also performs Google redirects.”

It appears that all of the downloads are coming from en-softonic(dot)net. So if you happen to try and download one of the programs mentioned above – or any others – be sure to check the URL in the dialog box that asks you to ‘Save File’ or ‘Cancel’. If it has “softonic” in the name, opt to cancel opening the file.

It’s recommended that you bypass the dangerous advertisement links by visiting the software vendor’s website directly instead, then follow their download links from there. Be sure to check your browser’s web address bar to make sure you’re on the actual website and doublecheck the URL on the Open File dialog box.

Both Yahoo and Microsoft (Bing) have been notified about the infections, but users should proceed with caution until everything’s been cleared out.

Photo Credit: johnharveytolson