Cybercriminals have recently launched a privacy-violating campaign spreading across Facebook in an attempt to trick Facebook’s users into installing a rogue Chrome extension. Once installed, it will have access to all the data on all web sites, as well as access to your tabs and browsing history.

More details:

Sample screenshot of one of the few currently active Facebook Events promoting the rogue Chrome extension:

Fake_Change_Facebook_Color_Theme_02_Rogue_Google_Chrome_Extension

The campaign is relying on automatically registered Tumblr accounts, where the actual redirection takes place. Users are exposed to the following page, enticing them into changing their Facebook color theme:

Fake_Change_Facebook_Color_Theme_01_Rogue_Google_Chrome_Extension

Once users accept the EULA and Privacy Policy, they will become victims of the privacy-violating Chrome extension:

Fake_Change_Facebook_Color_Theme_05_Rogue_Google_Chrome_Extension

To further improve its legitimacy, and to play by Google’s newly introduced strategy to fight rogue Chrome extensions, the cybercriminals behind the campaign not only hosted it on Amazon’s cloud, they also featured it in Chrome’s Web Store:

Fake_Change_Facebook_Color_Theme_03_Rogue_Google_Chrome_Extension

In case users choose not to accept the EULA and the Privacy Policy, the cybercriminals behind the campaign will once again attempt to monetize the hijacked Facebook traffic by asking them to participate in surveys, part of CPA (Cost-Per-Action) affiliate network, earning them money:

Fake_Change_Facebook_Color_Theme_04_Rogue_Google_Chrome_Extension

Sample Facebook Events spreading the bogus Tumblr URls:
hxxps://www.facebook.com/events/389748451108256/
hxxps://www.facebook.com/events/463366360367776/
hxxps://www.facebook.com/events/479634408745393/
hxxps://www.facebook.com/events/476440942398408/

Sample automatically registered Tumblr accounts participating in the campaign:
hxxp://ixhg7wadu.tumblr.com/?28479630128
hxxp://6upe014h7.tumblr.com/?3411365086213
hxxp://akecnjhpn.tumblr.com/?8892833241261
hxxp://zuodxt5yq.tumblr.com/?5593177247792
hxxp://xr8o8wc2t.tumblr.com/?1936588422396

Redirection takes place through the following IP:
hxxp://50.57.129.34/ping/redirect2.php (AS19994)

Amazon Cloud hosting URL:
hxxp://redf6.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/last2.html

Google Chrome Web Store hosting URL:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-red/djicdajegmppedmnlgkhgjgejlgeblei

Users are advised to be extra cautious when accepting EULAs and Privacy Policies, in particular when installing browser extensions that have the capacity to access sensitive and personally identifiable data on their PCs.

You can find more about Dancho Danchev at his LinkedIn Profile. You can also follow him on  Twitter.

Blog Staff

About the Author

Blog Staff

The Webroot blog offers expert insights and analysis into the latest cybersecurity trends. Whether you’re a home or business user, we’re dedicated to giving you the awareness and knowledge needed to stay ahead of today’s cyber threats.

Share This