QR Code Malware Picks Up Steam

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.darkreading.com/mobile-security/167901113/security/news/232301147/qr-code-malware-picks-up-steam.html

By Ericka Chickowski
Contributing Editor
Dark Reading
Dec 29, 2011

As mobile marketers have latched onto the convenience and cool-factor of 
QR codes, hackers are starting to take advantage of these square, 
scannable bar codes as a new way to distribute malware. Like all mobile 
attack vectors, it is a new frontier that security researchers say is 
not extremely prevalent but which has a lot of potential to wreak havoc 
if mobile developers and users stand by unaware.

The success behind QR code usage among mobile fans has largely been 
pinned on its simplicity.

"QR codes are growing in popularity and seem to be popping up everywhere 
- magazine ads, newsletters, real estate signs, newspaper ads and in 
trade show booths," says Paul Henry, security and forensic analyst at 
Lumension. "In the simplest of terms, a QR code is a 2D barcode that can 
store data which can then be read by smart phone users. The data is an 
easy way to direct a user to a particular website with a simple scan of 
the QR code, but it could also just as easily be a link to a malicious 
website."

Just point your mobile device's camera on the code, scan it and the 
reading will take you to the website or mobile app download that its 
promoter promises to provide. The difficulty is that you're depending on 
the honesty of that provider or the assumption that the code hasn't been 
tampered with to know the destination is legitimate.

"QR codes, while perhaps convenient for the user, clearly open the door 
to the clever obfuscation of malicious links for would-be bad guys," 
Henry says.

[...]


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