Description

Cybercriminals are exploiting Facebook business pages and ads to distribute fake Windows themes that install the SYS01 password-stealing malware on users' systems. Trustwave researchers, who have been monitoring these campaigns, noted that the threat actors also promote counterfeit downloads for pirated games, software, Sora AI (a 3D image creator), and One Click Active. Although using Facebook ads to spread information-stealing malware isn't new, the platform's vast user base magnifies the threat. Attackers buy ads promoting Windows themes, free game downloads, and software activation cracks for popular programs like Photoshop, Microsoft Office, and Windows. These ads are run either through newly created Facebook business pages or by hijacking existing ones, renaming the pages to match the promoted content, and targeting their followers. "The threat actors adopt the business identity by renaming the Facebook pages, leveraging the existing follower base to significantly enhance the reach of their fraudulent ads," stated the Trustwave report. It also highlighted that these pages were managed by individuals in Vietnam or the Philippines. Trustwave reports that the threat actors run thousands of ads per campaign, with notable ones including blue-softs (8,100 ads), xtaskbar-themes (4,300 ads), newtaskbar-themes (2,200 ads), and awesome-themes-desktop (1,100 ads). Users who click these ads are redirected to webpages hosted on Google Sites or True Hosting, masquerading as download pages for the advertised content. The True Hosting pages, in particular, promote a site called Blue-Software, offering supposed free software and game downloads. Upon clicking the 'Download' buttons, users receive a ZIP archive named after the advertised item, such as 'Awesome_Themes_for_Win_10_11.zip' or 'Adobe_Photoshop_2023.zip'. However, these archives contain the SYS01 information-stealing malware. This malware deploys various executables, DLLs, PowerShell scripts, and PHP scripts to install itself and extract data from the infected computer, using DLL sideloading and other techniques to evade detection.