Google image search warning

[Zippy]

anybody having problems using google image search and getting pop ups requesting you to scan your pc when you click on an image? Seems there is big problem with malware attacks at the moment. Thousands of images have been corrupted so when you click on an image your browser collapses and you get a fake pop up.

DO NOT click on any pop up to do any scan as they are fake. You should close your browser via your task manager if you do get one.

http://www.uoguelph.ca/ccs/ccs-service-updates/malware-advisory-google-image-search

[BB_Eye]

Happens to me all the time. Google image search is ridiculously unsafe and has been for a while.

[Jamesy]

I've noticed quite a lot of pop ups recently when searching for images on there. It's really annoying and really puts me off using Google for images.

[Omah]

Yeah, I've had a few encounters ..... :eek:

[InOne]

Yes, really annoying. Also this thing where you shut down the web browser and loads and loads pop up

[AJ.]

Stopped using google images anyway, you search for a pair of shoes or something & it comes up with the gore :yuk:

[Zippy]

Today @ PCWorld
Attackers Using Google Image Search to Distribute Malware

By Ed Oswald, PCWorld May 6, 2011 1:45 PM

Attackers are now using Google's image search to distributed malware, security experts say. Thousands of sites have reportedly been compromised by code injection--the malicious code redirects users to fake antivirus applications.

Internet Storm Center researcher Bojan Zdrnja writes that the attackers are mostly targeting Wordpress sites, and are injecting PHP code that generates pages with images based on highly-searched content. Google then indexes these pages, and the images show up on Google's image search.

Image hack is widespread and effective

Image searchers can be redirected to these fake antivirus sites, thanks to Google displays images when clicked, Zdrnja wrote in a blog post this week. At least 5,000 sites have been compromised, and Google could be serving as many as 15 million hits a month to these malicious pages.

Russian security researcher Denis Sinegubko said that, in about 90 percent of the compromised image searches, results from malicious websites appear on the first page.

"The main problem is not that cybercrooks managed to seriously poison Google Image search results but the fact that many people do click on such results results and get exposed to malicious content," Sinegubko wrote to the Unmask Parasites blog on Thursday.

Google in the process of improving detection

Google says it is aware of the problem, and is making an effort to detect malicious pages. It would not detail its plans out of fear that attackers may adjust their methods to get around the company's efforts. Sinegubko is also in the process of developing an add-on for Firefox that will alert users to these links.

Efforts are already underway to protect Google users on the web search side: Google added alerts to potentially hacked sites in December of last year, and Google's Chrome browser blocks potentially dangerous downloads. For whatever reason, Google's image search remains unprotected.

What can you do in the meantime to protect yourself if you feel that you have visited a malicious site via Google Images? Security experts recommend not trying to click your way out of it. Instead, quit the browser application using Ctrl-Alt-Delete.

[Vicky.]

Ahhh I wonder if this is how gav got the fake MS removal tool on our other laptop. Took me literally about 4 hours to get rid of, had to manually edit the registry and that because it disabled the real antivirus, system restore, task manager and everything that would have been useful in killing it :bored:

[Jords]

-staying away from google images-

:laugh:

[Rob]

It will only fool the stupid people that will believe the page that pops up and tells them they have a virus. Most intellegent people will just close the window.

[Zippy]

I use google image search a lot but only started getting the pop ups a few days ago. Every other image would get me. Bitches.

Ive now been to an PC expert forum to have my laptop checked for viruses and am thankfully clean. You should do a malwarebytes full scan if you ever encounter these pop ups. Apparently its particularly good at detecting these specific viruses.

[Zippy]

It will only fool the stupid people that will believe the page that pops up and tells them they have a virus. Most intellegent people will just close the window.

anybody can click on the wrong thing and suddenly get a virus. And not everybody is familiar with these pop ups. If you see them for the first time its very easy to be fooled because you dont know what the real thing looks like.

the idea that only stupid people get infected is just smug nonsense.

[Marsh.]

I thought it was crazy that it said I had trojans on my macbook and then showed me an XP themed interface.

[Zippy]

What Im doing is still using google image search but instead of just clicking an image I..

right click>copy image location

then open a new tab and paste into url address box. This seems to avoid the trick link that triggers the malware attack and pop ups.

[Callum]

Never happened to me but I do have a pop up blocker in Chrome so that's probably why

[Zippy]

Never happened to me but I do have a pop up blocker in Chrome so that's probably why

I have pop up blocker but these are not normal pop ups. They have a very different script so you're probs just lucky so far. Others have had this issue for months but I only had it a few days ago. Its gotten much worse.