Maleficent Hugo Boss Ad Spreads Ransomware

On several popular websites, including the Huffington Post and Zillow, researchers have discovered a malicious advertisement of the clothing brand Hugo Boss which was used to spread ransommare. The ad won an auction of available ad space and was shown by a third party on the websites. Nowadays, there are different parties running that ad space auction among the highest bidder.

In this case, the attackers were paying two dollars and 31 cents for a thousand impressions. The advertisement contained an exploit for a known vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player. Had visitors of the websites do not install the available update, then they could be infected with the CryptoWall-ransomware. Many attacks use a landing page via infected advertising which is being referred.

The Hugo Boss ad itself already contained the exploit for the Flash leak, which is remarkable, as reported anti-virus company Malwarebytes. According to the virus fighter was a risky decision by the cybercriminals to hide the Flash operates directly in the ad, but it still worked in this case. A successful attack sorts files were encrypted on the computer and had to pay victims ransom of several hundred euros. The ad would now no longer be displayed.