New Stegano Exploit Kit Hides Malvertising Code in Image Pixels (ads/banners)

[Elixer]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...-kit-hides-malvertising-code-in-image-pixels/

Since a large number of advertising networks allow advertisers to deliver JavaScript code with their ads, the crooks also included JS code that would parse the image, extract the pixel transparency values, and using a mathematical formula, convert those values into a character.

Since images have millions of pixels, crooks had all the space they needed to pack malicious code inside a PNG photo.

I am betting that Ad companies don't really care, as long as it "looks" OK to them, they allow it on their networks, and thus spread everywhere.

 

[John Connor]

This isn't the first time I heard that malicious code could be inserted into PNG. I might have read about it at GRC.

 

[Elixer]

Yeah, it isn't nothing new, but, it is getting more widespread.

This is how people get infected without even going to "those" kind of sites.