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By Hugo Jean, Heptacube Inc.
 firefox_small
2010-02-08 11:28:06

Mozilla announced in a post on their add-ons blog that Sothink Web Video Downloader 4.0 and all versions of Master Filer, both available for download on their page of "experimental add-ons", were infected by malware. They have been removed from the Web site since.

Since these were still at "experimental" stage, they were in a seperate area of Mozilla's Web site where add-ons undergo a public review process. Individuals who download these add-ons must agree to an additional warning. All versions of Master Filer had to be removed, but only version 4.0 of the Web Video Downloader was found to contain malware, therefore other versions remain available. The newest is version 5.7.

After Mozilla found out about the malware in Master Filer, it added more review tools to its validation chain and re-scanned add-ons, and only then was the Trojan in Sothink Web Video Downloader 4.0 found. These additional detection tools will hopefully help in preventing the repetition of this situation.

Also worth noting is the fact that the malware detected only affects the Windows operating system. Users that have installed one of these add-ons on Linux or Mac are not at risk. However, users that did install it on Windows have surely had their computer infected as soon as they started their Firefox browser with the new add-on(s). Mozilla recommends to uninstall any instance of Master Filer and Sothink Web Video Downloader 4.0 and, since doing so does not destroy the malware, run an anti-virus check and ensure the program destroys it. Below is the list of Anti-virus programs that are known to detect and remove the threats at the time of writing:
  • Antiy-AVL
  • Avast
  • AVG
  • GData
  • Ikarus
  • K7AntiVirus
  • McAfee
  • Norman
  • VBA32

Reference 1: http://blog.mozilla.com/addons/2010/02/04/please-read-security-issue-on-amo/


Reference 2: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9152578/Mozilla_confirms_infected_Firefox_add_ons_slipped_through_security
Tags
add-on AMO Firefox Mozilla Trojan Windows 

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