Fake Bad Piggies Apps Infect Over 82,000 Chrome Browsers

Timothy Chang

painkillers and whiskey
Jun 5, 2012
704
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Fake Bad Piggies Apps Infect Over 82,000 Chrome Browsers



Eight plugins posing as Rovio apps were running ad-ware behind the scenes.

Rovio's Bad Piggies is doing rather well at the moment, and if you're keen to try the game, you better make sure you have an Apple or Android device. If you don't own one, try and resist the temptation to download the free so-called "Bad Piggies" apps that are appearing in the Chrome web store, because they're actually packed full of ad-ware.

Barracuda Networks, an internet security company, noticed that the Google Chrome web store was quickly getting populated with several Bad Piggies and Angry Birds apps soon after the original game's release. The eight apps at the time were all asking for the user's permission to "access data on all websites", which was a pretty tall order for a game based on constructing vehicles for misbehaving swine.

The plugins were published by playook.info, which is a company claiming to be a producer of "free flash games". Suspicions were heightened when Barracuda discovered that attempts to view the company's Whois records returned nothing, as playook.info hid its name behind Whoisguard.

After running the fake apps in an isolated test environment, Barracuda's security lab discovered that the plugins checked to see if the browser's current webpage originated from a set list of popular sites, and then injected its own advertisements on top of the website. (Even worse, the investigation also revealed that the games were not authentic.)

About a week ago, more than 82,000 Chrome users had the fake Bad Piggies and Angry Birds plugins installed; however, the original eight apps have since been removed from the store. Barracuda suggests that Chrome web store users consider any requested permissions with a critical eye in the future. "If the plugin requests any permission that does not seem reasonable, do not install it. If you have already installed, uninstall them immediately and change your passwords on other websites if possible."

Source: Barracuda Networks [https://www.barracudanetworks.com/blogs/labsblog?bid=3103]

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surg3n

New member
May 16, 2011
709
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What troubles me is how these fake apps became available on the chrome web store. Is there no moderation? - can any old malware producer just stick what they want on the chrome web store, and have people download it thinking it's legit?

Google, get a fucking grip - this is your fault, how is this even possible!. Maybe if they spent more time protecting their customers, and less time trying to be the online version of ACME.

People crtisize Apple all the time, but I never have to worry about downloading malware, or illegal software, or viruses, because they seem to be paying attention. Gee, I wonder why the Android store is such a cess pool.
 

Susan Arendt

Nerd Queen
Jan 9, 2007
7,222
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Aenir said:
Chrome has a web store???
Appropriate reaction. Look at the numbers - 82,000 is a lot of folks, but as a percentage of people who use Chrome, it's tiiiiiiiny.
 

Baldr

The Noble
Jan 6, 2010
1,739
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Usually I no sympathy for people try and get a game without paying for it and get infected with malware. But this case is different, I blame google for having a crappy web store that people could get tricked.
 

Neonit

New member
Dec 24, 2008
477
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those are some BAAAD pigs.

sry, couldnt help it.

well i guess thats the problem when there is no moderation. then again, i guess thats the problem when you dont read tiny letters.
 

SlamDunc

New member
Aug 17, 2012
109
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Hey! That looks like Linux!

OT: Well if they gave it permission to view everything and effect pages they really cant complain it viewed everything and effected pages. They even gave this app rights to view passwords and usernames.
 

Sonic Doctor

Time Lord / Whack-A-Newbie!
Jan 9, 2010
3,042
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Susan Arendt said:
Aenir said:
Chrome has a web store???
Appropriate reaction. Look at the numbers - 82,000 is a lot of folks, but as a percentage of people who use Chrome, it's tiiiiiiiny.
I don't know. I don't think a large percentage of people use Chrome anyway, never saw a good use for Chrome except when I got bored and decided to play some of the free games that were on the app storefront.

I've been using Firefox for around a decade now.

I really don't like Google that much away. I considered their search engine to be near perfect until they started tinkering with it and "streamlining" the look of it almost two years ago.

I really only ever used the advanced search function, and it use to be so easy to get to it. Then I watched over an 8 or so month period as they totally hosed up the system. You use to be able to click advanced search on the front page, then they changed to to a little gear drop down icon next to the search bar, next they hide the gear icon in the upper right corner of the page, after that they made it so the gear wouldn't show up until you started typing in the search bar, and finally they've made it so that you have to type into the search bar and then press the search button for the gear to appear. I just stopped bookmarking the advanced search every time because they changed so often that it wouldn't work most of the time.

On top of that, I'm quite suspicious of the fact that now all the nice advanced search functions(choosing by date and such) don't work in Firefox, but work perfectly fine in Chrome. Basically, I think they've become desperate that not as many people transferred to using Chrome as they thought would do so, so I'm guessing they are starting the whole tactic of, "If you don't use our service, our site and applications won't work as well."

Okay, that is enough of a rant and conspiracy theories.
 

Dangit2019

New member
Aug 8, 2011
2,449
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Susan Arendt said:
Aenir said:
Chrome has a web store???
Appropriate reaction. Look at the numbers - 82,000 is a lot of folks, but as a percentage of people who use Chrome, it's tiiiiiiiny.
I can see why it's not such a huge amount of people. Why would you individually download each game you want to try out when there's sites for just regular, less risky flash games?
 

G32420NL

New member
Jul 3, 2012
97
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I honestly don't get it :/ as soon as i open the store the official version jumps in my face, even i do a search i get the official one directly up front, the free and the paid version.
Some people really go out of their way to get into trouble i guess :p
But then again, those are the same people i visit every two weeks to remove toolbars and fake virusscanners.

On a sidenote, i am pleasantly suprised by the game, good toilet-time waster.
 

DeliciousTruffle

New member
Sep 6, 2009
36
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"Access user data on all websites"? Sounds legit.

In all seriousness, the lack of moderation on stores like these (and this goes for Apple, not just Google) really sticks in my craw, but I'm conflicted about it. On one hand, plagiarized apps are allowed to continue being listed, and shady apps are only removed when they present serious security threats. On the other hand, it would be easy for a slipshod plagiarism/security investigation to point the finger of blame at the wrong party.
 

Lizardon

Robot in Disguise
Mar 22, 2010
1,055
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Sonic Doctor said:
Susan Arendt said:
Aenir said:
Chrome has a web store???
Appropriate reaction. Look at the numbers - 82,000 is a lot of folks, but as a percentage of people who use Chrome, it's tiiiiiiiny.
I don't know. I don't think a large percentage of people use Chrome anyway, never saw a good use for Chrome except when I got bored and decided to play some of the free games that were on the app storefront.
Actually Chrome is currently the most used browser, over 40% of people online use Chrome.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117358-You-Are-Probably-Using-Google-Chrome-to-Read-This