Number: IRCNE2015112696
Date: 2015/11/24
According to “computerworld”, a well-known adware program is preventing users from installing antivirus products by leveraging a Windows feature that was designed for security.
The program, known as Vonteera, abuses the digital signature check performed by the Windows User Access Control (UAC) for executable files.
UAC prompts users for confirmation whenever a program wants to make a system change that requires administrator-level privileges. It therefore prevents malware from silently gaining full system access if executed from a limited user account.
Depending on whether an executed file is digitally signed by a trusted publisher, the UAC displays confirmation prompts indicating different levels of risk.
It seems that the creators of Vonteera, whose purpose is to hijack browsers and display ads, have figured out that they can abuse this UAC behavior to prevent users from installing security products.
The program copies 13 digital certificates that were used to sign antivirus programs and security tools to the "Untrusted Certificates" store in Windows, researchers from security firm Malwarebytes said in a blog post.
The blacklisted certificates are from Avast Software, AVG Technologies, Avira, Baidu, Bitdefender, ESET, ESS Distribution, Lavasoft, Malwarebytes, McAfee, Panda Security, Trend Micro and ThreatTrack Security.
Vonteera creates a service that periodically checks if these certificates are present in the "Untrusted Certificates" store and adds them back if they're not.
Fortunately, this blacklisting of vendor certificates is only partially effective, said Bogdan Botezatu, a senior e-threat analyst at antivirus vendor Bitdefender. The technique only prevents new product installations or the execution of stand-alone removal tools that need administrator privileges. System drivers and services created by antivirus products that are already running would not be affected, he said.
Affected users have several options to bypass Vonteera's changes to the Windows certificate blacklist so they can install an antivirus product. They could disable UAC entirely, but this is not recommended because it reduces the system's security.
They could also manually remove the certificates from the "Untrusted Certificates" store by using the Windows Certificate Manager tool, but then they have to act fast before Vonteera puts them back.
Because of this intrusive behavior, Malwarebytes has changed Vonteera's classification from a potentially unwanted application to a clearly malicious application, detecting it as a Trojan. Other antivirus products including Bitdefender and ESET also have detection routines for it.
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