Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by chromas on Thursday November 07 2019, @06:10AM   Printer-friendly
from the update-your-browser-now^W-in-a-release-or-two-when-they-finally-release-a-fix dept.

Actively exploited bug in fully updated Firefox is sending users into a tizzy

Scammers are actively exploiting a bug in Firefox that causes the browser to lock up after displaying a message warning the computer is running a pirated version of Windows that has been hacked.

The message, which appears without any user interaction upon visiting a site, reads:

Please stop and do not close the PC... The registry key of your computer is locked. Why did we block your computer? The Windows registry key is illegal. The Windows desktop is using pirated software. The Window desktop sends viruses over the Internet. This Windows desktop is hacked. We block this computer for your safety.

The message then advises the person to call a toll-free number in the next five minutes or face having the computer disabled.

[...] The attack works on both Windows and Mac versions of the open source browser. The only way to close the window is to force-close the entire browser using either the Windows task manager or the Force Close function in macOS. Even then, Firefox will reopen previously open tabs, resulting in an endless loop. (Update: as a commenter pointed out, restore tabs is turned off by default.) To resolve the problem, users must force-close Firefox and then, immediately upon restarting it, quickly close the tab of the scammer site before it has time to load.

Jérôme Segura, head of threat intelligence at security provider Malwarebytes, said the Firefox bug is being exploited by several sites, including d2o1sv4d11x6bc[.]cloudfront[.]net/firefox/index.html. He said the offending code on the site was written specifically to target the browser flaw.

On Monday, Segura reported the bug to the Bugzilla forum. He said he has since received word Mozilla is actively working on a fix. In a statement sent seven hours after this post went live, a Mozilla representative wrote: ""We are working on a fix to the authentication prompt bug (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1593795) that we expect to land in the next couple of releases (either in Firefox 71 or 72)."


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 07 2019, @03:01PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 07 2019, @03:01PM (#917330)

    Everything you do to understand computers better increases that chance [of having a bad time] a tiny, tiny bit.

    Wish this blackpill wasn't true. Imagine being a luser, happily going through life unconcerned by systemd, windows, and the like. Sure, your computer doesn't work half the time, but when it does work, you can just enjoy it.