The Ghost in The Browser Analysis of Web-based Malware
Web-based malware is dangerous software that is created to conduct harmful acts against a website or its users. The purpose of risky website code can vary from:
- Disrupting availability
- Stealing sensitive data
- Diverting visitors to risky pages
- Infecting visitors with malware
- Fully hijacking a site
There are various types of web-based malware, each structured to carry out malicious activities. Removing web-based malware immediately helps protect your site and reduces danger on users. Further, eliminating malware help you avoid blacklisting from different authorities and security warnings and cuts down SEO challenges.
Understanding Web-based Malware
Website malware is a common term that defines software created for a malicious purpose to attack a web server or website. Cybercriminals rely on vulnerabilities on your website to infect it with malicious software. Unlike effective software applications that are beneficial to internet users, web-based malware is dangerous and developed to destroy or illegally monetize a site’s vulnerable environment.
A majority of web-based malware comes with features that allow cybercriminals to avoid discovery or acquire and maintain illegal access to a vulnerable environment. Some common forms of web-based malware steal credit card data, apply malicious redirects, install spam content, or deface websites.
What Web-based Malware Does
Web-based malware can affect a website and its visitors in various ways, like destroying a site’s reputation, financial gain, or hacktivism purposes. An example of a website malware activity would be trying to access your website only to be redirected to a different website. Another practical example would be investing in your organic SEO game plan for months only to be blacklisted by search engines. Other examples include:
- Attempting to access your favorite website only to get a pop-up message that your machine is infected. When you encounter such a message, you will need to contact a technical support team to remove the malware.
- Shopping online only to discover that an attacker scanned your personal and credit card data
How Malware Gains Access to Your Website
When an attack occurs, finding how it happened can be a difficult task. Malicious software is usually placed inside the website’s environment through any of these ways.
Access Control and Credential Security Problems
If a site’s access controls are poorly configured cybercriminals can use various attack angles. Some of the popular methods include the use of powerful tools to invade default administration login pages. Often, these actions lead to the manipulation of cookies or metadata.
Incorrect access controls can give attackers unapproved access to your host control panel, server, or administration panel of your CMS. Protect these sections with multiple-factor authentication, robust login credentials, and limit access to avoid powerful attacks. Ensure you have not given people working on your website irrelevant access. Remember, every access point can be a target for cybercriminals.
Software Exposure
If you do not install updates on your sites, they become vulnerable to malware. Cybercriminals often target exposures in obsolete third-party elements to enter the environment and misuse its resources. It is worth mentioning that attacks targeting popular vulnerabilities are usually automated.
In this case, cybercriminals can run scripts that scan the web fast to establish the target websites with exposed software. Should zero-day exposure be disclosed, the attacks can increase fast, causing numerous infections within a few days following a vulnerability discovery.
One of the easiest methods of preventing dangers from popular software exposures is to use robust antivirus and here you can read more about antivirus programs. You should also ensure that your content management system and all its components are running updated security patches. You can also, patch components in your site virtually using a website application firewall.
Nulled or Altered Third-party Components
Many nulled premium components can be illegally downloaded and installed free of charge. However, these types of illegal components are usually interfered with to incorporate backdoor performance. They can also be used to trigger undesirable performance or code that installs SEO spam inside the sites where they are installed. For example, some malware operators manage numerous download websites where each downloaded or plugin is infected.
Server-level Corruption
Occasionally, cybercriminals can succeed in infecting the webserver with malicious software. When such occurs, websites hosted on the server can start displaying malicious behavior even when files on the real websites have been infected.
One popular server-level infection would be Darkleech malware. Cybercriminals install this malware as malicious web-server elements that need root server access to be secured.
Conclusion
Web-based malware is a fundamental target area in the growing threat environment. Always create strong passwords for your website to prevent unauthorized access to your private information.
