flash.2144 malware / adware generating Chinese 新鮮事 FFnews pop ups

  • Thread starter Thread starter StevieGo
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StevieGo

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On a trip to mainland China in 2018 Q1, I started getting FF新鮮事 (FFnews)pop ups in a browser window. The pop ups had a red FF新鮮事 logo and a bunch of other stuff in Chinese. The same malware according to this link below appears to have been passed around earlier in 2018 in a release of Adobe Flash:




I don’t believe flash was the source of the malware for me as Adobe Flash wasn’t installed at the time the pop ups started.

The FF新鮮事 / FFnews pop up happens a while after starting my PC (ie the pop doesn't appear immediately after booting up).


After some digging round I believe I have tracked down some relevant diagnostics info:


1) I found this xml file


ee62d7f1-20fe-47c4-a973-94c2e942d17a?upload=true.png

Here is a copy of the xml text so it shows up should anyone be web searching for other occurrences of this issue:


<?xml version="1.0"?>

<
root><item htime="30716431" ltime="2252089424" value="1579669284677|1548066838,1548077362,1548082609,1548133274" name="Hm_lvt_ac8848dc06687b4e8936029238c24f9d"/></root>



2) I did a search of the Windows registry and found these two 2144.com entries under


\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\DOMstorage\


This is despite not being aware Internet Explorer had software on my PC.


a3546116-0458-476b-85f5-21a99fb1670c?upload=true.png


3) In clicking some buttons today, a shortcut has appeared on my desktop. These info in these screenshots may be useful:

9ad540a5-8590-4f3f-85c4-bad5870f1abc?upload=true.png

--


e0cecf2e-36b0-4ee8-80e7-0eb9628f8eff?upload=true.png


The second of those screenshots has the file location contained in the shortcut opened in the background

4) A search of my C drive for “FFnews” found numerous files named FFnews.html These are in different folders and not just at the location in the screenshot below


33349bee-22a0-4fe3-8cea-d53c1cbabf10?upload=true.png




I hope I have included all the required diagnostics info to allow:




a) Someone sort of Microsoft representative to have this picked up for targeting by Windows Defender (I ran a full Windows Defender and it didn't pick up the malware in questions). Can a Microsoft person have this info passed to the people who generate Windows Defender update files please?



b) Anyone else affected by this has a chance of getting rid of this quickly should they need to self troubleshoot.

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