Subj : Bing AI chat messages are being hijacked by ads pushing malware
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Fri Sep 29 2023 17:00:04

Bing AI chat messages are being hijacked by ads pushing malware

Date:
Fri, 29 Sep 2023 15:43:59 +0000

Description:
Be careful when clicking sponsored links recommended by Bing.

FULL STORY
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Malvertising has made its way to Bings chatbot/search engine. Cybersecurity 
researchers from Malwarebytes recently observed a malicious ad being offered 
as part of the Chat-GPT , AI-powered answer to a search query. 

Malvertising is a simple practice - hackers try to trick ad networks into 
displaying ads that look legitimate but are, in fact, malicious. Its a game 
of impersonation, as the ads, the sites theyre leading to, and the content 
being provided there, appear as something theyre not (its usually software, 
streaming services, or cryptocurrency-related tools). 

So far, malvertising was seen on your usual search engines, Google, Bing, 
etc. despite the companies putting in gargantuan efforts to keep their search 
results clean, for obvious reasons. However, the emergence of Chat-GPT - 
especially since its integration into Bing - things have changed. New dog, 
old tricks 

Microsoft integrated Chat-GPT into Bing earlier this year, and a few months 
ago even started monetizing it, practically in the same way other search 
engines monetized their digital real estate. When a user types in a query, 
theyd get a result, paired with a few sponsored links (which were clearly 
stated as sponsored). Bing, in all its AI-powered glory, is no different. 

In this particular instance, when Malwarebytes researchers asked Bing for the 
Advanced IP Scanner tool, they were given a link that ultimately redirected 
them to advenced-ip-scanner[.]com (mind the e instead of the a), where the 
victims would download an installer. That installers goal was to retrieve the 
ultimate payload, but it seems to be defunct, as the researchers couldnt 
obtain the actual malware. 

Threat actors continue to leverage search ads to redirect users to malicious 
sites hosting malware, the researchers warned. While Bing Chat is a different 
search experience, it serves some of the same ads seen via a traditional Bing 
query. 

Via BleepingComputer More from TechRadar Pro Microsoft thinks it knows how 
Chinese hackers were able to breach US government accounts Here's a list of 
the best firewalls today These are the best malware removal tools right now



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Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/bing-ai-chat-messages-are-being-hijacke
d-by-ads-pushing-malware


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