Troj/SwfExp-BN

Posted: March 20, 2013

Threat Metric

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The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

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% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Threat Level:	9/10
Infected PCs:	59

First Seen:	March 20, 2013
Last Seen:	April 29, 2020
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Troj/SwfExp-BN is a Flash-based component of the Blackhole Exploit Kit, a website-based PC threat that searches for vulnerabilities that can be used for drive-by-download installations of other malware. E-mail spam appears to be the main distribution mechanism for attacks related to Troj/SwfExp-BN, with some popular e-mail attacks including references to European events like the Cyprus banking bailout and the election of Pope Francis. If you have the misfortune to follow web links from e-mail messages that resemble this description, you should take care to use anti-malware software to detect and remove malware that Troj/SwfExp-BN may have installed without your permission. Once you've loaded the link in question, symptoms of Troj/SwfExp-BN's attacks are minimal, just as is the case with most drive-by-downloads that use exploit kits like BEK.

Adobe's Flash: Formerly Delivering Animations, Currently Delivering Trojans

Troj/SwfExp-BN is one of various Trojan components that are related to Blackhole Exploit Kit attacks, which detect your PC's vulnerabilities and then exploit them ruthlessly so that your PC can be infected automatically. Other PC threats associated with Troj/SwfExp-BN's series of BEK attacks include Troj/PDFJS-ADE and TROJ_PIDIEF.SMXY, both of which are PDF-based Trojans, with the former including malicious JavaScript content.

SpywareRemove.com malware researchers linked the origin of Troj/SwfExp-BN's attacks to spam e-mails sent out to random targets, with the e-mails portraying themselves as news updates from CNN (a prominent USA-based news network). However, following the links that are included in these e-mail messages will not take you to CNN's website; instead, they send you to sites that host Blackhole Exploit Kits. BEK then proceeds to try to detect any appropriate vulnerabilities on your computer that can be used to install malicious software without your consent.

Troj/SwfExp-BN is the Flash-based arm of this BEK attack, and only attacks PCs that have Flash installed. Attacks related to Troj/SwfExp-BN and similar PC threats often utilize vulnerabilities that can be corrected by installing the relevant security patches. However, some Troj/SwfExp-BN attacks also may use zero-day vulnerabilities that can only be blocked by appropriate anti-malware products, strict web-browsing settings or strong website blacklists.

No Need to Get Flashy About Tending to a Troj/SwfExp-BN Problem

Along with the defenses mentioned above, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers also, naturally, encourage you to delete e-mail messages that look like the ones described in this article. However, Troj/SwfExp-BN is capable of infecting your computer without any symptoms directly related to its attack. If you've followed a link from one of the e-mails noted in this article, your PC is likely to be infected. Payloads from different variants of BEK and Troj/SwfExp-BN can be variable, but typical examples include Police Trojans (such as Ured Za Posebne Poslove Sigurnosti Ransomware, which displays a fake legal pop-up in Croatian) and spyware programs that focus on stealing personal information.

Appropriately advanced anti-malware applications should be able to detect and block the web-based components of a Troj/SwfExp-BN attack. If you think that there's any chance that your PC may have been compromised in such an attack, you should use similar anti-malware programs to scan and disinfect your computer by removing Troj/SwfExp-BN's payload as soon as possible.

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following messages's were detected:

#	Message
1	BBC-Email: Bank of America happy of Cyprus Central Bank Warns of Capital Flight
2	BBC-Email: Cyprus 'Bank Raid' by Euro Banks
3	BBC-Email: Cyprus Bank-Levy Passage in Doubt as EU Shows Aggression
4	BBC-Email: Cyprus already confirmed one time tax withdrawal TODAY!
5	BBC-Email: Cyprus banks shut extended to Monday
6	BBC-Email: Cyprus can amend bailout terms
7	BBC-Email: Cyprus decided to rise bank tax up to 15% for Corporate sector
8	BBC-Email: Cyprus effect on stocks likely long-term
9	BBC-Email: Cyprus government today accepted one time bank tax withdrawal but higher than expected
10	BBC-Email: Cyprus races to rework savings tax after closing banks till Thursday
11	BBC-Email: Cyprus rises tax value and confirmed one time withdrawal!
12	BBC-Email: EU wants rise of Cyprus bank levy
13	BBC-Email: Several countries' deposits may be excluded from Cyprus Bank Tax, Why? We got a draft.
14	BBC-Email: The Cyprus eurozone bailout conditions are bank robbery, 15%!!!
15	BBC-Email: US banks hurt by Cyprus news
16	BBC-Email: USA government decided to follow Cyprus and rise deposit taxes!!!