Hackers have reportedly entered CCleaner and installed malware in it.
Cisco Talos — the company that runs the software — security researchers discovered
that hackers have breached the app’s security systems and installed malware in it. CCleaner is designed to clean your hard drive and make your computer run faster.
“For a period of time, the legitimate signed version of CCleaner 5.33 being distributed by Avast also contained a multi-stage malware payload that rode on top of the installation of CCleaner,” says the Talos team.
The company’s security researchers said they noticed that the malware tried to connect computers to unregistered websites in order to remotely download more harmful programs directly into users’ computers.
“By exploiting the trust relationship between software vendors and the users of their software, attackers can benefit from users’ inherent trust in the files and web servers used to distribute updates,” researchers at Talos said.
CCleaner has been downloaded by more than 2.27 million people, who are believed to have been affected by the attack. Avast Piriform believes that the security threat was contained and tackled before the breach was able to harm any customers.
“Piriform believes that these users are safe now as its investigation indicates it was able to disarm the threat before it was able to do any harm,” says an Avast spokesperson. The app appears to have been designed to affect PCs.
