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Home > Cybersecurity > Cookie theft malware targets popular YouTube channels

Cookie theft malware targets popular YouTube channels

Google's Threat Analysis Group shared details of a phishing campaign that targets YouTubers with Cookie Theft malware.


Erdem Yasar Erdem Yasar
October 21, 2021
2 min read
Cookie theft malware targets popular YouTube channels

Google confirmed a phishing scam that uses cookie theft malware to hijack YouTube channels. Ashley Shen from Google’s Threat Analysis Group shared a blog post about the phishing campaign collaborating with YouTube, Gmail, Trust & Safety, CyberCrime Investigation Group, and Safe Browsing teams. Google stated that the campaign is related to a group of hackers recruited in a Russian forum.

Pass-the-cookie attack

The attack starts with an email that offers collaboration with the YouTube channel owner. The customized emails include information about the company and products and lead to malware disguised as a software download URL. Google managed to identify more than 1,000 domains created for this purpose only, some of them impersonating legitimate software sites, like Luminar, Cisco VPN, games on Steam. After Google started detecting and disrupting the links via Gmail, the hackers switched to popular messaging apps, such as WhatsApp, Telegram, or Discord.

After the targets run the fake software, a cookie stealing malware executes and takes browser cookies. These cookies are uploaded to the actor’s command and control servers. Most of this malware is able to steal user passwords and cookies. The hijacked channels are either sold to the highest bidder or used to broadcast cryptocurrency scams. The price for the channels ranged from $3 to $4,000, depending on subscribers.

How to avoid such attacks

Most of the hijacked channels’ names, profile pictures, and contents were replaced with cryptocurrency branding to impersonate related organizations. Hackers then promise cryptocurrency giveaways with live-streamed videos. Google team also shared their recommendation to avoid such attacks:

  • Take Safe Browsing warnings seriously. To avoid malware triggering antivirus detections, threat actors social engineer users into turning off or ignoring warnings.
  • Before running software, perform virus scanning using an antivirus or online virus scanning tool like VirusTotal to verify file legitimacy.
  • Enable the “Enhanced Safe Browsing Protection” mode in your Chrome browser, a feature that increases warnings on potentially suspicious web pages & files.
  • Be aware of encrypted archives which are often bypassing antivirus detection scans, increasing the risk of running malicious files.
  • Protect your account with 2-Step-verification (multi-factor authentication), which provides an extra layer of security to your account in case your password is stolen. Starting November 1, monetizing YouTube creators must turn on 2-Step Verification on the Google Account used for their YouTube channel to access YouTube Studio or YouTube Studio Content Manager.

See more Cybersecurity News


Tags: GoogleYouTube
Erdem Yasar

Erdem Yasar

Erdem Yasar is a news editor at Cloud7 News. Erdem started his career by writing video game reviews in 2007 for PC World magazine while he was studying computer engineering. In the following years, he focused on software development with various programming languages. After his graduation, he continued to work as an editor for several major tech-related websites and magazines. During the 2010s, Erdem Yasar shifted his focus to cloud computing, hosting, and data centers as they were becoming more popular topics in the tech industry. Erdem Yasar also worked with various industry-leading tech companies as a content creator by writing blog posts and other articles. Prior to his role at Cloud7 News, Erdem was the managing editor of T3 Magazine.

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