Fake windows patches via google

I ran across this last week while helping a bank determine what Windows patch broke one of their internal applications. This meant I was manually installing different patches one by one (Including SP2 for XP) - and looking for them on Google. In one of my searches I came across this search result:

Bad Service Pack Downloads.jpg

Now looking at the highlighted result...can you see anything wrong with it? No, I can't either.

Now look at the page you get to when clicking on the link:

Bad Service Pack Fake Microsoft Page

Now obviously I do not need SP2 for IE 5.5. Still...this is is bad. Why? Looks like a MS page right?

Look at the URL at the top of the browser:

Bad Service Pack Downloads URL.jpg

Ugg. After some more poking around it looks like thesource.ofallevil.com has an exact mirror of the MS website. I have not tested any of the executables for viruses, or spyware - but for some reason I don't think they have good intentions in mind for you or your network.

I have stopped searching for MS patches on Google, and started looking for them directly on the MS website. I suggest you do the same.

Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Tuesday, October 02, 2007

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