Meta Says ChatGPT-Themed Malware Is Beginning to Spread

Meta Says ChatGPT-Themed Malware Is Beginning to Spread

It's a classic trick deployed by bad actors—latch onto the most recent buzzword to fool people into clicking on something.    By Josh Norem May 5, 2023  in Extremetech

One of the hallmarks of being a savvy PC operator is keeping your guard up for known threats. We're always careful about what we click on, what we download, and what sites we visit. Now we will need to add a new threat to our mental library, which appears related to the Internet's newest hot ticket item—ChatGPT. Meta has published a new threat advisory detailing actions it has taken lately on malware, and it rings the alarm bell on malware masquerading as OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot.

The social media company's latest threat analysis warns about malware promising to provide some type of "AI functionality." It says so far, in 2023, it discovered 10 malware families disguised as a generative AI program that attempts to access people's accounts. The goal is to take over a computer so that it can run unauthorized ads from compromised machines. These ads are how they make money by making people buy fake software/malware.

These programs have been caught targeting file-sharing platforms, including Dropbox, Google Drive, Mega, MediaFire, Discord, Atlassian’s Trello, Microsoft OneDrive, and iCloud. In addition, phony browser extensions have also been spotted, even on official app stores. Though Meta doesn't name which stores, it's not hard to guess. These browser extensions are also promoted on both social media and paid search results, which is something we've seen before. ... '