Firefox add-ons carry Trojan horses
Mozilla, the organization that maintains and promotes the Firefox browser, has removed two browser add-ons from their add-on download site because they contain Trojan horse malware.
Add-ons are installable enhancements to the Firefox and other Mozilla products which allow the user to add or augment application features, use themes to his or her liking, handle new types of content, and perform other functions not available in the basic browser. There is a standard vetting process that add-ons have to pass before being allowed onto Mozilla’s Firefox add-on download site. Both of the add-ons have been removed from the site passed these safety tests when they were approved, although when Mozilla added a couple of more tests they were able to scan their add-on database and find both malware problems.
The two infected add-ons are Sothink Web Video Downloader 4.0 and all versions of Master Filer. Web Video Downloader contained the Trojan horse Win32.LdPinch.gen, while Master filer carried Win32.Bifrose.32.Bifrose in its installation package. The Master filer issue was discovered first, with the popular add-on being removed on January 25. The Sothink add-on was discovered later and removed on Feb. 2. According to a story on CNET, the Sothink Web Video Download 5.5.90819 had been a fairly popular Firefox add-on at Download.com, receiving 697 downloads in the past week and 63,716 downloads since it was first added to the site in June 2007.
This may be the first time that Trojan horse malware problems have been discovered on one of Mozilla’s download sites. It calls into question the ability of the organization to monitor the health of its offerings on behalf of it users. That, of course, is not a unique problem for Mozilla, in that many download sites have reputations for being malware repositories. It is easy, though, to want to hold Mozilla to a higher standard, given their high public profile and the organization’s self-generated aura of technical superiority.
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