Meltdown and Spectre security flaws have affected many devices worldwide. To tackle this situation, many OEMs have issued an update to patch the found security flaws.
However, it seems like a new domain is spreading fake updates in the name of patches for Spectre and Meltdown flaws. Malwarebytes, a security company reports that the malicious site provides various links to other domains related to the Spectre and Meltdown flaws and how to prevent them.
If you follow some of the links, it leads to a ZIP archive containing a setup file that has the name ‘Intel-AMD-SecurityPatch-10-1-v1.exe’ and pretends to be a patch for the flaws. It contains a malware called Smoke Loader that can access payloads and affected users can lose their valuable information to the various unknown sites.
“We identified a recently registered domain that is offering an information page with various links to external resources about Meltdown and Spectre and how it affects processors. While it appears to come from the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), this SSL-enabled phishing site is not affiliated with any legitimate or official government entity”, the company said.
Some Antivirus software companies are also trying to update their software as soon as possible to prevent this fake updates. The company also suggests users to avoid any suspicious links through emails or from any other source and you should also never download updates from any third-party networks.
