Software that accompanies an Energizer battery charger contains hidden malware that allows hackers to take over user’s computers, according to a report by the Department of Homeland Security’s US-CERT on Friday.
A study by the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) states that the software that comes with Energizer’s DUO USB battery charger hides a trojan horse computer virus that will make a user’s Windows PC totally vulnerable to external hackers and/or attackers. Energizer Holdings, the company behind the item, has apparently discontinued the item after confirming that the software does contain malicious code.
The Energizer DUO USB charger has been sold in the US, Latin America, Europe and Asia even as far back as 2007.
When the software that accompanies the charger is installed in a Windows PC, it also installs a file called “Arucer.dll“, which listens and waits for further commands using the user’s internet connection (specifically, through port 7777). Hackers can then send instructions to infected machines, which would allow them to download and execute files, steal sensitive information, and modify the computer’s registry, the main heart of Windows computer configuration data.
Even worse, the virus automatically starts up whenever the computer starts up, whether or not the charger is attached.
If you suspect that you are infected, US-CERT and Symantec urge users to uninstall the software, or manually delete Arucer.dll from their computers, then reboot their system.
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