Free Download Manager Releases Tool to Check for Cyber Attacks on Linux Systems
After a cyber attack through the supply chain, developers at Free Download Manager (FDM) have introduced a new tool designed to help users check their Linux systems for the presence of viruses.
FDM, known worldwide as a cross-platform manager, offers a convenient user interface that supports torrent loading, using proxy, and downloading videos.
According to recent findings published by analysts at the Kaspersky laboratory, FDM experienced a hacking incident in 2020. During the attack, some Linux users who downloaded the program from the FDM website were redirected to a fake page. The installer downloaded from this page contained a bash script for information theft and a reverse shell which could be used by attackers to connect to the infected device.
Prior to the laboratory report explaining the cause of the anomalies, numerous users had reported failures in the system after installation, but the reasons remained unknown.
Following the wide publicity of the incident, the FDM team conducted their own investigation. They discovered that warnings from antivirus programs, including Kaspersky, were missed due to notification settings failures.
Interestingly, the vulnerability was unintentionally eliminated during a planned web resource renewal in 2022. The FDM developers stated, “Only a small group of users, specifically those who downloaded FDM for Linux between 2020 and 2022, were potentially at risk.”
To provide additional protection, FDM has developed a script for checking computers for potential infections.
| Instructions for Running the Script: |
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Step 1: Run ‘chmod +x linux_malware_check.sh‘ |