With a number of high-profile cases of fraud, theft, and technical
incompetence against the bitcoins, it seems like cyber criminals are
looking to scam unsuspecting customers.
Blockchain is Bitcoin's most popular bitcoin wallet and block explorer.
It is a central part of the Bitcoin system that includes a log file in
which all bitcoin transactions are recorded. It stores the wallet data
in encrypted form and runs on privately owned dedicated hardware.
In an discussion on the Microsoft discussion boards, a user go by the name 'edc678' claimed that Microsoft's Security Essentials is showing alerts of the signature of the STONED virus in
the Bitcoin BlockChain, which could only allow an attacker to write
small chunk of text to accompany user transactions with bitcoin.
The virus does nothing but popped- up a boot message telling users "YOUR COMPUTER HAS BEEN STONED"
and the users of Microsoft Security Essentials who are using blockchain
are getting a large number of false-positive warnings from their
software. MSE inevitably recognizes the signature for a virus
continuously reporting it to the user as a threat.
25 years ago, "DOS / STONED" was a rather harmless fellow, but
not as complex as today's viruses are. It is a boot sector computer
virus believed to developed in New Zealand in 1987. The infected
computer will show a boot message "Your PC is now Stoned!" It was one of
the very first viruses largely spread.
Every time the blockchain is deleted by the virus scanner, the Bitcoin client begins re-download the missing blockchain again.
The user who began the discussion remarks only on the inconvenience of
getting Microsoft Security Essentials continuous virus warnings, “as
its constant alerts of finding threats in the blockchain is (sic) not
only worrisome, but can create panic and negative perception of bitcoin
as a whole, damaging its reputation and annoying users.”
Since its only the virus signature which is identified by Microsoft's
Security Essentials (MSE) and not the virus itself, so there is
reportedly no threat to the users of blockchain from this particular
malware sample.
But the incident highlights the potential threat related to Bitcoin,
i.e. For every Bitcoin transaction, users can send a small bunch of data
to Blockchain which can never be removed, and this feature has been
exploited apparently to accommodate a virus in the blockchain.
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