I had a very few Chrome tabs open (see appendix) and other safe websites. Sudden
ID: 656985 • Letter: I
Question
I had a very few Chrome tabs open (see appendix) and other safe websites. Suddenly, without any prompt or action from me, chrome starts downloading the file "NEW!_iPhone7_LEAKED_PHOTO.JPG.exe" which looks very much like a malware. The file gets saved into my download folder without any action on my side.
I have Windows 8.1 with Windows Defender running. I ran a custom scan on the file using my Windows Defender and it's clean, and also ran it by virustotal]1 which confirms it's clean. (Still it could be a zeroday exploit).
My question is how do I analyze how and why chrome decided to download this file?
Explanation / Answer
Unless you had the foresight to enable performance measurements on your system, its not possible. as for the tabs open. its possible to have chrome download a file directly from command-line (so any program on your system could have done this, not just your open tabs). also a webpage might have had an "injection" either in-between you and its server. or on the server, or on your machine. you should check your extensions, and inspect what software is actually running on your machine (is there any mal-/crap-/spy- ware present. very your result with more than 1 scanner. and USE COMMON SENSE.
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