USB battery charger installs Trojan

The software that shows to which extent the battery is charged through the Energizer DUO USB recharger comes bundled up with a Trojan, says US CERT.

The installer file for the software drops one file too many – the file Arucer.dll is placed into the Windows system32 directory, and allows unauthorized remote access to the system via the TCP port 7777. Through it, it can download further (malicious) files, send stolen files from the infected computer and execute programs.

The Trojan springs to like every time Windows starts and is active even when the charger is removed. By deinstalling the USB charger software, the malicious file is disabled. It is still in the computer, but the mechanism that executes it is no longer present.

The Arucer.dll file must be removed manually from the Windows system32 directory, possibly after restarting the computer after the deinstallation of the software. Blocking the aforementioned port is only a partial, temporary solution, and the removal of the software and of the malicious file is recommended.

Energizer (the company) has pulled the device from the market and is currently investigating on how the software was compromised.