New reports from an anti-malware firm reveal that low-security WordPress blogs are being abused and injected with an iframe exploit that points to a pirate bay clone, thepiratebay[dot]in[dot]ua. The Pirate Bay clone, which utilizes the popular Open Bay script, a project that allows anyone to create their own pirate bay-type site, was found offloading an exploit kit on unsuspecting visitors.

Shortly after The Pirate Bay was raided last December, hundreds of clones came online, all utilizing the Open Bay script the company had released long before any server seizures occurred.

A number of the clones that came online made use of the open source Open Bay project, allowing just about anyone to make their own clone in a few clicks.

Over four months later we are seeing one of the clones has gone rogue. Malwarebyes anti-malware firm reported several WordPress blogs have been compromised and are being injected with an iframe that loads the rogue pirate bay clone.

It’s odd that the malware distributors would want to insert an iframe into these low-security Wordrpess blogs. Are the owners trying to promote click fraud or possibly make use of rogue affiliate behavior?

The real reason behind the attack can be uncovered pretty quickly. The clone is pushing the Nuclear exploit kit with an iframe that will infect vulnerable visitors with a drive-by attack, Malwarebytes senior security researcher Jérôme Segura said in the blog post.

The exploit abuses a known once zero-day Flash exploit (CVE-2015-0311), the same exploit hackers abused to compromise celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s website, which also directed visitors to an exploit kit. The payload is being pushed by the rogue Pirate Bay clone and is distributing via a banking Trojan.

When the banking Trojan is executed, is injects itself into iexplore.exe and the following registry keys are created:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Yrubwkjp

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Yrubwkjp

It phones home to a command-and-control server located at the domain usabrent[dot]ru, which was registered just last Thursday, the 26th.

Reports from TorrentFreak claim a number of Open Bay projects are currently experiencing issues as well, even the main oldpiratebay.org is currently offline, among various other clones. While reaching out for comment to the Open Bay, no response was heard.

There have yet to be reports that other Pirate Bay clones are pushing exploit kits, currently the rogue clone appears to be the only one, meaning it likely isn’t a vulnerability in the Open Bay script.

At the time of writing, its still unclear how the iframe is successfully being injected into the amass of websites. It is likely outdated plugins or old WordPress code, a common weak point in in the WordPress system.

To assure your WordPress blog isn’t hacked, assure you are running the latest and up to date version of the WordPress platform and that all your plugins are up-to-date. It is highly recommended that users avoid the compromised Pirate Bay clone for the time being.

“To avoid getting their sites hacked, WordPress users need to check that they are running the latest WP install and that all their plugins are up to date,” Segura writes.

Other tips are using a strong password and avoiding insecure wifi.