No one is safe from a malware, not even anime streaming site Crunchyroll.
A few days ago, fans of the site who attempted to stream their favorite anime were treated to a surprise after being greeted by an attempt from the site to have the viewers download a malware. Everyone was told to stay away from the site for the meantime until the problem was resolved.
In a matter of hours, the Crunchyroll website went back up and running along with this app, and viewers were finally able to catch up with their favorite animated shows.
The issue became widely known when Crunchyroll sent out a tweet a couple of hours after the problem had been identified.
Anime viewers who went on to the site prior to Crunchyroll going offline temporarily were asked to download and install an updated video viewer. A user told their story on Twitter and added that following the prompt would install a fake svchost.exe file. Anyone who was attached by the download was suggested to run their Windows Defender or virus detection program to try and extricate any malicious files that made it through their devices.
Crunchyroll's Customer Support Lead was transparent enough to admit that it was indeed a malware attack and that they tried to resolve the matter the soonest time possible.
Aside from having some issues on the website, Crunchyroll's app encountered the same problem and the team decided to temporarily take the app offline while they tried to resolve it. A lot of viewers had to forego their Saturday morning anime viewing habit.
A post on Medium detailed what Crunchyroll was dealing with and how they found the source and gave out tips for their affected viewers to ensure the safety of their devices. According to the post, the attackers tried to redirect visitors to a non-Crunchyroll-hosted server to have them download a malicious file.
As of press time, both the Crunchyroll site and app are up and running and no further issues have been encountered.
