Which method places malware-laden advertisements into legitimate online advertising channels?

• A. Malvertising
• B. Thumbs.db
• C. CCleaner
• D. Hiberfil.sys

Answer: (A)

Malvertising is the act of slipping malware into legitimate online advertising by compromising ad networks and injecting malicious ads that appear on trusted sites. Attackers exploit trusted ad channels to reach broad audiences, delivering exploit kits or drive-by downloads when a user loads an ad, sometimes without any click. This makes the ad itself a delivery vector for malware, leveraging the trust users place in legitimate websites and ad ecosystems. The other options refer to unrelated files or software: a Windows thumbnail cache file, a legitimate cleaning tool, and a system hibernation file. Malvertising specifically uses advertising networks as the vehicle to distribute malicious content.