Spotify seen serving malware to its users through advertisements

It was recently discovered by a Spotify user that the service would randomly open links, which are infested with malware. The issue was seen occurring on a PC, Mac, and Ubuntu computer.

Music-streaming service Spotify is currently under hot water as of the moment after it was discovered that its system was serving advertisements that are loaded with malware to users.

The issue was initially discovered by 'tonymoly' of the Spotify forums. According to the post, if a user is running the free version of Spotify on the desktop, the service will persistently open the default browser of the system and open links that lead to malware and viruses.

I have 3 different systems (computers) which are all clean and they are all doing this, all via Spotify - I am thinking it's the Ads in Spotify Free. I hope this has been noticed and Spotify staff are fixing it - fast. But it's still puzzling something like this can actually happen.

Tonymoly isn't the only one experiencing the issue; others have also taken to the internet to express their frustration over the alarming issue.

PSA: uninstall Spotify free, their ads are plagued with malware right now. pic.twitter.com/DUOqDrnDUZ
— Volp (@VolpRS) October 5, 2016

Had a malware on my ubuntu desktop that kept opening random ads on my browser every minute. Luckily @Spotify client was easy to uninstall.
— Samu Nuutamo (@SamuNuutamo) October 5, 2016

@SpotifyCares Yesterday the Spotify Free software started launching malware on my Mac's Safari on its own. Many have the same experience atm
— Taru Kalvi (@tarukalvi) October 5, 2016

The complaints by users have been pointing out that the issue isn't only happening on Windows-powered computers, but also on Macs, as well as Ubuntu.

The issue is now currently under investigation by Spotify, but the company still has not offered any official statement. It is suggested by some users to uninstall Spotify Free for the moment, until the issue has been resolved.

Apparently, this is not the first time that Spotify suffered an issue about serving malicious software to its users. Five years ago, an advertisement on the service installed fake antivirus software on people's computers. Spotify took the time to remove third-party display ads to fix the problem.

Source: The Next Web