Energizer warns of malware in battery chargers

The Energizer battery company is warning customers to clean out their systems following the discovery of a malware infection in its USB battery chargers.

The Windows versions of the firm's Duo and USB battery charger products are infected with a back-door Trojan.

The nickel hydride chargers were launched in 2007, and sold in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Energizer said that the malware could allow an attacker to remotely access the infected systems, and that it does not yet know how the malware was able to infect the charger software.

The company is advising users to uninstall the software, and search for and delete the 'arucer.dll' malware file and remove the 'Run DLL as an App' firewall exclusion.

Energizer is not alone in having shipped a product with malware. Companies ranging from Seagate to McDonald's have mistakenly sold electronic devices with a malware infection bundled into the software collection.