A brand new malware loader is being utilized by risk actors to ship a variety of data stealers comparable to Lumma Stealer (aka LummaC2), Vidar, RecordBreaker (aka Raccoon Stealer V2), and Rescoms.
Cybersecurity agency ESET is monitoring the trojan below the title Win/TrojanDownloader.Rugmi.
“This malware is a loader with three varieties of parts: a downloader that downloads an encrypted payload, a loader that runs the payload from inside sources, and one other loader that runs the payload from an exterior file on the disk,” the corporate mentioned in its Menace Report H2 2023.
Telemetry knowledge gathered by the corporate reveals that detections for the Rugmi loader spiked in October and November 2023, surging from single digit every day numbers to lots of per day.
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Stealer malware is often offered below a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) mannequin to different risk actors on a subscription foundation. Lumma Stealer, as an illustration, is marketed in underground boards for $250 a month. The costliest plan prices $20,000, but it surely additionally provides the purchasers entry to the supply code and the appropriate to promote it.
There may be proof to counsel that the codebase related to Mars, Arkei, and Vidar stealers has been repurposed to create Lumma.
Moreover constantly adapting its ways to evade detection, the off-the-shelf instrument is distributed by a number of strategies starting from malvertising to pretend browser updates to cracked installations of widespread software program comparable to VLC media participant and OpenAI ChatGPT.
One other method issues the usage of Discord’s content material supply community (CDN) to host and propagate the malware, as revealed by Pattern Micro in October 2023.
This entails leveraging a mixture of random and compromised Discord accounts to ship direct messages to potential targets, providing them $10 or a Discord Nitro subscription in alternate for his or her help on a challenge.
Customers who comply with the supply are then urged to obtain an executable file hosted on Discord CDN that masquerades as iMagic Stock however, in actuality, incorporates the Lumma Stealer payload.
“Prepared-made malware options contribute to the proliferation of malicious campaigns as a result of they make the malware out there even to doubtlessly much less technically expert risk actors,” ESET mentioned.
“Providing a broader vary of features then serves to render Lumma Stealer much more engaging as a product.”
The disclosures come as McAfee Labs disclosed a brand new variant of NetSupport RAT, which emerged from its respectable progenitor NetSupport Supervisor and has since been put to make use of by preliminary entry brokers to collect data and carry out further actions on victims of curiosity.
“The an infection begins with obfuscated JavaScript information, serving because the preliminary level of entry for the malware,” McAfee mentioned, including it highlights the “evolving ways employed by cybercriminals.”
The execution of the JavaScript file advances the assault chain by operating PowerShell instructions to retrieve the distant management and stealer malware from an actor-controlled server. The marketing campaign’s major targets embrace the U.S. and Canada.