This shocking malware livestreams your computer screen
Malware turns victims into unwitting streamers
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Cybersecurityresearchers have spotted an innovative newmalwarethat uses a popularlive-streaming appto record and broadcast the screen of its victims to the threat attackers.
Spotted byTrend Micro, the remote access trojan (RAT) named BIOPASS, piggybacks inside installers forAdobeFlash Player andMicrosoftSilverlight, both of which have beendeprecatedby their respective developers.
In itsdetailed examinationof the BIOPASS RAT, Trend Micro notes that the malicious Flash and Silverlight installers in fact load the “sophisticated” RAT that’s implemented asPythonscripts.
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“What makes BIOPASS RAT particularly interesting is that it can sniff its victim’s screen by abusing the framework ofOpen Broadcaster Software (OBS) Studio, a popular live streaming and video recording app, to establish live streaming to acloud servicevia Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP),” shares Trend Micro.
Inside job?
Trend Micro spotted BIOPASS in recent attacks, in what is known as a watering hole attack, against online gambling companies in China.
Although Trend Micro isn’t sure about the identity of the threat actors behind the RAT, it has found several pieces of evidence during its investigations to suggest that the malware could’ve been engineered by Chinese state-sponsored actors known as Winnti or APT41.
While state-sponsored threat actors are usually tasked to launch attacks across their borders, interestingly, Trend Micro notes that BIOPASS has several features that indicate that it is designed to target and steal the victim’s private information primarily from theweb browsersand instant messengers that are popularly used in China.
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With almost two decades of writing and reporting on Linux, Mayank Sharma would like everyone to think he’sTechRadar Pro’sexpert on the topic. Of course, he’s just as interested in other computing topics, particularly cybersecurity, cloud, containers, and coding.
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