Newly discovered Vigilante malware outs software pirates and blocks them

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A researcher has uncovered one of many extra uncommon finds within the annals of malware: booby-trapped information that rat out downloaders and attempt to forestall unauthorized downloading sooner or later. The information can be found on websites frequented by software program pirates.

Vigilante, as SophosLabs Principal Researcher Andrew Brandt is calling the malware, will get put in when victims obtain and execute what they assume is pirated software program or video games. Behind the scenes, the malware studies the file identify that was executed to an attacker-controlled server, together with the IP tackle of the victims’ computer systems. As a of entirety, Vigilante tries to switch the victims’ computer systems to allow them to now not entry thepiratebay.com and as many as 1,000 different pirate websites.

Not your typical malware

“It’s actually uncommon to see one thing like this as a result of there’s usually only one motive behind most malware: stealing stuff,” Brandt wrote on Twitter. “Whether or not that’s passwords, or keystrokes, or cookies, or mental property, or entry, and even CPU cycles to mine cryptocurrency, theft is the motive. However not on this case. These samples actually solely did a couple of issues, none of which match the standard motive for malware criminals.”