Mac users have historically trusted their operating system to keep them safe. That peace of mind mostly comes from Apple’s strict control over its ecosystem, and the fact that macOS has historically faced fewer mass attacks than Windows. However, that doesn’t mean Macs are invulnerable: threats do exist, and new ones emerge all the time. Over just the past few weeks, security researchers have published reports on at least two new campaigns that target Apple devices.
The malware used in one of the campaigns has been dubbed CrashStealer, while the other is known as ClickLock. Both rely on different tricks to force users into entering their Mac password, which attackers then use to steal account credentials, crypto assets, documents, and much more. In today’s post, we take a close look at how CrashStealer operates — and how to avoid falling victim to it.
A videoconferencing app with CrashStealer inside
It was back in May 2026 that researchers spotted the first signs this malware was being developed, and by early July, they caught it operating in the wild. The malware earned its name because of its core mechanism: it disguises itself as the macOS built-in crash reporting tool (CrashReporter) while functioning as an infostealer designed to hijack sensitive data.
Researchers managed to trace one of the websites users visited to download the malware. The site poses as a legitimate platform for distributing the video conferencing tool Werkbit.
According to researchers, this is the site victims used to download Werkbit, which secretly contained the CrashStealer malware loader. Source
However, you can’t just visit the site and download the software. Before downloading, visitors are asked to enter a special meeting PIN. This setup likely allows the attackers to limit the distribution scope by targeting only specific, pre-selected victims. Exactly how the cybercriminals choose their targets and deliver the PIN remains unknown.
The “lucky” users with a code end up installing the initial malicious payload — named Werkbit Setup. Interestingly, it carries a valid Apple developer certificate and has successfully passed Apple’s notarization process — meaning it cleared the automated prescan for malicious code. As a result, the attackers manage to bypass the operating system’s built-in Gatekeeper defense. This allows the payload to launch without triggering the usual untrusted software warnings.
The Werkbit Setup installer is signed with a valid Apple developer certificate and has passed notarization. Source
Once launched, Werkbit Setup first reaches out to GitHub. Researchers believe using this popular platform helps attackers blend in by making these initial network requests look far less suspicious to security tools. After retrieving instructions from a GitHub repository, the program connects directly to the attackers’ server to fetch CrashStealer itself.
The loader then saves the malware to a temporary macOS folder, launches it, and wipes most of the intermediate setup files. As a result, a fully functional infostealer is up and running within seconds of Werkbit Setup starting. By the way, the user never gets any videoconferencing app.
How CrashStealer works
Unlike the Werkbit Setup loader, the CrashStealer malware itself isn’t signed with an Apple developer certificate. To keep users from suspecting anything, the malware disguises itself as the built-in macOS crash reporting tool, CrashReporter, by using the exact same name, app identifier, and a similar icon.
Once launched, CrashStealer completes a sequence of steps to gain access to sensitive data, establish persistence in the system, and cover its tracks:
Remove metadata — including the attribute that flags the app as an internet download.
Display a fake system prompt asking for the user’s macOS password.
Use the previously captured credentials to gain access to Keychain, the built-in macOS password manager.
Check the computer for installed security tools and malware analysis software.
Collect saved browser passwords, cookies, Keychain contents, and data from other password managers and crypto wallets.
Encrypt the data it stole and prepare it for forwarding to the attackers’ server.
Create a copy of itself and establish persistence to launch automatically every time macOS boots.
Delete temporary files and other installation traces to make detection much harder.
Step two deserves a closer look. The password prompt that the user sees looks extremely convincing. What’s more, the malware immediately verifies whether the credentials are correct: if you make a typo and enter an invalid password, CrashStealer will pop the window right back up to ask you again.
Once launched, CrashStealer displays a pop-up that mimics the standard macOS password request. Source
What data is CrashStealer after?
CrashStealer’s hit list is massive. First and foremost, its operators target Keychain: the built-in macOS password manager where the system stores account credentials, cryptographic keys, certificates, tokens, and more.
Users of third-party password managers aren’t safe either: the malware steals data from 14 of these services, including 1Password, Bitwarden, LastPass, Dashlane, Keeper, KeePassXC, NordPass, Enpass, and RoboForm.
In addition, the malware collects all credentials and cookies stored in Chromium-based browsers — Chrome, Brave, Edge, Opera, Opera GX, Vivaldi, Chromium, and NAVER Whale — as well as Firefox. The attackers clearly have a strong interest in crypto assets: CrashStealer specifically targets data from 80 different crypto wallet extensions, including MetaMask, Phantom, Coinbase Wallet, Trust Wallet, Rabby, Exodus, Keplr, and Solflare.
Finally, the malware scans the Documents and Downloads folders to pick files that might be of interest to the cybercriminals. CrashStealer encrypts all the stolen data with the AES-256-GCM algorithm, ZIP’s it up, and sends it to the attackers’ server.
How to protect your device
The spike in attacks on macOS is a clear wake-up call: Apple users need to get proactive about their security. We recommend:
Researching apps online before installing them
Sticking to utilities from official app stores whenever possible
Using a reliable security solution that blocks malicious websites and stops malware activity on your device
Kaspersky security solutions detect the malware described in this post and assigns to it the verdicts HEUR:Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Agent.gen and HEUR:Trojan-PSW.OSX.Agent.gen.
AI is getting better and better at solving CAPTCHAs. This makes website creators — who still need to verify that they’re dealing with humans rather than bots — come up with increasingly sophisticated proof-of-humanity checks. It seems an average user would no longer be surprised if asked to recite a poem — or, say, dance Gangnam Style — just to access certain websites. The latter could double as an age check, but I digress.
Attackers have learned to exploit this variety of sometimes bizarre checks to their advantage. In our blog, we’ve talked more than once about the ClickFix attack technique, which is all about slipping a malicious instruction to the victim under the guise of yet another CAPTCHA. Historically, this technique has been used to attack users of Windows-powered devices. However, researchers recently discovered a campaign that targets macOS users. In this post, we talk in more detail about the ClickFix attack technique, the new campaign aimed at Mac users, and the criminals’ goals.
What is the ClickFix attack technique?
Many common attacks and scams rely on social engineering, or more simply put — manipulation. Instead of looking for software vulnerabilities, attackers try to trick the user into doing the dirty work themselves: opening a malicious file, clicking a link to a fake website, sharing sensitive data, or running a harmful command.
The ClickFix attack also relies on social engineering, except the scammers aren’t betting on the victim’s fear of an authority figure, but rather on their trust in technology and their habit of following instructions — even when they don’t quite make sense.
In a classic ClickFix scenario, a user visits a compromised or fake website and, instead of the expected page, sees a notification that there’s an issue. The site might claim that to continue, you need to complete an extra verification check, update your browser, or fix an error.
ClickFix: how to infect your own computer with malware in three easy steps. One of the classic variations of the attack targeting Windows users Source
Next, the victim is prompted to follow a few simple steps that look harmless enough at first glance. Usually, this involves copying some text from the attackers’ website, opening the Run window, pasting the text there, and hitting Enter.
In reality, the text is a malicious command that downloads and runs malware on the device. Since the user carries out all the steps themselves, the operating system’s security mechanisms and built-in warnings are often dismissed as just another part of the instructions. In our blog, we’ve covered the typical pretexts used to trick victims into taking dangerous actions; you can read more about them here.
The ClickFix attack scheme quickly began spawning various spin-offs, such as FileFix and ConsentFix. Until recently, the victims of ClickFix and its variants were mostly Windows users, while Mac fans encountered it much more rarely. But lately, the number of ClickFix attacks targeting Apple device owners has been on the rise.
How does the ClickFix attack on macOS work?
The ClickFix attack on Macs, as documented by cybersecurity researchers, begins with the classic fake CAPTCHA scenario. To pass the proof-of-humanity check, attackers prompt the user to copy a command, open Terminal, and paste the text into it.
The contents of the command that the user is prompted to run via Terminal. Source
The more interesting part is what happens after the malicious command is run. First, it downloads a malicious DMG — the standard format for disk images containing installation files in macOS — from a remote server, and saves it to the /tmp temporary folder under a random name. Then the script mounts the disk image without showing it in Finder or creating a desktop icon — keeping it hidden from the user. After that, the script searches the disk image for an app or installation package, and automatically launches it once found.
One case documented in the researchers’ findings involved the widespread AMOS (Atomic macOS Stealer) infostealer being distributed this way. To gain extra privileges on the system, the stealer Trojan displays a fake macOS system authentication window tricking the user into willingly typing in their password.
What are the attackers’ goals?
After the malware is installed, the attackers steal literally everything they can get their hands on from the victim’s device. Atomic macOS Stealer extracts sensitive information stored in Chromium-based browsers (Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Arc, Vivaldi, CocCoc, and Yandex), as well as Firefox-based ones (LibreWolf, SeaMonkey, Tor Browser, Waterfox, and Zen Browser), such as the following:
Cookies
Saved logins and passwords
Auto-fill data
Saved credit and debit cards
Browser profile data
On top of all that, the attackers also steal PDF, TXT, and RTF files from the victim’s device. The criminals are especially interested in crypto apps; specifically: desktop crypto wallets like Exodus, Electrum, Atomic Wallet, Wasabi Wallet, Bitcoin Core, Litecoin Core, DashCore, Guarda, Binance Wallet, Dogecoin Wallet, and Tonkeeper. The malware also gathers data from more than 200 cryptocurrency-related browser extensions.
But that’s still not everything…
It also targets the Telegram and Discord desktop apps. The malware doesn’t spare Apple’s ecosystem either — stealing Safari cookies, notes from Apple Notes, and passwords stored in the built-in Apple Keychain.
Once a device is infected, Atomic macOS Stealer whisks away everything valuable. Source
All of the collected information is added to a ZIP archive and uploaded to the attackers’ server. In addition, the malware replaces legitimate versions of hardware crypto wallet apps — specifically Ledger Wallet and Trezor Suite — with malicious fakes.
Together, this trove of data gives attackers broad opportunities to further compromise accounts, steal digital assets, and launch new attacks on behalf of the victim.
How do I avoid becoming a victim of ClickFix?
As social engineering attacks continue to grow, users need to be more vigilant than ever. That goes for everything from chatting with strangers on the phone or in messaging apps to everyday online activity.
Never paste commands into your Terminal just because a website asks you to — whether it’s to pass a verification check, confirm your identity, or view hidden content. No legitimate website will ever ask you to enable its features by manually running commands Terminal.
Never enter your macOS administrator password unless you completely understand what app is asking for it.
Regularly install macOS security updates, or better yet, set them to install automatically by going to System Settings → General → Software Update and clicking the i icon next to Automatic Updates. While recent versions of macOS may warn you when you try to paste suspicious or malicious commands into Terminal, this isn’t a reliable feature. For example, the malicious code shown in the screenshot above didn’t trigger any warnings at all on macOS Tahoe 26.5.2.
Trust the warnings from your operating system and security software rather than the instructions — or even the demands — of websites and apps.
Every year, hundreds of millions of real user passwords leak onto the dark web. We analyzed 231 million unique passwords from dark-web leaks between 2023 and 2026, and the conclusions are bleak: the vast majority are extremely weak. To crack 60% of these passwords, a hacker needs only an hour and a few dollars in their pocket. Furthermore, password cracking is accelerating by the year; in our similar 2024 study, the percentage of vulnerable passwords was lower.
Today we’re looking at just how reliable the average password is (spoiler: not really), and how you can secure your data and accounts using more robust methods. At the same time, we’ll highlight the patterns most commonly found in actual user passwords.
These days, passwords are almost never stored in plain text. For instance, if you create an account with the password “Password123!”, the server won’t store it as-is. Instead, the password is hashed using specific algorithms, turning it into a fixed-length string of letters and numbers (a hash) which is what actually stays on the server. For example, here’s what the MD5 hash for “Password123!” looks like:
2c103f2c4ed1e59c0b4e2e01821770fa.
Every time the user enters their password, it’s converted into a hash and compared against the one stored on the server; if the hashes match, the password is correct. If an attacker gets their hands on this hash, they have to decrypt it to recover the original password — this is what’s known as “password cracking”. This is typically done using owned or rented GPUs, and several methods can be employed for the crack:
Exhaustive enumeration (brute force). The computer tries every possible combination of characters, calculating the hash for each one. This method is the easiest way to crack short passwords, or those consisting of a single character set (such as digits only).
Rainbow tables. A total nightmare for anyone with a simple password, this is essentially a “phone book” for passwords whose hashes have already been cracked via brute force or smart algorithms. All an attacker has to do is find a matching hash and see which password corresponds to it.
Smart cracking. These algorithms are trained on databases of leaked passwords. They understand the frequency of different character combinations, and run their checks from the most likely to the least popular sequences. They account for dictionary words, character substitutions (a → @ or s → $), and consider common password structures like “dictionary word + number + special character”, while checking hashes against rainbow tables. Combining these methods significantly accelerates the cracking process.
Beyond that, attackers can also intercept passwords in plain text. There are numerous ways to do this, ranging from phishing (where a victim is lured to a fake web page and enters their password voluntarily) and keyloggers that capture keystrokes, to stealers or Trojans that swipe documents, cookies, clipboard data, and more. Unfortunately, many users keep their passwords as plain text in notes, messaging apps, and documents, or save them in browsers where attackers can extract them in seconds.
Every year, we track around a hundred million plain-text password leaks. We use these databases to warn Kaspersky Password Manager users if their data has been compromised. To address the most frequent question we get on this: no, we don’t know our users’ passwords. We’ve explained in non-techie language exactly how we compare your passwords to leaked ones without actually knowing them — and why neither your passwords stored in Kaspersky Password Managernor even their hashes ever leave your device — in our overviews of our leak analysis technology and our password manager’s internal architecture. Give them a read; you’ll be surprised by just how elegant the design is.
60% of passwords are cracked in under an hour
We expanded the database from our previous study by an additional 38 million real passwords posted by attackers on dark-web forums and compared the results. Testing was conducted using a single RTX 5090 GPU for passwords hashed with the MD5 algorithm. The data for the analysis was obtained from our Digital Footprint Intelligence service. You can review the algorithm we used to assess password strength in our article on Securelist.
Unfortunately, passwords remain as weak as ever, while cracking them becomes faster and easier with every year. Today, 60% of passwords can be cracked in less than an hour; two years ago, that figure was 59%. But the truly frightening part is something else: nearly half of all passwords (48%) are cracked in less than a minute!
Cracking time
Percentage of passwords crackable within this time in 2024
Percentage of passwords crackable within this time today
Less than a minute
45%
48%
Less than an hour
59% (+14%)
60% (+12%)
Less than 24 hours
67% (+8%)
68% (+8%)
Less than a month
73% (+6%)
74% (+6%)
Less than a year
77% (+4%)
77% (+3%)
More than a year
23%
23%
Password cracking time: two years ago and today
Attackers owe this boost in speed to graphics processors, which grow more powerful every year. While an RTX 4090 in 2024 could brute-force MD5 hashes at a rate of 164 gigahashes (billion hashes) per second, the new RTX 5090 has increased that speed by 34% — reaching 220 gigahashes per second.
And although a high-end video card like that currently retails for several thousand dollars, the price tag isn’t much of a barrier: there are plenty of cheap cloud services available for renting GPU computing power. Depending on the configuration and the model, rental costs range from a few cents to a few dollars per hour. As we’ve seen, one hour is all an attacker needs to crack three out of every five passwords they’ve found in a leak. Plus, depending on the scale of the task, they can always rent ten or even a hundred GPUs instead of just one…
It’s worth noting that cracking every password in a dataset doesn’t take much longer than cracking a single one. During each iteration, once the attacker calculates a hash for a specific character combination, they check if that same hash exists anywhere in the dataset — and the larger the dataset, the easier it is to find a match. If a match is found, the corresponding password is flagged as “cracked”, and the algorithm moves along to the next one.
Which passwords are vulnerable?
The strength of any password depends on its length, content variety, and the randomness of that content. Passwords created by humans turn out to be the least resilient — unfortunately, humans are quite predictable. We use dictionary words and character combinations that smart algorithms have long since mastered, we avoid long random strings, and patterns can be found even in keystrokes we believe are random. Interestingly enough, passwords generated by AI still carry the fingerprints of a human approach; we covered this in a separate post on how to create a strong yet memorable password.
Password length is the primary factor affecting cracking time. As you can see from the table below, it takes less than 24 hours to crack almost any eight-character password.
Percentage of varying password lengths crackable within a given timeframe
But the predictability of your password is just as important. Think you’re boosting security by adding a number or a special character to a memorable word? You are, but only slightly. The patterns people use to create passwords are easily predictable and, at times, pretty amusing — though this is no laughing matter.
What we learned about password patterns
Analysis of over 200 million passwords revealed characteristic patterns that allow smart algorithms to crack user passwords with ease.
Pick a number
More than half of all passwords (53%) end with one or more digits, while nearly one in six (17%) starts with a number. Every eighth password (12%) contains sequences that look a lot like years — ranging from 1950 to 2030 — and one in ten (10%) specifically falls between 1990 and 2026. This most likely happens because folks add their birth year (or that of someone close), some other significant year, or the year they created the password or account. Fun fact: based on the distribution of these dates, it suggests that the most active internet users were born between 2000 and 2012.
However, among all numeric combinations, the most popular turned out to be… you guessed it: “1234”. Overall, patterns involving sequential keyboard presses (“qwerty, ,”ytrewq”, and the like) appear in 3% of passwords.
Special characters aren’t a silver bullet
Most password policies in recent years require at least one special character. The absolute winner in this category is the @ symbol: it appears in one out of every 10 passwords. The period (.) comes in second, followed by the exclamation point (!) in third.
Love rules the world… and Skibidi Toilet does too
Emotionally charged words often form the foundation of a password, and despite everything, positive words are more common. Frequently occurring examples include “love”, “angel”, “team”, “mate”, “life”, and “star”. That said, negativity pops up too — mostly in the form of common English swear words.
Interestingly, viral memes are reflected in passwords as well. Between 2023 and 2026, the use of the word Skibidi in passwords skyrocketed 36-fold! Naturally (see the link if it doesn’t seem natural), “toilet” saw a boost too, though to a lesser extent.
Users tend to keep their passwords unchanged for years
More than half of the passwords (54%) we identified in recent leaks have surfaced before. Part of this can be explained by the same data migrating from one dataset to another. However, there’s a much more troubling reason too: many users simply haven’t changed their passwords in years.
Analyzing the dates found within passwords shows that combinations containing the years from 2020 through 2024 remain popular. It seems people add the current year to their password when they create it — and then forget about it for several years. This actually allows us to calculate the average lifespan of a password: about three to five years.
This is a dangerous trend. For one, smart algorithms can crack much more complex passwords over that kind of timeframe. Secondly, the longer your password remains unchanged, the higher the probability it will leak — whether through a breach, malware infection, or a phishing attack.
The situation gets even worse when the same password is used across multiple accounts. In this case, attackers don’t even need to crack anything; they just need to find your password in a single leak and plug it into other sites.
How to protect your passwords and accounts
If you’ve realized while reading this post that your own passwords are among those easily crackable — don’t panic. We’ve put together a list of simple but essential tips for you.
Use a password manager
The weakest passwords are the ones people come up with themselves. Creating and memorizing hundreds of sequences of 16–20 random characters (since every site requires a unique, long password) is a daunting, unrealistic task.
That’s why you should delegate password generation and storage to our password manager. It doesn’t just create and store complex, randomized passwords in an encrypted format; it also syncs them across all your devices. To decrypt your vault, you only need to remember one main password that no one knows but you — our guide on mnemonic passwords can help you with that.
Don’t store passwords as plain text
Whatever you do, never write down passwords in files, messages, or documents. They lack the robust encryption provided by a password manager. Furthermore, these kinds of notes fall into the hands of attackers instantly if you happen to pick up a Trojan or an infostealer.
Don’t store passwords in your browser
Many users save their passwords in their browsers — especially since they conveniently offer to do it automatically. Unfortunately, research shows that malware has evolved to extract these passwords from all popular browsers almost instantly. Kaspersky Password Manager can help you import saved passwords from your favorite browser — just follow our simple, three-step guide. Most importantly, don’t forget to clear the browser’s password storage once the import is complete.
Switch to passkeys
Wherever possible, use passkeys — a cryptographic replacement for passwords. In this setup, the service stores a public key, while the private key remains on your device and is never transmitted. During login, the device simply signs a one-time request. Additionally, passkeys are tied to a specific domain, meaning phishing attacks using spoofed addresses won’t work. Kaspersky Password Manager allows you to store both passwords and passkeys, solving the problem of syncing them across different ecosystems, including Windows, Android, macOS, and iOS.
Set up two-factor authentication
Enable two-factor authentication wherever possible. Even if your password is compromised, a properly configured 2FA setup makes it extremely difficult for the attacker to access your account. For maximum security, skip the one-time codes sent via SMS and use authenticator apps instead — and yes, Kaspersky Password Manager comes in handy here, too.
Practice good digital hygiene
Remember, storing your passwords correctly is only half the battle. It’s crucial to follow the rules of digital hygiene: avoid downloading unverified files, pirated software, cheats, or cracks, and don’t click on random links. The number of infostealer attacks has been steadily rising in recent years, which means you need a robust security solution for full protection. We recommend Kaspersky Premium — it protects all your devices from Trojans, phishing, and other threats. Besides, the subscription includes our password manager.
For those serious about account security, check out our collection of posts on passwords, passkeys, and two-factor authentication:
Malicious actors have developed a new way to steal data stored by Chrome for Windows. Researchers discovered the technique while analyzing a fresh build of an infostealer known as VoidStealer. The new method allows the malware to bypass Chrome’s Application-Bound (App-Bound) Encryption (ABE), a mechanism intended to protect session cookies and other valuable information stored in the browser.
Google hoped this mechanism would secure the master key Chrome uses to encrypt all sensitive data. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time malware authors have found a workaround for this defense — leaving secrets stored in Chrome vulnerable once again.
How App-Bound Encryption works in Chrome
Google introduced App-Bound Encryption in July 2024 with the release of Chrome version 127. The company’s announcement mentioned infostealers snatching cookies from Chrome users on Windows as the primary problem ABE was intended to solve. We’ve already covered in detail what these files are and the consequences of their theft, so we’ll only briefly recap the main facts here.
Cookies are small files that the browser saves to the user’s device at a website’s request to remember various site settings. Of particular value to attackers are session cookies, which are used for automatic authentication on websites. It’s thanks to these files that we don’t have to enter a username and password every time we revisit a site.
But this convenience carries a risk: stealing these files allows an attacker to use an already-authenticated session without entering a username or password. This allows them to impersonate the user, which can lead to account hijacking, theft of personal or financial data, and other adverse consequences.
Infostealer Trojans are particularly dangerous for Chrome users on Windows. This is because, on this OS, Chrome previously relied solely on the standard built-in Data Protection API (DPAPI). With this system encryption mechanism, applications don’t need to create and store encryption keys to protect data.
The limitation of DPAPI is that it doesn’t protect data from malware that’s already successfully compromised the system and is capable of executing code on behalf of the logged-in user. This is exactly what stealers exploit: since they typically run with the user’s privileges, they can simply request DPAPI to decrypt the browser’s protected data.
The ABE mechanism was designed to solve that specific problem. The core idea is right in the name: App-Bound Encryption means the encryption is tied to a specific application. To achieve this, a separate service running with system privileges is responsible for protecting the key used to encrypt Chrome’s data. It verifies which application is requesting access to the key, and denies the request if it doesn’t originate from Chrome.
Chrome’s App-Bound Encryption (ABE) was designed so that only Chrome itself could retrieve the master key needed to decrypt the browser’s stored data. Source
As a result, the architects of this feature assumed that to access ABE-protected browser data, an infostealer would either need to escalate its privileges to system-level, or inject malicious code directly into Chrome. In theory, this should have made attacking Chrome significantly harder and reduced the effectiveness of mass-market infostealers. As you might have guessed, things didn’t go quite that smoothly in practice.
Previous successful bypasses of Chrome’s ABE
Just a couple of months after Google announced the implementation of App-Bound Encryption in Chrome, many infostealer developers claimed they’d already bypassed the protection. Among them were the creators of Meduza Stealer, Whitesnake, Lumma Stealer, and Lumar (also known as PovertyStealer).
Lumma stealer developers announce a bypass for Chrome’s App-Bound Encryption in a new version of the malware
Of course, you shouldn’t take malware developers at their word, but legitimate security researchers were able to confirm at least some of the claims. Bypasses for Google Chrome’s new data protection feature did become available almost immediately after its release.
A month later, in October 2024, tech enthusiast Alex Hagenah published a tool on GitHub called Chrome-App-Bound-Encryption-Decryption to bypass Google’s new security mechanism. Analysis of the tool’s code revealed that its author used roughly the same methods that attackers were already heavily exploiting.
What followed was a game of cat and mouse: security researchers and stealer developers came up with new tricks to circumvent App-Bound Encryption, while Google patched the newly discovered loopholes with varying degrees of success.
VoidStealer — a new data-nabbing menace
This brings us to recent events: in March 2026, news broke about a stealer named VoidStealer, which utilizes a brand-new and, by all accounts, highly effective method for bypassing ABE.
VoidStealer developers advertising a new method for bypassing ABE. Source
The malware authors developed an attack technique that targets the brief moment when the master key sits in the browser’s memory in plaintext. This occurs because, at a certain point, the browser inevitably has to decrypt its data to actually use it — for instance, to automatically sign in to a website with the relevant session cookie or to access saved credentials.
To exploit this window of opportunity, the malware attaches itself to the Chrome process as a debugger — a tool that allows one to control a program’s execution, pause it, and inspect its memory. In legitimate scenarios, these tools are used by developers to find and fix bugs, analyze application behavior, and test performance.
The malware identifies the specific section of code where data decryption takes place. It then sets a breakpoint at that location; when the program’s execution reaches that point, the browser effectively freezes. This is how the malware catches the exact moment the master key is sitting in RAM in plaintext; it then reads the key directly from memory.
It’s worth noting that everything mentioned above also applies to other Chromium-based browsers that use ABE, including Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, and others.
How to avoid falling victim to infostealers
The scale of VoidStealer’s reach could be significant, as its developers operate under the malware-as-a-service (MaaS) model. This means they rent out the ready-made tool to other attackers, so they don’t need to develop custom malware from scratch.
This situation demonstrates that relying solely on built-in security mechanisms isn’t enough. Unfortunately, stealer developers are coming up with new workarounds faster than browser and operating system developers can roll out patches.
Here’s what users can do about it:
Avoid installing programs from suspicious sources. This will minimize the chances of malware infiltrating your system.
Learn how ClickFix attacks Lately, stealers have frequently been distributed using this specific malicious tactic.
Keep your OS and software updated on all devices. Timely updates help patch many of the vulnerabilities that malware exploits.
Install a robust security solution on all your devices. It’ll block suspicious activity in real time and alert you to potential threats.
As an added precaution, avoid storing passwords and bank card info in Google Chrome or your Notes app, as these are the first places any self-respecting stealer looks. Instead, use a secure password manager.
Stealers are hunting for your data, finding ways to infiltrate both computers and smartphones alike. To protect yourself from theft, check out our other related posts:
Even if you keep your crypto assets in a cold wallet and use Apple devices — which enjoy a strong reputation for security — cybercriminals may still find a way to swipe your funds. These bad actors are combining well-known tricks into new attack chains — including baiting victims right inside the App Store.
Crypto-wallet clones
This past March, we discovered phishing apps at the top of the Chinese App Store charts with icons and names mimicking popular crypto-wallet management tools. Because regional restrictions block several official wallet apps from the Chinese App Store, attackers have stepped in to fill the void. They created fake apps using icons similar to the originals and names with intentional typos — likely to bypass App Store moderation and deceive users.
Phishing apps in the App Store appearing in search results for Ledger Wallet (formerly Ledger Live)
Beyond these, we found a number of apps with names and icons that had nothing to do with cryptocurrency. However, their promotional banners claimed they could be used to download and install official wallet apps that are otherwise unavailable in the regional App Store.
Banners on app pages claiming they can be used to download the official TokenPocket app, which is missing from the local App Store
In total, we identified 26 phishing apps mimicking the following popular wallets:
MetaMask
Ledger
Trust Wallet
Coinbase
TokenPocket
imToken
Bitpie
A few other very similar apps didn’t contain phishing functionality yet, but all signs point to them being linked to the same attackers. It’s likely they plan to add malicious features in future updates.
To get these apps cleared for the App Store, the developers added basic functionality, such as a game, a calculator, or a task planner.
Installing any of these clones is the first step toward losing your crypto assets. While the apps themselves don’t steal cryptocurrency, seed phrases, or passwords, they serve as bait that builds user trust by virtue of being listed on the official App Store. Once installed and launched, however, the app opens a phishing site in the victim’s browser, designed to look like the App Store, which then prompts the user to install a compromised version of the relevant crypto wallet. The attackers have created multiple versions of these malicious modules, each tailored to a specific wallet. You can find a detailed technical breakdown of this attack in our Securelist post.
A victim who falls for the ruse is first prompted to install a provisioning profile, which allows apps to be sideloaded onto an iPhone outside the App Store. The profile is then used to install the malicious app itself.
A fake App Store site prompting the user to install an app masquerading as Ledger Wallet
In the example above, the malware is built on the original Ledger app with integrated Trojan functionality. The app looks identical to the original, but when connected to a hardware wallet, it displays a window requiring a seed phrase, supposedly to restore access. This is not standard procedure: typically, you only need to enter a PIN — never a recovery phrase. If a victim is deceived by the app’s apparent legitimacy and enters their seed phrase, it’s immediately sent to the attackers’ server — granting them full access to the victim’s crypto assets.
Sideloading outside the App Store
A critical component of this scheme involves installing malware on the victim’s iPhone by bypassing the App Store and its verification process. This is executed much like the SparkKitty iOS infostealer we discovered previously. The attackers managed to gain access to the Apple Developer Enterprise Program. For just US$299 a year — and following an interview and corporate verification — this program allows entities to issue their own configuration profiles and apps for direct download to user devices without ever publishing them in the App Store.
To install the app, the victim must first install a configuration profile that enables the malware to be downloaded directly, bypassing the App Store. Note the green verification checkmark
In general, enterprise profiles are designed to allow organizations to deploy internal apps to employees’ devices. These apps don’t require App Store publication and can be installed on an unlimited number of devices. Unfortunately, this feature is often abused. These profiles are frequently used for software that fails to meet Apple’s policies, such as online casinos, pirated mods, and, of course, malware.
This is precisely why the fake site mimicking the Apple Store prompts the user to install a configuration profile before delivering the app signed by that profile.
Stealing cryptocurrency via macOS apps and extensions
Many crypto owners prefer managing their wallets on a computer rather than a smartphone — often choosing Macs for the task. It’s no surprise, then, that most popular macOS infostealers target crypto-wallet data in one way or another. Recently, however, a new malicious tactic has been gaining traction: in addition to stealing saved data, attackers are embedding phishing dialogs directly into legitimate wallet applications already installed on users’ computers. Earlier this year, the MacSync infostealer adopted this functionality. It infiltrates systems via ClickFix attacks: users searching for software are lured to fake sites with fraudulent instructions to install the app by running commands in Terminal. This executes the infostealer, which scrapes passwords and cookies saved in Chrome, chats from popular messengers, and data from browser-based crypto-wallet extensions.
But the most interesting part is what happens next. If the victim already has a legitimate Trezor or Ledger app installed, the infostealer downloads additional modules and… swaps out fragments of the app with its own trojanized code. The malware then re-signs the modified file so that after these “fixes” are made, Gatekeeper (a built-in protection mechanism in macOS) allows the application to run without an additional permission request from the user. While this trick doesn’t always work, it’s effective for simpler apps built on the popular Electron framework.
The trojanized app prompts the user for the seed phrase of their wallet
When the trojanized app is opened, it fakes an error and initiates a “recovery process”, prompting the user for their wallet seed phrase.
Time and again, attackers have proved that no gadget is truly invincible. With so many developers and cryptocurrency users preferring macOS and iOS, threat actors have designed and deployed industrial-scale attacks for both platforms. Staying safe requires in-depth defense backed by skepticism and vigilance.
Download apps only from trusted sources: either the developer’s official website or their App Store page. Since malware can slip even into official stores, always verify the app’s publisher.
Check the app’s rating, publication date, and download counter.
Read the reviews — especially the negative ones. Sort reviews by date to evaluate the latest version. Attackers often start with a perfectly innocent app that earns high ratings before introducing malicious functionality in a later update.
Never copy and paste commands into your Terminal unless you’re 100% certain what they do. These attacks have become very popular lately, often disguised as installation steps for AI apps like Claude Code or OpenClaw.
Use a comprehensive security system on all your computers and smartphones. We recommend Kaspersky Premium. This goes a long way to mitigate the risk of visiting phishing sites or installing malicious apps.
Never enter your seed phrase into a hardware wallet app, on a website, or in a chat. In every scenario, whether migrating to a new wallet, reinstalling apps, or recovering a wallet, the seed phrase should be entered exclusively on the hardware device itself — never in a mobile or desktop app.
Always verify the recipient’s address on the hardware wallet’s screen to prevent attacks involving address swapping.
Store your seed phrases in the most secure way possible, such as on a metal plate or in a sealed envelope in a safe deposit box. It’s best not to store them on a computer at all, but if that’s your only option, use a secure, encrypted vault like Kaspersky Password Manager.
Still believe that Apple devices are bulletproof? Think again as you read the following:
We recently discussed how malicious actors are spreading the AMOS infostealer for macOS via Google Ads, leveraging a chat with an AI assistant on the actual OpenAI website to host malicious instructions. We decided to dig a little deeper, only to discover several similar malicious campaigns where attackers attempt to slip users malware disguised as popular AI tools through Google Search ads. If the victims are searching for macOS-specific tools, the payload deployed is the very same AMOS; if they’re on Windows, it’s the Amatera infostealer instead. These campaigns use the popular Chinese AI Doubao, the viral AI assistant OpenClaw, or the coding assistant Claude Code as bait. This means such campaigns pose a threat not only to home users but also to organizations.
The reality is that corporate employees are increasingly using coding assistants like Claude Code, and workflow automation agents like OpenClaw. This brings its own set of risks, which is why many organizations have yet to officially approve (or pay for) access to such tools. Consequently, some employees take matters into their own hands to find these trendy tools, and head straight to Google. They type in a search query and are served a sponsored link leading to a malicious installation guide. Let’s take a closer look at how this attack plays out, using a Claude Code distribution campaign discovered in early March as an example.
The search query
So, a user starts looking for a place to download the Anthropic agent and types something like “Claude Code download” into the search bar. The search engine returns a list of links, with “sponsored links” (paid advertisements) sitting at the top. One of these ads leads the user to a malicious page featuring fake documentation. Interestingly, the site itself is built on Squarespace, a legitimate website builder that helps it bypass anti-phishing filters.
Search results with ads in Romania and Brazil
The attackers’ site meticulously mimics the original Claude Code documentation, complete with installation instructions. Just like the real deal, it prompts the user to copy and run a command. However, once executed, it installs not an AI agent but malware. Essentially, this is just another flavor of the ClickFix attack — one that has earned its own nickname: InstallFix.
Malicious site mimicking installation instructions
Genuine Claude Code site with installation instructions
Malicious payload
Just like with the original Claude Code, the command for macOS attempts to install an application using the curl command-line utility. In reality, it deploys the AMOS spyware — previously described by our experts on Securelist — which was used in a similar past campaign.
In the case of Windows, the malware is installed using the system utility mshta.exe, which executes HTML-based applications instead of curl, which is used for the genuine Claude Code. This utility deploys the Amatera infostealer, which harvests browser data, crypto-wallet info, as well as information from the user folder, and sends it to a remote server at 144{.}124.235.102.
How to keep your company safe
Interest in AI agents continues to grow, and the emergence of new tools and their rising popularity are creating fresh attack vectors. Specifically, attempting to seek out third-party AI tools can not only jeopardize the source code of projects on the victim’s computer but also lead to the compromise of secrets, confidential corporate files, and user accounts.
To prevent this from happening, the first step should be educating employees about these dangers and the tricks used by threat actors. This can be done using our training platform: Kaspersky Automated Security Awareness. Incidentally, it includes a specialized lesson on the use of AI in corporate environments.
To achieve their malign aims, Android malware developers have to address several challenges in a row: trick users to get inside their smartphones, dodge security software, talk victims into granting various system permissions, keep away from built-in battery optimizers that kill resource hogs, and, after all that, make sure their malware actually turns a profit. The creators of the BeatBanker — an Android‑based malware campaign recently discovered by our experts — have come up with something new for each one of these steps. The attack is (for now) aimed at Brazilian users, but the developers’ ambitions will almost certainly push them toward international expansion, so it’s worth staying on guard and studying the threat actor’s tricks. You can find a full technical analysis of the malware on Securelist.
How BeatBanker infiltrates a smartphone
The malware is distributed through specially crafted phishing pages that mimic the Google Play Store. A page that’s easily mistaken for the official app marketplace invites users to download a seemingly useful app. In one campaign, the trojan disguised itself as the Brazilian government services app, INSS Reembolso; in another, it posed as the Starlink app.
The malicious site cupomgratisfood{.}shop does an excellent job imitating an app store. It’s just unclear why the fake INSS Reembolso appears all of three times. To be extra sure, perhaps?!
The installation takes place in several stages to avoid requesting too many permissions at once and to further lull the victim’s vigilance. After the first app is downloaded and launched, it displays an interface that also resembles Google Play and simulates an update for the decoy app — requesting the user’s permission to install apps, which doesn’t look out-of-the-ordinary in context. If you grant this permission, the malware downloads additional malicious modules to your smartphone.
After installation, the trojan simulates a decoy app update via Google Play by requesting permission to install applications while downloading additional malicious modules in the process
All components of the trojan are encrypted. Before decrypting and proceeding to the next stages of infection, it checks to ensure it’s on a real smartphone and in the target country. BeatBanker immediately terminates its own process if it finds any discrepancies or detects that it’s running in emulated or analysis environments. This complicates dynamic analysis of the malware. Incidentally, the fake update downloader injects modules directly into RAM to avoid creating files on the smartphone that would be visible to security software.
All these tricks are nothing new and frequently used in complex malware for desktop computers. However, for smartphones, such sophistication is still a rarity, and not every security tool will spot it. Users of Kaspersky products are protected from this threat.
Playing audio as a shield
Once established on the smartphone, BeatBanker downloads a module for mining Monero cryptocurrency. The authors were very concerned that the smartphone’s aggressive battery optimization systems might shut down the miner, so they came up with a trick: playing an all-but-inaudible sound at all times. Power consumption control systems typically spare apps that are playing audio or video to avoid cutting off background music or podcast players. In this way, the malware can run continuously. Additionally, it displays a persistent notification in the status bar, asking the user to keep the phone on for a system update.
Example of a persistent system update notification from another malicious app masquerading as the Starlink app
Control via Google
To manage the trojan, the authors leverage Google’s legitimate Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) — a system for receiving notifications and sending data from a smartphone. This feature is available to all apps and it’s the most popular method for sending and receiving data. Thanks to FCM, attackers can monitor the device’s status and change its settings as needed.
Nothing bad happens for a while after the malware is installed: the attackers wait it out. Then they trigger the miner, but they’re careful to throttle it back if the phone overheats, the battery starts dipping, or the owner happens to be using the device. All of this is handled via FCM.
Theft and espionage
In addition to the crypto miner, BeatBanker installs extra modules to spy on the user and rob them at the right moment. The spyware module requests Accessibility Services permission, and if this is granted, begins monitoring everything that’s happening on the smartphone.
If the owner opens the Binance or Trust Wallet app to send USDT, the malware overlays a fake screen on top of the wallet interface, effectively swapping the recipient’s address for its own. All transfers go to the attackers.
The trojan features an advanced remote control system and is capable of executing many other commands:
Intercepting one-time codes from Google Authenticator
Recording audio from the microphone
Streaming the screen in real-time
Monitoring the clipboard and intercept keystrokes
Sending SMS messages
Simulating taps on specific areas of the screen and text input according to a script sent by the attacker, and much more
All of this makes it possible to rob the victim when they use any other banking or payment services — not just crypto payments.
Sometimes victims are infected with a different module for espionage and remote smartphone control — the BTMOB remote access trojan. Its malicious capabilities are even broader, including:
Automatic acquisition of certain permissions on Android 13–15
Continuous geolocation tracking
Access to the front and rear cameras
Obtaining PIN codes and passwords for screen unlocking
Capturing keyboard input
How to protect yourself from BeatBanker
Cybercriminals are constantly refining their attacks and coming up with new ways to profit from their victims. Despite this, you can protect yourself by following a few simple precautions:
Download apps from official sources only, such as Google Play or the app store preinstalled by the vendor. If you find an app while searching the internet, don’t open it via a link from your browser; instead, head to the Google Play app or another branded store on your smartphone to search for it there. While you’re at it, check the number of downloads, the app’s age, and look at the ratings and reviews. Avoid new apps, apps with low ratings, and those with a small number of downloads.
Check any permissions you grant. Don’t grant permissions if you’re not sure what they do or why that specific app requires them. Be extra careful with permissions like Install unknown apps, Accessibility, Superuser, and Display over other apps. We’ve written about these in detail in a separate article.
Equip your device with a comprehensive anti-malware solution. We, naturally, recommend Kaspersky for Android. Users of Kaspersky products are protected from BeatBanker — detected with the verdicts HEUR:Trojan-Dropper.AndroidOS.BeatBanker and HEUR:Trojan-Dropper.AndroidOS.Banker.*.
Threats to Android users have been going through the roof lately. Check out our other posts on the most relevant and widespread Android attacks and tips for keeping you and your loved ones safe:
Our experts have detected a new wave of malicious emails targeting Russian private-sector organizations. The goal of the attack is to infect victims’ computers with an infostealer. This campaign is particularly noteworthy because the attackers tried to disguise their activity as the operations of legitimate software and traffic to the ubiquitously-used state and municipal services website.
How the attack begins
The attackers distribute an email containing a malicious attachment disguised as a regular PDF document. In reality, the file is an executable hiding behind a PDF icon; double-clicking it triggers an infection chain on the victim’s computer. In the campaign we analyzed, the malicious files were named УВЕДОМЛЕНИЕ о возбуждении исполнительного производства (NOTICE of Initiation of Enforcement Proceedings) and Дополнительные выплаты (Additional Payouts), though these are probably not the only document names the attackers employ to trick victims into clicking the files.
Technically, the file disguised as a document is a downloader built with the help of the .NET framework. It downloads a secondary loader that installs itself as a service to establish persistence on the victim’s machine. This other loader then retrieves a JSON string containing encrypted files from the command-and-control server. It saves these files to the compromised computer in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft Diagnostic\Tasks, and executes them one by one.
Example of the server response
The key feature of this delivery method is its flexibility: the attackers can provide any malicious payload from the command-and-control server for the malware to download and execute. Presently, the attackers are using an infostealer as the final payload, but this attack could potentially be used to deliver even more dangerous threats – such as ransomware, wipers, or tools for deeper lateral movement within the victim’s infrastructure.
Masking malicious activity
The command-and-control server used to download the malicious payload in this attack was hosted on the domain gossuslugi{.}com. The name is visually similar to Russia’s widely used state and municipal services portal. Furthermore, the second-stage loader has the filename NetworkDiagnostic.exe, which installs itself in the system as a Network Diagnostic Service.
Consequently, an analyst doing only a superficial review of network traffic logs or system events might overlook the server communication and malware execution. This can also complicate any subsequent incident investigation efforts.
What the infostealer collects
The attackers start by gathering information about the compromised system: the computer name, OS version, hardware specifications, and the victim’s IP address. Additionally, the malware is capable of capturing screenshots from the victim’s computer, and harvesting files in formats of interest to the attackers (primarily various documents and archives). Files smaller than 100MB, along with the rest of the collected data, are sent to a separate communication server: ants-queen-dev.azurewebsites{.}net.
File formats of interest to the attackers
The final malicious payload currently in use consists of four files: one executable and three DLL libraries. The executable enables screen capture capabilities. One of the libraries is used to add the executable to startup, another is responsible for data collection, while the third handles data exfiltration.
During network communication, the malware adds an AuthKey header to its requests, which contains the victim’s operating system identifier.
Code snippet: a function for sending messages to the attackers’ server
How to stay safe
Our security solutions detect both the malicious code used in this attack and its communication with the attackers’ command-and-control servers. Therefore, we recommend using reliable security solutions on all devices used by your company to access the internet. And to prevent malicious emails from ever reaching your employees, we also advise deploying a security solution at the corporate email gateway level too.
In November 2025, Kaspersky experts uncovered a new stealer named Stealka, which targets Windows users’ data. Attackers are using Stealka to hijack accounts, steal cryptocurrency, and install a crypto miner on their victims’ devices. Most frequently, this infostealer disguises itself as game cracks, cheats and mods.
Here’s how the attackers are spreading the stealer, and how you can protect yourself.
How Stealka spreads
A stealer is a type of malware that collects confidential information stored on the victim’s device and sends it to the attackers’ server. Stealka is primarily distributed via popular platforms like GitHub, SourceForge, Softpedia, sites.google.com, and others, disguised as cracks for popular software, or cheats and mods for games. For the malware to be activated, the user must run the file manually.
Here’s an example: a malicious Roblox mod published on SourceForge.
Attackers exploited SourceForge, a legitimate website, to upload a mod containing Stealka
And here’s one on GitHub posing as a crack for Microsoft Visio.
A pirated version of Microsoft Visio containing the stealer, hosted on GitHub
Sometimes, however, attackers go a step further (and possibly use AI tools) to create entire fake websites that look quite professional. Without the help of a robust antivirus, the average user is unlikely to realize anything is amiss.
A fake website pretending to offer Roblox scripts
Admittedly, the cracks and software advertised on these fake sites can sometimes look a bit off. For example, here the attackers are offering a download for Half-Life 3, while at the same time claiming it’s not actually a game but some kind of “professional software solution designed for Windows”.
Malware disguised as Half-Life 3, which is also somehow “a professional software solution designed for Windows”. A lot of professionals clearly spent their best years on this software…
The truth is that both the page title and the filename are just bait. The attackers simply use popular search terms to lure users into downloading the malware. The actual file content has nothing to do with what’s advertised — inside, it’s always the same infostealer.
The site also claimed that all hosted files were scanned for viruses. When the user decides to download, say, a pirated game, the site displays a banner saying the file is being scanned by various antivirus engines. Of course, no such scanning actually takes place; the attackers are merely trying to create an illusion of trustworthiness.
The pirated file pretends to be scanned by a dozen antivirus tools
What makes Stealka dangerous
Stealka has a fairly extensive arsenal of capabilities, but its prime target is data from browsers built on the Chromium and Gecko engines. This puts over a hundred different browsers at risk, including popular ones like Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Yandex Browser, Edge, Brave, as well as many, many others.
Browsers store a huge amount of sensitive information, which attackers use to hijack accounts and continue their attacks. The main targets are autofill data, such as sign-in credentials, addresses, and payment card details. We’ve warned repeatedly that saving passwords in your browser is risky — attackers can extract them in seconds. Cookies and session tokens are perhaps even more valuable to hackers, as they can allow criminals to bypass two-factor authentication and hijack accounts without entering the password.
The story doesn’t end with the account hack. Attackers use these compromised accounts to spread the malware further. For example, we discovered the stealer in a GTAV mod posted on a dedicated site by an account that had previously been compromised.
Beyond stealing browser data, Stealka also targets the settings and databases of 115browser extensions for crypto wallets, password managers, and 2FA services. Here are some of the most popular extensions now at risk:
Finally, the stealer also downloads local settings, account data, and service files from a wide variety of applications:
Crypto wallets. Wallet configurations may contain encrypted private keys, seed-phrase data, wallet file paths, and encryption parameters. That’s enough to at least make an attempt at stealing your cryptocurrency. At risk are 80 wallet applications, including Binance, Bitcoin, BitcoinABC, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Exodus, Mincoin, MyCrypto, MyMonero, Monero, Nexus, Novacoin, Solar, and many others.
Messaging apps. Messaging app service files store account data, device identifiers, authentication tokens, and the encryption parameters for your conversations. In theory, a malicious actor could gain access to your account and read your chats. At risk are Discord, Telegram, Unigram, Pidgin, Tox, and others.
Password managers. Even if the passwords themselves are encrypted, the configuration files often contain information that makes cracking the vault significantly easier: encryption parameters, synchronization tokens, and details about the vault version and structure. At risk are 1Password, Authy, Bitwarden, KeePass, LastPass, and NordPass.
Email clients. These are where your account credentials, mail server connection settings, authentication tokens, and local copies of your emails can be found. With access to your email, an attacker will almost certainly attempt to reset passwords for your other services. At risk are Gmail Notifier Pro, Claws, Mailbird, Outlook, Postbox, The Bat!, Thunderbird, and TrulyMail.
Note-taking apps. Instead of shopping lists or late-night poetry, some users store information in their notes that has no business being there, like seed phrases or passwords. At risk are NoteFly, Notezilla, SimpleStickyNotes, and Microsoft StickyNotes.
Gaming services and clients. The local files of gaming platforms and launchers store account data, linked service information, and authentication tokens. At risk are Steam, Roblox, Intent Launcher, Lunar Client, TLauncher, Feather Client, Meteor Client, Impact Client, Badlion Client, and WinAuth for battle.net.
VPN clients. By gaining access to configuration files, attackers can hijack the victim’s VPN account to mask their own malicious activities. At risk are AzireVPN, OpenVPN, ProtonVPN, Surfshark, and WindscribeVPN.
That’s an extensive list — and we haven’t even named all of them! In addition to local files, this infostealer also harvests general system data: a list of installed programs, the OS version and language, username, computer hardware information, and miscellaneous settings. And as if that weren’t enough, the malware also takes screenshots.
How to protect yourself from Stealka and other infostealers
Secure your device with reliable antivirus software. Even downloading files from legitimate websites is no guarantee of safety — attackers leverage trusted platforms to distribute stealers all the time. Kaspersky Premium detects malware on your computer in time and alerts you to the threat.
Don’t store sensitive information in browsers. It’s handy — no one can argue with that. But unfortunately browsers aren’t the most secure environment for your data. Sign-in credentials, bank card details, secret notes, and other confidential information are better kept in a securely encrypted format in Kaspersky Password Manager, which is immune to the exploits used by Stealka.
Enable two-factor authentication or use backup codes wherever possible.Two-factor authentication (2FA) makes life much harder for attackers, while backup codes help you regain access to your critical accounts if compromised. Just be sure not to store backup codes in text documents, notes, or your browser. For all your backup codes and 2FA tokens, use a reliable password manager.
Curious what other stealers are out there, and what they’re capable of? Read more in our other posts: