A few days ago, I got access to the source code of the well-known Elite Loader for free. Yes. It was published on one of the Russian underground forums. It even had a detailed description and screenshots showing how to use the application’s command and control (C&C) server.

Apart from dropping malicious files on infected machines, Elite Loader also allows malicious users to upload additional software to targeted systems to steal passwords or deploy spam or distributed denial of service (DDoS) modules that other cybercriminals can use.

The bot’s size is only 8kb, making the dropping process relatively hidden. The bot works perfectly well on the Microsoft XP Service Packs 1, 2, and 3 and Vista OSs and supports multiple job instances.

The malware distribution business seems to have gone public. Elite Loader, for instance, was published by well-known Lonely Wolf—one of the moderators of the underground forum, DaMaGeLaB—with detailed instructions in the archive and even dedicated thread posts. This will make it easy even for script kiddies to create their own malicious code.

Trend Micro detects the variants of the Elite Loader dropper as part of the DLOADER family of Trojans so product users need not worry about being infected. Trend Micro Smart Protection Network™ blocks the download of all malicious files and access to malicious URLs related to this bot.

Non-Trend Micro product users who think their systems may have already been infected can clean their PCs using RUBotted.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!