Spider-Man: No Way Home pirated copies on torrent websites found infected with crypto-mining malware

STAND OUT :

• A new cryptojacking malware is spreading through pirated copies of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
• Malware is very difficult to detect on a system.
• Redirect CPU usage towards Monero privacy coin mining.

Spider-Man: No Way Home has been a blockbuster in theaters around the world, bringing back fond memories of many favorite child superheroes. However, those who download pirated copies of the latest Marvel movie are getting more than just memories. The hacked copies come with cryptocurrency mining malware, the researchers warned.

A new cryptojacking malware is spreading through pirated copies of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Downloading a pirated copy of Spider-Man: No Way Home from a torrent website can be an invitation to mining malware, Reason Cybersecurity researchers warned. According to the researchers, many pirated copies of the film, which are shared over the Internet, include cryptojacking malware with the file name "spiderman_net_putidomoi.torrent.exe".

Once malware infects a system, it can successfully hijack your computing power and redirect you to mining the Monero privacy coin. In a blog, ReasonLabs researchers state that the malware is "probably from a Russian torrent website."

Malware is very difficult to detect on a system.

Since it is a cryptojacking malware, it does not try to steal information from a target system. However, it drastically increases the use of a PC's CPU to mine the cryptocurrency, which ultimately leads to an increase in the electricity bill. The researchers warn that the miner works for long periods and gradually slows down an infected device.
Researchers do not yet know how many times the malware has been downloaded. However, they do mention that the malware has been around for some time.

Malware is not easy to detect. According to the researchers, once malware infects a system, it adds exclusions to Windows Defender. In addition, it generates a watchdog process to continue mining without tracking on the victim's CPU. This means that the malware kills any process that shares the name of its components. This ensures that only one instance is running at a time.

Redirect CPU usage towards Monero privacy coin mining.

Researchers are warning people not to download this type of content from illegal sources. An easy precaution, the blog notes, is that users should always check the file extension to be sure what they are downloading. For example, a movie file must end with ".mp4", not ".exe". Users must do a thorough verification of the content they download and the source from which they download it.

The authors of DarkWatchman, an extremely difficult-to-detect malware that can execute remote commands and transmit valuable data to the threat actor, are practicing a similar form of malware spread. The malware spreads as a ZIP attachment found in phishing emails. The ZIP file contains a text file, which is, in fact, an executable file in disguise. The file can install the RAT and the keylogger on the target system. You can read all about DarkWatchman here.

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