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Researchers reported a malware campaign delivering a modified SilentCryptoMiner alongside a remote access trojan through illegal movie, TV, and digital library websites that pushed fake video player plugin updates. The infection chain used a ZIP archive containing a legitimate executable and a malicious DLL for DLL side-loading, then triggered stack-overflow-based ROP decryption and reflective loading to deploy the main module, a watchdog component, the RAT, and CPU/GPU miners.
The activity appears to extend operations seen since at least 2022, with refreshed infrastructure and delivery sites but largely unchanged archive structure and execution logic. The malware used DNS tunneling and date-based domain generation for execution gating and command-and-control, disabled security and power-saving features when it gained elevated privileges, and established persistence through a fake GoogleUpdateTaskMachineQC service; researchers said the campaign had substantial exposure because the affected piracy-related sites drew roughly 40 million visits in April 2026.
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5 events from the most recent confirmed update back to the earliest known activity.
In late April 2026, Kaspersky reported that the malware delivered via fake plugin updates was a modified SilentCryptoMiner fork that used junk code, a stack overflow, and a ROP chain to decrypt and reflectively load its payload in memory. The analysis also said it collected hardware identifiers and exfiltrated them through DNS tunneling, and when run as administrator it disabled security controls, deleted Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool, and altered power settings to support mining.
On 2026-05-29, Gurucul published a high-severity notice on the piracy-site malware activity, including domains, an IP address, and MD5 hashes as indicators of compromise. The notice also provided threat detection and incident-response queries to help identify related domain, IP, and file-hash activity.
In late April 2026, researchers investigated infections delivered through illegal movie, TV, and digital library websites via fake video player plugin updates. The malware was distributed as a ZIP archive containing a legitimate executable and a malicious DLL used for DLL side-loading to deploy a miner, watchdog, and RAT components.
The infected illegal movie, TV, and digital library websites collectively received about 40 million visits in April 2026, indicating the campaign's potentially large reach.
Researchers assessed the piracy-site malware campaign as a continuation of activity that has been ongoing since at least 2022, with largely unchanged archive structure and infection logic despite updated infrastructure and delivery sites.
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Researchers reported two malware campaigns that install cryptocurrency miners through trojanized downloads delivered from pirate streaming sites and fake software portals. In one operation, users visiting illicit movie and TV sites were shown a bogus video-plugin update that delivered a ZIP archive containing a legitimate executable and a malicious DLL; the DLL sideloaded a multi-stage miner framework with persistence, defense evasion, a watchdog, a **RAT** component, and CPU/GPU mining modules. The malware, a modified fork of SilentCryptoMiner, used DNS tunneling for execution gating, installed a service named `GoogleUpdateTaskMachineQC`, weakened Windows defenses, injected into `conhost.exe` and `explorer.exe`, and communicated through rotating domains and infrastructure tied to `107[.]172[.]212[.]235`. Microsoft described a related cryptojacking-focused campaign aimed at owners of high-performance PCs, using fake downloads of popular utilities and hardware-monitoring tools that were promoted through SEO poisoning and, more recently, surfaced in AI assistant recommendations. Those ZIP archives also paired a legitimate executable with a malicious DLL for sideloading, then installed **ScreenConnect** for persistent remote access, set registry autoruns and scheduled tasks, added Microsoft Defender exclusions, checked for analysis tools, and used process hollowing to launch payloads inside trusted Windows processes. After profiling infected systems, the attackers fetched GPU miners including **gminer**, **lolMiner**, and **SRBMiner-MULTI**; researchers warned the access could support not only cryptomining but also data theft, lateral movement, and eventual ransomware deployment.
Jun 29, 2026
Threat researchers reported two large malware distribution operations that relied on popular consumer lures rather than software exploits. One campaign used piracy sites offering movies, TV shows, books, and digital library content to push fake plugin or browser update prompts; the downloaded ZIP files abused DLL side-loading, ROP-based decryption, and reflective loading to install a modified `SilentCryptoMiner`, a watchdog, a RAT component, and CPU/GPU miners. The malware gated execution through DNS tunneling and date-generated command-and-control infrastructure, harvested host data, and established persistence with a fake `GoogleUpdateTaskMachineQC` service and repeated UAC elevation attempts, with implicated sites drawing roughly 40 million visits in a single month. A separate operation used `openew[.]app`, a fake ChatGPT download page impersonating OpenAI, to infect both Windows and macOS users with platform-specific malware. Windows visitors received a credential-stealing loader disguised as `Chat_GPT.exe`, built with Inno Setup and Electron and launching PowerShell activity that contacted `188.137.246.189`, while macOS users were served **Atomic Stealer (AMOS)** to steal passwords, browser data, Telegram sessions, and cryptocurrency wallet information. Researchers said the macOS payload also attempted to replace legitimate Ledger and Trezor applications with trojanized versions, underscoring a strong cryptocurrency theft motive and showing how attackers are exploiting AI-brand search traffic and piracy demand to scale malware infections.
Jun 29, 2026
Elastic Security Labs reported that the financially motivated **REF1695** operation has used counterfeit software installers since November 2023 to infect victims with remote access trojans and cryptocurrency miners. Recent activity relied on fake **ISO** files containing a .NET Reactor-protected loader and a text file that led to deployment of a previously undocumented **.NET implant** called **CNB Bot**, which can inject additional payloads. The infection chain instructed users to bypass Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, then used PowerShell to add broad Microsoft Defender Antivirus exclusions, launch malware, and display a fake application error to mask the compromise. Researchers linked the same actor to campaigns delivering **PureRAT**, **PureMiner**, a custom .NET-based **XMRig** loader, and **SilentCryptoMiner**, with some payloads abusing the vulnerable signed drivers `WinRing0x64.sys` and `Winring0.sys` to tune CPU settings and improve mining performance. The operation also used watchdog functions and scheduled tasks for persistence and recovery, communicated with command-and-control servers over HTTP POST, and abused **GitHub** as a trusted platform for staged payload delivery to reduce detection. Elastic estimated the campaign generated **27.88 XMR** across four tracked wallets, worth about **$9,392**.
Jun 29, 2026