Security News > 2022 > February > Baby Golang-Based Botnet Already Pulling in $3K/Month for Operators

Kraken has already spread like wildfire, but in the past few months, the malware's author has been tinkering away, adding more infostealers and backdoors.

There's a new, still-under-development, Golang-based botnet called Kraken with a level of brawn that belies its youth: It's using the SmokeLoader malware loader to spread like wildfire and is already raking in a tidy USD $3,000/month for its operators, researchers report.

Though its name may sound familiar, Kraken has little to do with the 2008 botnet of the same name, wrote ZeroFox threat researcher Stephan Simon in a Wednesday post.

Using SmokeLoader to install yet more malicious software on targeted machines, Kraken is picking up hundreds of new bots each time a new command-and-control server is deployed, according to Simon's post.

ZeroFox shared a screen capture of the initial version of Kraken's panel - shown below, the C2 was named "Kraken Panel" - that's lean in features.

"As the operator(s) behind Kraken continued to expand and gather more victims, ZeroFox began observing other generic information stealers and cryptocurrency miners being deployed," according to Simon's writeup.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/golang-botnet-pulling-in-3k-month/178509/