What is Kratos Silent Miner?

Kratos Silent Miner is a piece of malware offered on hacking forums, for the low fee of $100/month. This means that any cybercriminal can start using it, as long as they have some funds to pay the subscription fee. This turns such threats into a major issue, since they could be used by hundreds of hackers simultaneously – all of them targeting different regions, and relying on unique malware propagation schemes.

How easy Kratos Silent Miner is to obtain is not the only terrifying this about this implant. It is also a very feature-rich malware toolkit, which provides its operators with access to various tools. While the primary purpose of the Kratos Silent Miner is to utilize a system's CPU & GPU resources to mine for Ethereum or Ethereum Classic, it also packs a 'clipper' module.

Clipper malware popularity grew alongside the cryptocurrency market. This type of malware monitors the Windows clipboard for strings that match addresses used by cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Bitcoin, Monero, and hundreds of others. If it detects that the victim has copied such an address, it replaces it with the attacker's wallet. This way, users who do not double-check the address of their cryptocurrency recipient may end up unknowingly transferring funds to the operators of the malware.

Cryptocurrency-targeted malware has been becoming more and more frequent over the past few years, and you should take the necessary precautions to keep yourself safe. We advise you to use an up-to-date antivirus software suite at all times in order to prevent threats like the Kratos Silent Miner from ever penetrating your system's defenses.