Malware News Clipboard Hijacker Malware Monitors 2.3 Million Bitcoin Addresses

[LASER_oneXM]

Content source

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/clipboard-hijacker-malware-monitors-23-million-bitcoin-addresses/

While cryptocurrency has seen tremendous growth over the past year, sending cryptocoins still requires users to send the coins to long and hard to remember addresses. Due to this, when sending cryptocoins, many users will simply copy the address into memory from one application and paste it into another application that they are using to send the coins.


Attackers recognize that users are copying and pasting the addresses and have created malware to take advantage of this. This type of malware, called CryptoCurrency Clipboard Hijackers, works by monitoring the Windows clipboard for cryptocurrency addresses, and if one is detected, will swap it out with an address that they control. Unless a user double-checks the address after they paste it, the sent coins will go to an address under the attackers control instead the intended recipient.


While we have covered cryptocurrency clipboard hijackers in the past and they are not new, most of the previous samples monitored for 400-600 thousand cryptocurrency addresses. This week BleepingComputer noticed a sample of this type of malware that monitors for a over 2.3 million cryptocurrency addresses!

 

[Hi Brothers]

Surprised this works so effectively, people who use cryptocurrency are generally more malware-aware and "techy" than your average person using a computer opening random downloaded .exes left and right

 

[Deleted member 65228]

Surprised this works so effectively, people who use cryptocurrency are generally more malware-aware and "techy" than your average person using a computer opening random downloaded .exes left and right

There are a lot of people using crypto-currency who may be tech-savy but will not be security-savy.