Malware News Free Darktrack RAT Has the Potential of Being the Best RAT on the Market

[Exterminator]

A remote access trojan (RAT) developed and provided for free by a malware coder named Luckyduck is actually as good as other top-shelf commercial RATs available today.

This freemium distribution model is strange on today's malware scene where all powerful toolkits are available for a price on underground hacking forums or Dark Web marketplaces, especially if they're actually any good.

Free RATs are often incomplete, easily detected by antivirus engines, and often backdoored by their creators.

That's why, when a security researcher that goes by the name of MalwareHunterTeam came across a Darktrack sample at the end of August, things just didn't add up.

Darktrack as good as commercial RATs
The RAT was full of powerful features, usually found in commercial RATs. But when MalwareHunterTeam tracked down the RAT's homepage, he discovered that Darktrack's creator was offering it for free, and pledging to do so forever.

MalwareHunterTeam had come across Darktrack version 4.0. In the meantime, after the researcher's tip-off, Softpedia has been keeping an eye out for Darktrack mentions online, trying to see how this RAT evolved.

As it turns out, on the same day that MalwareHunterTeam discovered version 4.0, Luckyduck opened a thread on one of the largest underground hacking forums, teasing an upcoming version called Darktrack Alien+ 4.1.

"The previous [4.0] version was also at least as good as the current 'best selling' RATs," MalwareHunterTeam told Softpedia. "If the new version will be even better, and still free, don't think there is any reason to buy a paid RAT."

Malware author doing business on the public Internet
Answering questions from other forum users, Luckyduck said that a new and improved version was very close to its release. On September 4, Luckyduck uploaded a video on YouTube showing Darktrack Alien+ 4.1 during early tests.