Infostealers are a category of malware designed to extract personal information from the victim by attacking the processes and tools through which this data is used or stored. The goal is to capture this information for fraudulent use or send it outside to later resell it to other cybercriminals .
The information that attackers try to exfiltrate by infecting victims' computers, workstations belarus consumer mobile number list or servers, with infostealer malware, are mainly:
login panel access credentials
passwords saved in the browser
cookies
card/payment instrument data
How Infostealers Work
Infostealer malware, once infected in the system, operates silently , without showing obvious traces of their presence, as can happen with other categories of viruses that can cause system crashes, excessive use of resources, opening of unwanted web pages or applications, etc.
The most common modes of operation of an infostealer consist of:
Become “listeners” to intercept credential entry events on login panels by intercepting:
the credentials, username and password, manually entered in the login forms (keylogging).
the credentials saved in the browser for automatic insertion into the login forms
the credentials automatically entered in the login form using the login via Facebook, Google, Linkedin.
Activate at regular intervals to accept data present in the system, in files, databases or cache memory
The collected data is then sent over the network by the infostealer, in ways designed to make the sending event unnoticeable to the user.
This information, more and more often, is not directly used by attackers but is sold on the Darkweb or Deepweb to be used by other attackers to carry out fraudulent activities.
A very common example is that of control panel credentials exfiltrated from customers' computers, which are then sold to be used to access the panels and make purchases of domains or other services, using the payment instruments registered by the defrauded customers.