In the cryptocurrency world, there are dozens of applications looking to steal funds or defraud users in different ways. That in itself shows the industry is still attracting a lot of attention, even though it is not necessarily for the right reasons. A new “free crypto trading bot” is making the rounds, yet it will infect target devices with a Trojan Horse.
Never Trust Free Trading Bots on YouTube
As the bearish cryptocurrency market seemingly comes to an end right now, it would appear the overall interest in trading assets is rising again. A lot of users would prefer to do so in an automated manner. When prices of cryptocurrencies, tokens, and assets rise, it would appear there is also an increase in trading bot popularity. This has become a new industry for criminals to target as of late, by the look of things.
More specifically, a new GitHub repository has been discovered which seemingly offers access to a free trading bot. Although there are a fair few bots out there which do not require a monthly subscription fee or something along those lines, this one appears to be designed to cause harm first and foremost. The accompanying YouTube video claims it supports Binance, Cryptopia, and Bittrex at this time.
⚠️ A @Github user "h0lend9r" is hosting trojans targetting #cryptocurrency users – contacting vaivaijija[.]myjino[.]ru to be commanded to start new tasks (exe's hosted on @Github – ufil/ProyectoEPED and h0lend9r/bdd)https://t.co/EMbxo0UuVAhttps://t.co/bXlTou7v7R
cc: @0x736A pic.twitter.com/GeV3h9TV7F
— Harry ◊ (@sniko_) February 9, 2019
That in itself is a very remarkable development, considering how Cryptopia is shut down indefinitely. Additionally, it seems there are plenty of other options to automate trading on Binance or Bittrex these days. That in itself shows the person responsible for this video hasn’t necessarily put it too much effort in doing some research.
Even so, it is very likely this project would have gotten a lot of attention from novice cryptocurrency users. A lot of people want to make money with as little effort as possible. One user noted this GitHub repository isn’t home to just a trading bot, but rather an application designed to spread Trojan Horses to unsuspecting devices. The full impact of these Trojans remains a bit unclear at this time, yet it would appear best to effectively ignore this particular repository and seek trading bots elsewhere.
As has been the case in years prior, efforts like these usually serve one of two specific purposes. Either they try to obtain wallet.dat files installed on the infected device and try to steal Bitcoin or altcoins in the process. The second option is to hijack login credentials from a browser session and empty users’ exchange accounts. Which method was designed to be used here, remains unclear. It is known the repository will log user IPs, but the exact purpose of this information remains to be determined.
For the time being, it does not appear as if anyone has effectively downloaded and installed this fake free trading bot. That in itself is positive news, although it remains to be seen what the future will hold in this regard. It is unlikely this will be the last attempt to defraud cryptocurrency users with a “free bot”, as the search for such tools is still intensifying. Rest assured criminals will continue to look for ways to make money off of unsuspecting cryptocurrency users by any means necessary.
