The VPN You Shouldn’t Have Downloaded
Source : The Hacker News A sophisticated malware campaign has emerged, leveraging counterfeit VPN and browser installers to deploy Winos 4.0, a stealthy remote access trojan (RAT). Disguised as legitimate applications like LetsVPN and QQBrowser, these trojanized installers exploit the Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS) to execute a multi-stage, in-memory attack sequence. [2,4] The infection chain initiates with the Catena loader, a memory-resident component that employs shellcode embedded in .ini files and reflective DLL injection to evade traditional antivirus detection. This loader orchestrates the deployment of Winos 4.0, a modular malware framework capable of data exfiltration, remote shell access, and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. [2] Notably, the malware exhibits region-specific targeting, primarily focusing on Chinese-speaking users. It checks for Chinese language settings on infected systems, although this filter is not strictly enforced, indicating po...