Pirate Matryoshka

The Pirate Matryoshka is a new malware that was detected on the widely known torrent website ThePirateBay. As the saying goes, nothing is free, and such is the case with downloading seemingly 'free' software, music and films too. Often, such content holds great risk, but users worldwide refuse to listen to cybersecurity experts that warn against downloading pirated files.

The Pirate Matryoshka has several capabilities, but the one that stands out is the one that has given its name. Just like the famous Russian dolls that hold more dolls within them, the Pirate Matryoshka self-replicates by collecting accounts of users and using them to upload torrents, which have copies of the malware. The authors of the Pirate Matryoshka do this by tricking the user into downloading one of their infected torrents and then presenting them with a fake pop-up window, which requires them to log in with their password and username. If the victim falls into this trap, their account information will be available for the attackers to use and possibly hijack to continue spreading their malware. You may beasking why to endure all the fuss if they can just create new accounts to spread it but the answer it is that older accounts, which have been used for years would seem much more trustworthy than recently created, empty accounts. This would likely get a much larger number of people to fall for this tactic.

The end goal of the authors of the Pirate Matryoshka, however, is not just to replicate their creation to infinity. This is just a tool they use while the real aim here is to spread PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs) to more unsuspecting users. These are often in the shape of suspicious Web browsers, system 'optimizers', dodgy media players, and in some instances outright threatening applications too. To ensure that these PUPs will end up on the user's system, the Pirate Matryoshka will employ its auto-clicker and make it impossible to unclick the permission boxes during the installation process.

The moral of the story is that dealing with pirated content online is not worth the risk and can cause far more harm than good. Also, make sure you have installed a reputable anti-spyware tool, which would keep pests like the Pirate Matryoshka at bay.