Malwares across diferent platforms

Before I start, If you are unfamiliar with the term "malware", let me break it down for you quickly.

Malware, or “malicious software,” is an umbrella term that describes any malicious program or code that is harmful to systems.

Hostile, intrusive, and intentionally nasty, malware seeks to invade, damage, or disable computers, computer systems, networks, tablets, and mobile devices, often by taking partial control over a device’s operations. Like the human flu, it interferes with normal functioning.

The motives behind malware vary. Malware can be about making money off you, sabotaging your ability to get work done, making a political statement, or just bragging rights

Examples of common malware include viruses, worms, Trojan viruses, spyware, adware, and ransomware. Recent malware attacks have exfiltrated data in mass amounts.

Malware doesn't necessarily damage or destroy a system, with the help of a payload it can help an attacker gain access to a victim's computer.

How Malware Works?

Malware can use known software vulnerabilities to infect your PC. A vulnerability is like a hole in your software that can give malware access to your PC. When you go to a website, it can try to use vulnerabilities in your web browser to infect your PC with malware.

Malware across different systems

Malware is spread across various operating systems such as Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and even Linux.

with the user's inattention, malware can easily be downloaded on a system or device and after that, it can also be easily spread to different devices and systems.

Malware on Linux

Even tho Malware and Malware attacks on Linux are really rare, they still happen.

By the latest research result I found, from September / 6 / 2022, there is new type of "stealthy" malware called "Shikitega" which infects computers and IoT devices using additional payloads.

The malware exploits vulnerabilities to elevate its privileges adds persistence on the host via crontab and eventually launches a cryptocurrency miner on infected devices.

Shikitega is quite stealthy, managing to evade anti-virus detection using a polymorphic encoder that makes static, signature-based detection impossible.

Malware across Windows & Android

Unlike Linux, Microsoft Windows and Android are more prone to infection with malware that can be delivered differently.

If we download software or any type of files from untrusted sources, there is a high probability that our system will get infected.

Malware on Android

Android malware can even be found on Google's Play Store. Many times we could read in some news where a list of applications containing malware was mentioned which was used for example for Crypto Mining or which collected information about devices and users such as passwords, e-mails, contact numbers, credit cards, etc...

But the Google Play Store is not the only place where we can pick up malware, third-party websites that allow us to download apps, mods, videos, songs or any type of file may contain or be infected with some kind of malware.

External websites like uptdown, Dropbox, Mediafire, and more contain a large number of infected applications and files like images, and videos which are publicly available to other people and which people can download to their devices in just one click and get infected without them knowing. they know.

Malware on Windows

In the same way that malware infects Android, it can infect Windows, and user download some software or cracked/modded software, file, song and even picture from an unknown or untrusted source will (in most cases) result in the system getting infected.

On Windows, malware can hide in a lot of places which can make it harder for our Anti Virus Software to detect.

A few Common places where Malware would probably hide are:

• Critical System Files
• Windows Registry
• Inside Apps & Software, we use (we can download an infected app/software from the internet)
• Temporary Folders
• .Ink Files
• Word files such as Microsoft word
• Inside processes

One of the signs that can show us that we probably have some type of malware on our system are PopUP ads, and fast memory usage where we can notice that we have less and less memory on our drive even tho we haven't installed, downloaded or used that disk in any way which could result in memory usage.

One more sign can be a slower system, which can occur if the malware uses a lot of system resources.

If we notice that for some reason our mouse starts moving by itself, that could be, but doesn't need to be a sign that our system is infected by the RAT Virus ( Remote Acess Trojan).

Remote Access Trojan or RAT is a type of malware that gives attackers control over our system via GUI or Graphical User Interface.
I would say that RAT works similarly to Team Viewer or Team Desk in terms of device control.

So, after RAT is installed on the Device and the attacker is connected, He will get a pretty Graphical User Interface Window that will show him the victim's device screen, so the attacker will be able to see everything that the victim doo and It will also have control over the device, it can turn it off, delete files, install additional software, etc...

Protect yourself against Malware, Viruses, and Online Treats

The bottom line is that you need to be careful on the internet and that you need to take care about what and where you install your software and applications.

You should also keep all of your applications, Anti Virus Software and Operating Systems Up to date, keep your passwords strong, and don't expose or keep your personal information like Credit Cards saved on websites or your personal computer, because it makes you target for a lot of online treats and attackers which we call "Hackers".

A few Anti Virus Softwares that I would recommend using to protect yourself are:

• Malwarebytes
• Kaspersky
• Hitman 2

These are 3 AV Softwares that I have experience with and which I would recommend to everyone to try and choose their favorite.

In Next Post, We Will see what is Steganography and how computer viruses can be hidden inside different files like images, videos, sound files, etc...