Sites promoting bogus Corona Antivirus programs are taking advantage of the current COVID-19 pandemic to promote and distribute a malicious payload that will infect the target’s computer with the BlackNET RAT and add it to a botnet.

The two sites promoting the fake antivirus software can be found at antivirus-covid19[.]site and corona-antivirus[.]com as discovered by the Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence team and researchers at MalwareHunterTeam.

While the former was already taken down since Malwarebytes’ report, the one spotted by MalwareHunterTeam is still active but it had its contents altered, with the malicious links removed and a donation link added to support the scammers’ efforts.

Last but not least, the malicious sites’ makers also mention an update that will add VR sync capabilities to their fake antivirus program stating: “We analyse the corona virus in our laboratory to keep the app always up to date! Soon a corona antivirus VR synchronization will be implemented!”

If anyone fell for this, they would end up downloading an installer from antivirus-covid19[.]site/update.exe (link is now down) that will deploy the BlackNET malware onto their systems when launched. BlackNET will add the infected device to a botnet that can be controlled by its operators to perform the following actions:

  • to launch DDoS attacks
  • to upload files onto the compromised machine
  • to execute scripts
  • to take screenshots
  • to harvest keystrokes using a built-in keylogger (LimeLogger)
  • to steal bitcoin wallets
  • to harvest browser cookies and passwords.

The World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have all warned about Coronavirus-themed phishing and attacks targeting potential victims from countries around the globe