Trojan.Ferret

Posted: January 8, 2014

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Ranking:	6,078
Threat Level:	9/10
Infected PCs:	3,431

First Seen:	January 8, 2014
Last Seen:	September 12, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Trojan.Ferret is a new botnet Trojan purposed for launching Distributed-Denial-of-Service (or DDOS) attacks against any external Web servers that are specified by its criminal administrators. DDOS attacks aren't targeted at the computers infected with Trojan.Ferret, but still may be the cause of major performance and stability issues. Naturally, a Trojan.Ferret infection also is a direct threat to your PC's safety, and malware experts advise the use of anti-malware tools whenever you need to detect or delete Trojan.Ferret, which does its best to conceal itself.

The Online Prey that this Ferret is Digging After... by Using Your PC as a Tunnel

With major gaming services Steam and Origin both significantly inconvenienced by recent DDOS attacks, PC users have as much reason as ever to look into the origins of these campaigns. Usually, they begin with PCs infected by threats like Trojan.Ferret, which recently was identified by a Russian anti-malware expert. Malware researchers have been able to confirm that Trojan.Ferret is active 'in the wild,' meaning that Trojan.Ferret already is in general distribution and may be being used to attack websites.

Trojan.Ferret is a traditional DDOS Trojan that infects PCs through methods like drive-by-downloads or spam. After its installation onto your PC, Trojan.Ferret connects to an external server to receive instructions from its masters; the control menu for Trojan.Ferret is wherein acquires its name (from the Web page label of 'Ferret Tester'). Once Trojan.Ferret receives the relevant instructions, Trojan.Ferret may begin to flood specified websites with artificial traffic. In conjunction, countless computers infected by Trojan.Ferret easily may crash any given Web server, while also using up the computers' resources for illegal activities.

Malware researchers have seen DDOS attacks from Trojans like Trojan.Ferret responsible for a variety of illegal operations. In some cases, they may cover up the theft of bank account information, while in others, they merely are nuisances that are meant to annoy a company or spread a political message.

Blocking the Trojan.Ferret's Path to Crime

Trojan.Ferret doesn't need to show symptoms that would clue its victims in as to its activities, but, despite its potential low profile, Trojan.Ferret is a security hazard to your PC on par with a basic backdoor Trojan. Trojan.Ferret also appears to have been developed with features for avoiding some forms of anti-malware analysis, with its access to anti-VM features, obfuscated functionality and polymorphic code being some of the most obvious issues. However, all of these defenses shouldn't be able to stop you from deleting Trojan.Ferret with an appropriately sophisticated and updated anti-malware product.

Although Trojan.Ferret is in active distribution, only a limited number of samples have been acquired, so far, and its further uses and distribution methods still are being investigated. For now, malware researchers must recommend all of the standard Web-browsing safeties that would be helpful versus any similar PC threat. Keep your software updated to cut down on vulnerabilities, avoid sites of a suspicious nature, scan files before launching them and disable often-exploited browser features to reduce any possibility of Trojan.Ferret infections in the future.

Trojan.Ferret

Threat Metric

The Online Prey that this Ferret is Digging After... by Using Your PC as a Tunnel

Blocking the Trojan.Ferret's Path to Crime

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