Whitehole Exploit Kit

Posted: February 8, 2013

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Ranking:	445
Threat Level:	2/10
Infected PCs:	187,094

First Seen:	February 8, 2013
Last Seen:	October 17, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The Whitehole Exploit Kit, serving as a sort of 'just as evil' twin to the Blackhole Exploit Kit, is a package of exploits that install malicious software without your permission. Unlike BEK, the Whitehole Exploit Kit doesn't try to conceal its attacks, but the Trojans and other PC threats that are installed by Whitehole Exploit Kit may not display any symptoms of their own. Whitehole Exploit Kit -related payloads that SpywareRemove.com malware researchers are familiar with include high-level threats such as kernel-mode rootkits (also known as 'bootkits'), backdoor Trojans and ransomware Trojans. Exposure to compromised or hostile sites that host the Whitehole Exploit Kit should be considered equivalent to infecting your PC with malware. Although the Whitehole Exploit Kit is an online exploit kit that doesn't need to be removed from your computer, malware that's installed by the Whitehole Exploit Kit should be deleted by appropriate anti-malware tools.

Whitehole Exploit Kit: A Little Vanilla, But Still a Dark Danger to Your Computer

Designed with many similarities to the incredibly pervasive Blacole or BEK, the Whitehole Exploit Kit is used for the same ends as BEK: placing malware on your PC without your permission. To this end, the Whitehole Exploit Kit's coders 'rent' out the Whitehole Exploit Kit to other criminals, who may use their copies of the Whitehole Exploit Kit to install any type of harmful software that they'd like to distribute. Fees for this rental can be as low as two hundred USD – easily in the range of any modest cyber-criminal.

Unlike Blacole, the Whitehole Exploit Kit's 'release mode' attacks are visually evident and can be detected as they occur. However, the further activities of malware that's installed by a Whitehole Exploit Kit may not be as easy to detect as WEK. As far as SpywareRemove.com malware researchers have determined, some of the Whitehole Exploit Kit's most noteworthy features include:

Blocking the Google Safe Browsing feature for Chrome and Firefox, which prevents your web browser from loading harmful content.
Features to avoid triggering anti-virus and anti-malware security programs.
Launching as many as twenty separate files simultaneously.

As an exploit kit, the Whitehole Exploit Kit also may use a broad range of software vulnerabilities. SpywareRemove.com malware experts can confirm the usage of Java exploits for the Whitehole Exploit Kit, but exploits for other applications also are a heavy probability.

Preventing Your PC from Becoming a Part of the Whitehole Exploit Kit's Business Model

Since the Whitehole Exploit Kit is largely associated with harmful sites, avoiding means of being redirected to a Whitehole Exploit Kit's site also will help to guard your PC against malware that the Whitehole Exploit Kit could install. Unusual e-mail links social networking links and browser-redirecting hijacks all should be noted as major possibilities for exposure to the Whitehole Exploit Kit.

Because the Whitehole Exploit Kit is a tool that can be used for installing many types of malware, SpywareRemove.com malware experts consider any possible contact with a Whitehole Exploit Kit to be a grave threat to your PC's safety. For removing as much of a Whitehole Exploit Kit's payload as is possible, you should use anti-malware applications to scan your computer thoroughly – while, hopefully, also using Safe Mode or other ways of disabling any active-in-memory malware.

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following URL's were detected:

push-news.org