Disdain Exploit Kit

The Disdain Exploit Kit is a Web browser-based package that uses exploits to infect your PC. Since third-party con artists can configure this payload freely, contact with a Disdain Exploit Kit can result in various consequences, such as the encryption of your local media, theft of private data or a remote attacker gaining backdoor access to the computer. Anti-malware programs with browser-monitoring features should detect and block the Disdain Exploit Kit, whose drive-by-download attempts may not show symptoms.

A Campaign of Exploits with Disdain for Its Customer Base

Although threat campaigns using previously favorite EKs like the Angler Exploit Kit are lesser in numbers than previously, at least one threat actor still presumes it a fertile ground for profits. The developer, known by the alias of Cehceny, is advertising his new product on Russian-based black hat forums. However, Cehceny's reputation for ripping off his ill-minded customers may be preventing any takers from hiring this EK for deploying threatening software.

The Disdain Exploit Kit is maintaining the rent-based pricing model that's prominent with similar exploit kit packages, which allows con artists to pay a monthly fee for the privilege of using the EK to install threatening software of their choice. The product's pricing is competitive against other exploit kits that malware experts rate as being active recently, such as the Nebula Exploit Kit. Some of the extra features that Cehceny boasts as being available through the Disdain Exploit Kit include:

• A 'rotator' script allows the Disdain Exploit Kit to adjust the domains it uses for delivering its payload dynamically.
• The Disdain Exploit Kit can track victims by various statistics, including geolocation, the brand of Web browser and IP address.
• The Disdain Exploit Kit employs network anonymity exploits to prevent security researchers from tracking traffic from the payload directly to the remote attacker's panel server.

As usual, unprotected exposure to the Disdain Exploit Kit through your Web browser instigates a scan of the PC for vulnerabilities that the EK can use to install arbitrary software automatically, including backdoor Trojans, spyware, or file-locking threats like the SyncCrypt Ransomware.

Brushing Off an Attempt at Exploiting Your Browser

Threat actors renting the EK can configure its payload as they please, and any single point of contact with a Disdain Exploit Kit through a corrupted or hacked website may have wildly varying consequences. Although infection vectors in 2017 have been shifting towards emphasizing e-mail spam or brute-force methodology for introducing threats to their targets, the Disdain Exploit Kit comes equipped with a range of recent exploits for accomplishing theoretically profitable drive-by-downloads. PC users are reminded to keep their browsers fully patched, and malware experts also recommend disabling scripts and advanced content whenever they're not mandatory similarly.

Exploit Kits are capable of running in multiple brands of Web browsers and, usually, will display limited to no symptoms during their attacks. However, a majority of anti-malware products include various levels of protection from these drive-by-download attacks and also may block unsafe URLs by default. Malware experts are unable to offer more than speculation on any future payloads from the Disdain Exploit Kit, although file-encrypting Trojans are some of the most commonly circulated threats of 2017.

Whether Cehceny may overcome his past reputation for bad business dealings in the dark Web remains to be determined. What is certain, however, is that EKs like the Disdain Exploit Kit are ongoing security risks to any unprotected Web surfers, even if they're not the preferred Black Hat fad of the moment.