Himera Loader

The Himera Loader is a perfect example of commodity malware whose authors have opted to profit from it by selling it to other cybercriminals instead of using it in their own operations. According to advertisements about the Himera Loader, the application's Server & Client modules can be purchased for about 700 Rubles – the price in USD was not listed on any of the forums and the advertisements were written in Russian, so it is safe to assume that the authors focus on selling to Russian crooks.

The purpose of the Himera Loader is to infiltrate a computer and then collect information about its operating system, hardware, software and configuration. The gathered intelligence is transmitted to the attacker's server, and then the Himera Loader implant will wait for further commands. The primary purpose of the threat is to gain persistence on the compromised system and then wait for a suitable time to execute a secondary payload that the attackers will choose. Cybercriminals often rely on implants like the Himera Loader since they are very silent and able to infiltrate computers without causing any trouble for the victim at first – this way, the perpetrators can see what the purpose of the infiltrated network is, and can make an informed decision about the next stage of the attack.

The good news is that while the Himera Loader and similar threats are designed to try and evade security measures, you can rest assured that an up-to-date anti-malware application can keep your computer protected from the Himera Loader and the other malware it is meant to bring.