YouTube Game Cheats Spread Arcane Stealer Malware to Russian-Speaking Users
Mar 20, 2025
Malware / Threat Analysis
YouTube videos promoting game cheats are being used to deliver a previously undocumented stealer malware called Arcane likely targeting Russian-speaking users. "What's intriguing about this malware is how much it collects," Kaspersky said in an analysis. "It grabs account information from VPN and gaming clients, and all kinds of network utilities like ngrok, Playit, Cyberduck, FileZilla, and DynDNS." The attack chains involve sharing links to a password-protected archive on YouTube videos, which, when opened, unpacks a start.bat batch file that's responsible for retrieving another archive file via PowerShell. The batch file then utilizes PowerShell to launch two executables embedded within the newly downloaded archive, while also disabling Windows SmartScreen protections and every drive root folder to SmartScreen filter exceptions. Of the two binaries, one is a cryptocurrency miner and the other is a stealer dubbed VGS that's a variant of the Phe...
