How to steal a million (of your data)

[harlan4096]

Contents
What’s being stolen?
How passwords get stolen from browsers
Google Chrome and Chromium-based browsers
Firefox and browsers based on it
Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge
Some facts
Code borrowing/reuse
Narrow expertise required
Using different programming languages
Conclusion

Any user data — from passwords for entertainment services to electronic copies of documents — is highly prized by intruders. The reason is simply that almost any information can be monetized. For instance, stolen data can be used to transfer funds to cybercriminal accounts, order goods or services, and, if the desire or opportunity is lacking to do it oneself, it can always be sold on to other cybercrooks.

This thirst for stolen data is confirmed by the statistics: in the first half of 2019, more than 940,000 users were attacked by malware designed to harvest a variety of data on the computers. For comparison, in the same period of 2018, slightly less than 600,000 users of Kaspersky products were attacked. The threat’s called “Stealer Trojans” or Password Stealing Ware (PSW), a type of malware designed to steal passwords, files, and other data from victim computers.

Over the past six months, we have detected such malware most often among users in Russia, Germany, India, Brazil, United States and Italy.

What’s being stolen?

Such stealers are commonly touted on malware seller/buyer forums. Each vendor advertises their product as the most effective and multifunctional, describing a wide spectrum of its capabilities.

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