Trojans - Maintain Access in victim Systems

Maintaining access once a hacker has gained access, they want to keep that access for future exploitation and attacks. once the hacker owns the system, they can use it as a base to launch additional attacks. Sometimes, hackers harden the system from other hackers or security personnel by securing their exclusive access with backdoors, rootkits, and Trojans, to g e t further access to the system.

Overview to Trojan

Trojan horse or Trojan is a type of malware that is often disguised as legitimate software. Trojans can be employed by cyber-attackers and hackers trying to gain access to users’ systems. Users are typically tricked by some form of social engineering into loading and executing Trojans on their systems. once activated, Trojans can enable an attacker to spy, steal your sensitive data, and gain backdoor access to your system. A Trojan horse isn’t just a single type of virus. It also varies to its purpose. The cybercriminal can target a specific person or spread the Trojan horse of his choice widely. This list will make you understand the different types of Trojan horses 

• Rootkits

 A rootkit is a piece of software installed on the machine that allows an attacker to do several malicious things, including opening a backdoor. A rootkit is illegally installed on the machine without the owner knowing, it runs on a target machine when an attacker somehow gained access to the system with root-level privileges. The point of the rootkit is to transform that transient access into an always-open door. Think of the rootkit being the tool that could allow a backdoor to be opened.

•   Back-doors 

A Backdoor refers to any method by which authorized and unauthorized users can get around normal security measures and gain high-level user access (root access) on a computer system, network, or software application. once they’re in, an attacker can use a backdoor to steal personal and financial data, install additional malware, and hijack devices. But backdoors aren’t just for attackers. Backdoors can also be installed by software or hardware makers as a deliberate means of gaining access to their technology after the fact. Backdoors of the non-criminal variety are useful for helping their customers who are hopelessly logged out of their devices or for troubleshooting and resolving software issues.

•   Trojan-Banker 

A Trojan banker is designed to get financial information or hack users through a banking or financial system, commonly through an online banking or brokerage interface sometimes this trojan redirects banking site traffic of users to the attacker’s site.

• Remote Access Trojans

 A remote access Trojan (RAT) is a malware program that includes a back door for administrative control over the target computer. RATs are usually downloaded invisibly with a user-requested program such as a game or sent as an email attachment to the victim. 

•  Data Sending Trojans 

This type of Trojan horses is designed to provide the attacker with sensitive data such as passwords, credit card information, log files, email address or IM contact lists. These Trojans can look for specific pre-defined data (e.g., just credit card information or passwords), or they install a keylogger and send all recorded keystrokes back to the attacker

•  Destructive Trojans 

This trojan is designed to destroy or delete data from the victim’s system. once a destructive Trojan infects a computer system, it randomly deletes files, folders, and registry entries, often resulting in oS failures. A destructive Trojan is usually in program form or manipulated to strike like a logic bomb programmed and specified by the attacker.

• Proxy Trojans 

A proxy Trojan is a virus that hijacks and turns the host computer into a proxy server, part of a botnet, from which an attacker can stage anonymous activities and attacks, Proxy Trojan can use PC as a piece of a botnet to perfect spamming.

•   FTP Trojans 

This trojan is designed to attacks the port that is used to carry out file transfers using FTP technology, allowing the attacker to access a machine using the FTP Protocol. generally, a Trojan is a type of virus entering a system in an undetected manner and accessing all confidential data, thereby causing trouble by compromising or exposing data.

•  Security software disabler Trojans

 This Trojan horse are designed stop or kill security programs such as an antivirus program or firewall without the user knowing. This Trojan type is normally combined with another type of Trojan.

• Denial-of-service attack (DOS) Trojans 

This Trojan are designed to conduct a doS attack from an infected computer on a pre-defined address. Essentially, a doS attack involves sending numerous requests to the victim machine; this leads to a denial of service if the computer under attack does not have sufficient resources to process all the incoming requests. In order to conduct a successful dos attack, malicious users often infect a number of computers with this type of Trojan.