Cybercriminals have been selling anti-virus (AV) and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions killers as a method to propagate malware evading detection.
Vx-underground posted their latest AV and EDR killer hours after another claim popped up. According to a demo posted by a cybersecurity researcher, the AV and EDR killers helped the user escape detection.
Furthermore, the seller of the AV and EDR killer also boasted of it being capable of impacting Extended Detection and Response (XDR).
Details of the AV and EDR killers sold on the dark web
“I am selling a private program to terminate all AVs/ EDRs/ XDRs in a legitimate way and it has been tested on most of Avs/ EDRs/ XDRs that exist in the mark(et) such as WD, Sophos, Carbon black, SentinelOne, ESET, Kaspersky, etc,” the endorsement by a threat actor by the name Spyboy read.
The seller testified about the effectiveness of the AV and EDR killer on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008, which was not possible with the one’s sold on xss.is and other forums.
The AV/ EDR/ XDR killer could evade detection on versions from Windows 7 until Windows 11 and from Windows Server 2008 to Windows Server 2022.
They posted two videos demonstrating how the AV/ EDR killer evaded Sophos and CrowdStrike detection as shown below:
Addressing the mention of Sophos in the video, Dennis Griffin, the VP of Engineering at Sophos clarified, “FYI, the video is of Sophos Home, which is not at all representative of our commercial product for businesses.”
Another reader wrote that the AV/ EDR/ XDR killer was too cheap to be true.
AV/ EDR killer on sale, where would it work?
Spyboy named several solutions that the AV and EDR killer evaded in order to compromise its security and potentially offer access to cyber criminals. They were –
- Cortex
- Cylance
- Kaspersky
- AVAST
- AVG
- Symantec
- McAfee
- BitDefender
- TrendMicro
- Panda
- Malwarebytes
- CheckPoint Endpoint
- TopSec
- 360 Internet Security
- Aliyun
- Vipre
- Webroot
- Cybereason
The all-in-one version of the AV/ EDR killer was charged $1,500 for the first five buyers. Following that, its cost would increase to $3,000.
“$300 for one build for a specific AV/EDR/XDR,” Spyboy wrote about selling the AV killers individually. They added that Specific EDR killers would not be sold alone including the ones for SentinelOne, Sophos, CrowdStrike, Carbon Black, Cortex, and Cylance.
They even mentioned a downloader for the terminator that would first disable the security and then execute it. These were available on PM or TOX for negotiation.
A user on Twitter responded to the claim of its effectiveness by stating that it is not as daunting as it seems to appear. Because the AV and EDR killer files would require to be run as an administrator which not all users can, readily.
VX-Underground to launch its AV/EDR killer program
Cybersecurity researcher from VX-Underground noticed the AV and EDR killer in the dark web and announced that they will also launch their own version of it.
Their tweet read, “We have seen a trend in Threat Actors selling AV/EDR killers. We have decided to unveil our own AV/EDR killer program,” with the following screenshot –
The Cyber Express reached out to VX-Underground for comments about them unveiling their own program for evading detection. We will update the article after receiving their response.
AV, EDR and XDR killers
AV killers are offensive and malicious security solutions that disables virus protection programs. It allows malware to enter systems while also evading firewall protection in some instances.
Dubbed AuKill, Sophos X-Ops stated that EDR processes are killed by these tools by exploiting outdated versions of the driver. EDR killers disable EDR detection and also help in deploying a backdoor for hackers to connect with commands on the target’s systems.
XDR helps detect attacks within a network better than most EDRs could. It could help collect information from several threat vectors. AN XDR killer can pose a critical threat to enterprise security which more often relies heavily on detection tools including AV/EDR/XDR.
These security tools not only offer enhanced security, but also detects keyloggers, malware, and suspicious communications reaching the server.