SYMBOLCOMMON_NAMEaka. SYNONYMS
win.darkgate (Back to overview)

DarkGate

aka: Meh, MehCrypter

First documented in 2018, DarkGate is a commodity loader with features that include the ability to download and execute files to memory, a Hidden Virtual Network Computing (HVNC) module, keylogging, information-stealing capabilities, and privilege escalation. DarkGate makes use of legitimate AutoIt files and typically runs multiple AutoIt scripts. New versions of DarkGate have been advertised on a Russian language eCrime forum since May 2023.

References
2025-06-29 ⋅ Medium Sapir Twig ⋅ Sapir Twig
Inside DarkGate: In-Depth Technical Analysis of the Malware-as-a-Service Threat
DarkGate
2025-04-15 ⋅ ⋅ Orange Cyberdefense ⋅ André Henschel, Friedl Holzner
CyberSOC Insights: Analysis of a Black Basta Attack Campaign
Black Basta DarkGate Lumma Stealer
2024-12-04 ⋅ Rapid7 ⋅ Tyler McGraw
Black Basta Ransomware Campaign Drops Zbot, DarkGate, and Custom Malware
Black Basta Cobalt Strike DarkGate SystemBC Zloader
2024-11-18 ⋅ Proofpoint ⋅ Proofpoint Threat Research Team, Selena Larson, Tommy Madjar
Security Brief: ClickFix Social Engineering Technique Floods Threat Landscape
AsyncRAT Brute Ratel C4 DanaBot DarkGate Latrodectus Lumma Stealer NetSupportManager RAT XWorm
2024-10-31 ⋅ Spamhaus ⋅ Spamhaus Malware Labs
Toot about Darkgate / SSLoad targeting Ukraine
DarkGate SSLoad
2024-07-11 ⋅ McAfee ⋅ Vignesh Dhatchanamoorthy, Yashvi Shah
ClickFix Deception: A Social Engineering Tactic to Deploy Malware
DarkGate Lumma Stealer
2024-06-17 ⋅ Proofpoint ⋅ Proofpoint
From Clipboard to Compromise: A PowerShell Self-Pwn
DarkGate HijackLoader Lumma Stealer Matanbuchus NetSupportManager RAT TA571
2024-06-06 ⋅ kienmanowar Blog ⋅ m4n0w4r, Tran Trung Kien
[QuickNote] DarkGate – Make AutoIt Great Again
DarkGate
2024-06-05 ⋅ Cisco Talos ⋅ Cisco Talos
DarkGate switches up its tactics with new payload, email templates
DarkGate
2024-03-13 ⋅ Trend Micro ⋅ Aliakbar Zahravi, Peter Girnus, Simon Zuckerbraun
CVE-2024-21412: DarkGate Operators Exploit Microsoft Windows SmartScreen Bypass in Zero-Day Campaign
DarkGate
2024-03-04 ⋅ Logpoint ⋅ Anish Bogati
Inside DarkGate: Exploring the infection chain and capabilities
DarkGate
2024-02-29 ⋅ SANS ISC ⋅ John Moutos
Dissecting DarkGate: Modular Malware Delivery and Persistence as a Service
DarkGate
2024-02-28 ⋅ Security Intelligence ⋅ Golo Mühr, Ole Villadsen
X-Force data reveals top spam trends, campaigns and senior superlatives in 2023
404 Keylogger Agent Tesla Black Basta DarkGate Formbook IcedID Loki Password Stealer (PWS) Pikabot QakBot Remcos
2024-01-30 ⋅ AT&T Cybersecurity ⋅ Peter Boyle
DarkGate malware delivered via Microsoft Teams - detection and response
DarkGate
2024-01-18 ⋅ Kroll ⋅ Sean Straw
Open the DARKGATE – Brute Forcing DARKGATE Encodings
DarkGate
2024-01-17 ⋅ splunk ⋅ Splunk Threat Research Team
Enter The Gates: An Analysis of the DarkGate AutoIt Loader
DarkGate
2024-01-16 ⋅ S2W LAB Inc. ⋅ Minyeop Choi
Detailed Analysis of DarkGate; Investigating new top-trend backdoor malware
DarkGate
2024-01-05 ⋅ VMRay ⋅ VMRay Labs Team
DarkGate from AutoIT to Shellcode Execution
DarkGate
2023-12-30 ⋅ Rewterz Information Security ⋅ Rewterz Information Security
Rewterz Threat Alert – Widely Abused MSIX App Installer Disabled by Microsoft – Active IOCs
EugenLoader POWERTRASH BATLOADER DarkGate FlawedGrace NetSupportManager RAT SectopRAT Storm-0506
2023-12-21 ⋅ Proofpoint ⋅ Axel F, Dusty Miller, Selena Larson, Tommy Madjar
BattleRoyal, DarkGate Cluster Spreads via Email and Fake Browser Updates
DarkGate
2023-12-19 ⋅ Twitter (@embee_research) ⋅ Embee_research
Free Ghidra Tutorials for Beginners
Cobalt Strike DarkGate
2023-12-14 ⋅ Mandiant ⋅ Adrian McCabe, Geoff Ackerman, Rufus Brown, Ryan Tomcik
Opening a Can of Whoop Ads: Detecting and Disrupting a Malvertising Campaign Distributing Backdoors
DanaBot DarkGate UNC4393
2023-12-14 ⋅ Mandiant ⋅ Adrian McCabe, Geoff Ackerman, Rufus Brown, Ryan Tomcik
Opening a Can of Whoop Ads: Detecting and Disrupting a Malvertising Campaign Distributing Backdoors
DanaBot DarkGate
2023-12-13 ⋅ Trend Micro ⋅ Aprilyn Borja, Catherine Loveria, Gabriel Nicoleta, Jovit Samaniego
Vishing via Microsoft Teams Facilitates DarkGate Malware Intrusion
DarkGate
2023-11-21 ⋅ Trellix ⋅ Ciana Driscoll, Ernesto Fernández Provecho, Pham Duy Phuc, Vinoo Thomas
The Continued Evolution of the DarkGate Malware-as-a-Service
DarkGate
2023-11-20 ⋅ Cofense ⋅ Dylan Duncan
Are DarkGate and PikaBot the new QakBot?
DarkGate Pikabot QakBot
2023-11-20 ⋅ Sekoia ⋅ Pierre Le Bourhis
DarkGate Internals
DarkGate
2023-11-02 ⋅ eSentire ⋅ eSentire Threat Response Unit (TRU)
From DarkGate to DanaBot
DanaBot DarkGate
2023-11-01 ⋅ Netskope ⋅ Leandro Froes
New DarkGate Variant Uses a New Loading Approach
DarkGate
2023-10-16 ⋅ Twitter (@embee_research) ⋅ Embee_research
Decoding a Simple Visual Basic (.vbs) Script - DarkGate Loader
DarkGate
2023-10-12 ⋅ Trendmicro ⋅ Trend Micro Research
DarkGate Opens Organizations for Attack via Skype, Teams
DarkGate
2023-10-04 ⋅ Twitter (@embee_research) ⋅ Embee_research
Developing Yara Signatures for Malware - Practical Examples
DarkGate Lu0Bot
2023-09-22 ⋅ PRODAFT ⋅ PRODAFT
DarkGate IOCs
DarkGate
2023-09-19 ⋅ Medium (@DCSO_CyTec) ⋅ Johann Aydinbas
#ShortAndMalicious — DarkGate
DarkGate
2023-09-06 ⋅ TRUESEC ⋅ Jakob Nordenlund
DarkGate Loader Malware Delivered via Microsoft Teams
DarkGate
2023-08-25 ⋅ Github (telekom-security) ⋅ Fabian Marquardt
DarkGate configuration extractor
DarkGate
2023-08-25 ⋅ Telekom ⋅ Fabian Marquardt
Shining some light on the DarkGate loader
DarkGate
2023-08-06 ⋅ 0xToxin Labs ⋅ @0xToxin
DarkGate - Threat Breakdown Journey
DarkGate
2023-08-03 ⋅ Aon ⋅ Aon’s Cyber Labs
DarkGate Keylogger Analysis: Masterofnone
DarkGate
2023-08-03 ⋅ Kaspersky ⋅ Kaspersky
What’s happening in the world of crimeware: Emotet, DarkGate and LokiBot
LokiBot DarkGate Emotet
2023-06-27 ⋅ ZeroFox ⋅ ZeroFox Dark Ops intelligence team
The Underground Economist: Volume 3, Issue 12
DarkGate Meduza Stealer
2020-11-12 ⋅ Avast Decoded ⋅ Jan Rubín
Password stealer in Delphi? Meh… (2/2)
DarkGate
2020-09-17 ⋅ Avast Decoded ⋅ Jan Rubín
Complex obfuscation? Meh… (1/2)
DarkGate
2018-11-13 ⋅ Fortinet ⋅ Fortinet
Enter The DarkGate - New Cryptocurrency Mining and Ransomware Campaign
DarkGate Golroted
Yara Rules
[TLP:WHITE] win_darkgate_w0 (20231204 | Detects DarkGate)
rule win_darkgate_w0 {
    meta:
        author = "RussianPanda"
        description = "Detects DarkGate" 
        date = "2023-09-17"
        source="https://www.esentire.com/blog/from-darkgate-to-danabot"
        malpedia_reference = "https://malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de/details/win.darkgate"
        malpedia_rule_date = "20230917"
        malpedia_hash = ""
        malpedia_version = "20231204"
        malpedia_sharing = "TLP:WHITE"
    strings:
        $s1 = "hanydesk"
        $s2 = "darkgate.com"
        $s3 = "zLAxuU0kQKf3sWE7ePRO2imyg9GSpVoYC6rhlX48ZHnvjJDBNFtMd1I5acwbqT+="
        $s4 = {80 e3 30 81 e3 ff 00 00 00 c1 eb 04}
        $s5 = {80 e3 3c 81 e3 ff 00 00 00 c1 eb 02} 
        $s6 = {80 e1 03 c1 e1 06}
    condition:
        all of ($s*) 
        and uint16(0) == 0x5A4D
    }
[TLP:WHITE] win_darkgate_w1 (20231204 | DarkGate Payload)
rule win_darkgate_w1 {
    meta:
        author = "enzok"
        description = "DarkGate Payload"
        cape_type = "DarkGate Payload"
        source="https://github.com/kevoreilly/CAPEv2/blob/8689f9f05dec4500d7becd03e9939444f3be3a8f/data/yara/CAPE/DarkGate.yar"
        malpedia_reference = "https://malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de/details/win.darkgate"
        malpedia_rule_date = "20230917"
        malpedia_hash = ""
        malpedia_version = "20231204"
        malpedia_sharing = "TLP:WHITE"
    strings:
        $part1 = {8B 55 ?? 8A 4D ?? 80 E1 3F C1 E1 02 8A 5D ?? 80 E3 30 81 E3 FF [3] C1 EB 04 02 CB 88 4C 10 FF FF 45 ?? 80 7D ?? 40}
        $part2 = {8B 55 ?? 8A 4D ?? 80 E1 0F C1 E1 04 8A 5D ?? 80 E3 3C 81 E3 FF [3] C1 EB 02 02 CB 88 4C 10 FF FF 45 ?? 80 7D ?? 40}
        $part3 = {8B 55 ?? 8A 4D ?? 80 E1 03 C1 E1 06 8A 5D ?? 80 E3 3F 02 CB 88 4C 10 FF FF 45}
        $alphabet = "zLAxuU0kQKf3sWE7ePRO2imyg9GSpVoYC6rhlX48ZHnvjJDBNFtMd1I5acwbqT+="
    condition:
        ($alphabet) and any of ($part*)
}
Download all Yara Rules