Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Malware & Threats

Malware Discovered Developed With Google’s “Go” Programming Language

Researchers at Symantec have discovered malware that has been written using Google’s Go programming language.

Go was introduced by Google in 2009, two years after its initial design, and Symantec’s discovery seems to be the first time a malicious application has been found that was developed using the programming language.

Researchers at Symantec have discovered malware that has been written using Google’s Go programming language.

Go was introduced by Google in 2009, two years after its initial design, and Symantec’s discovery seems to be the first time a malicious application has been found that was developed using the programming language.

GalaxyNxRoot.exeGoogle’s Go has been gaining a decent amount of attention over the last three years, and it seems as if criminals have taken notice.

Symantec captured a sample of what they’re calling Encriyoko recently, which has elements coded with Go. The malware itself is presented as a rooting tool for the Galaxy Nexus, and if users were to install it, the .exe will drop two files on the system.

According to the researchers who examined the Trojan, the two files instigate two different attacks on a compromised host once installed.

One is an information stealing Trojan, which harvests data and ships it off to a remote server, and the other files will encrypt various file formats, including cpp, jpg, doc, php, java, wma, rar, zip, etc. In all, more than 40 file extensions are targeted by the malware. “Restoration of the encrypted files will be difficult, if not impossible,” Symantec noted.

“Go is an attempt to combine the ease of programming of an interpreted, dynamically typed language with the efficiency and safety of a statically typed, compiled language,” Google explains. “It also aims to be modern, with support for networked and multicore computing.”

Go looks like C, but is forgiving in its syntax in some aspects.

For the curious, Google has an interactive tour of Go available here.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.
Written By

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join the session as we discuss the challenges and best practices for cybersecurity leaders managing cloud identities.

Register

SecurityWeek’s Ransomware Resilience and Recovery Summit helps businesses to plan, prepare, and recover from a ransomware incident.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Cybercrime

The changing nature of what we still generally call ransomware will continue through 2023, driven by three primary conditions.

Cybercrime

A recently disclosed vBulletin vulnerability, which had a zero-day status for roughly two days last week, was exploited in a hacker attack targeting the...

Malware & Threats

The NSA and FBI warn that a Chinese state-sponsored APT called BlackTech is hacking into network edge devices and using firmware implants to silently...

Application Security

Virtualization technology giant VMware on Tuesday shipped urgent updates to fix a trio of security problems in multiple software products, including a virtual machine...

Cyberwarfare

An engineer recruited by intelligence services reportedly used a water pump to deliver Stuxnet, which reportedly cost $1-2 billion to develop.

Malware & Threats

Unpatched and unprotected VMware ESXi servers worldwide have been targeted in a ransomware attack exploiting a vulnerability patched in 2021.

Malware & Threats

Apple’s cat-and-mouse struggles with zero-day exploits on its flagship iOS platform is showing no signs of slowing down.

Cybercrime

No one combatting cybercrime knows everything, but everyone in the battle has some intelligence to contribute to the larger knowledge base.