{ "id": "294ff419-1fab-4800-b3c5-876196b89d07", "created_at": "2026-04-06T00:14:24.651164Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T03:22:13.439712Z", "deleted_at": null, "sha1_hash": "1683f8892980531318fb631d60b20150bdc5a8a6", "title": "Free Darktrack RAT Has the Potential of Being the Best RAT on the Market", "llm_title": "", "authors": "", "file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_size": 207182, "plain_text": "Free Darktrack RAT Has the Potential of Being the Best RAT on\r\nthe Market\r\nBy Catalin Cimpanu\r\nPublished: 2016-09-11 · Archived: 2026-04-02 10:50:12 UTC\r\nA remote access trojan (RAT) developed and provided for free by a malware coder named Luckyduck is\r\nactually as good as other top-shelf commercial RATs available today.\r\nThis freemium distribution model is strange on today's malware scene where all powerful toolkits are available for\r\na price on underground hacking forums or Dark Web marketplaces, especially if they're actually any good.\r\nFree RATs are often incomplete, easily detected by antivirus engines, and often backdoored by their creators.\r\nThat's why, when a security researcher that goes by the name of MalwareHunterTeam came across a Darktrack\r\nsample at the end of August, things just didn't add up.\r\nDarktrack as good as commercial RATs\r\nThe RAT was full of powerful features, usually found in commercial RATs. But when MalwareHunterTeam\r\ntracked down the RAT's homepage, he discovered that Darktrack's creator was offering it for free, and pledging to\r\ndo so forever.\r\nMalwareHunterTeam had come across Darktrack version 4.0. In the meantime, after the researcher's tip-off,\r\nSoftpedia has been keeping an eye out for Darktrack mentions online, trying to see how this RAT evolved.\r\nAs it turns out, on the same day that MalwareHunterTeam discovered version 4.0, Luckyduck opened a thread on\r\none of the largest underground hacking forums, teasing an upcoming version called Darktrack Alien+ 4.1.\r\n\"The previous [4.0] version was also at least as good as the current 'best selling' RATs,\" MalwareHunterTeam told\r\nSoftpedia. \"If the new version will be even better, and still free, don't think there is any reason to buy a paid RAT.\"\r\nMalware author doing business on the public Internet\r\nAnswering questions from other forum users, Luckyduck said that a new and improved version was very close to\r\nits release. On September 4, Luckyduck  uploaded a video on YouTube (now delisted, check udpate at the end of\r\nthe article) showing Darktrack Alien+ 4.1 during early tests.\r\nhttp://news.softpedia.com/news/free-darktrack-rat-has-the-potential-of-being-the-best-rat-on-the-market-508179.shtml\r\nPage 1 of 5\n\nDarktrack RAT GUI\r\nThe malware coder also runs a dedicated website for Darktrack on the public Internet. He also runs a support\r\ntopic, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ pages, and brazenly lists his Skype ID. His YouTube channel also features\r\nmany Darktrack tutorials.\r\nDomain whois information returns the details of a man named Ekrem Karatas from Istanbul, Turkey. This may be\r\na fake identity, so we wouldn't put too much trust into this information. Performing a strict Google search for this\r\nperson's Gmail address returns only results associated with the Darktrack domain.\r\nDarktrack comes with a keylogger, DDoS module, more\r\nAccording to his forum post, this free RAT is choke-full with all types of features you've previously seen in\r\ncommercial RATs such as Orcus or JBifrost (Adwind).\r\nHere is just a short list of advertised features. You can read the full list at the end of this article. According to its\r\nforum post and official website, Darktrack comes with the ability to connect to remote computers and access their\r\nfilesystem, the ability to spy via webcams, log keystrokes, dump passwords, and perform network stress tests\r\n(DDoS attacks).\r\nThere is also a port scanner, an interface to interact with the victim's task scheduler, a system monitoring tool, a\r\nclipboard data logger, a startup program manager, a hosts file editor, a Windows Registry editor, the ability to\r\nexecute commands on infected PCs, and interact with local processes and services.\r\nAlmost everything you find in commercial RATs is included. \"Maybe a good plugin system is what could be a\r\nreason for buying a commercial RAT if Darktrack does not have one,\" MalwareHunterTeam also added. \"But I\r\nthink average skids don't care.\"\r\nhttp://news.softpedia.com/news/free-darktrack-rat-has-the-potential-of-being-the-best-rat-on-the-market-508179.shtml\r\nPage 2 of 5\n\nUPDATE [September 14, 2016]: Following our article and the attention the RAT received from security\r\nresearchers, Luckyduck shut down the Draktrack website and published the following message.\r\nhttp://news.softpedia.com/news/free-darktrack-rat-has-the-potential-of-being-the-best-rat-on-the-market-508179.shtml\r\nPage 3 of 5\n\nhttp://news.softpedia.com/news/free-darktrack-rat-has-the-potential-of-being-the-best-rat-on-the-market-508179.shtml\r\nPage 4 of 5\n\nMessage on Darktrack website after it shut down\r\nSource: http://news.softpedia.com/news/free-darktrack-rat-has-the-potential-of-being-the-best-rat-on-the-market-508179.shtml\r\nhttp://news.softpedia.com/news/free-darktrack-rat-has-the-potential-of-being-the-best-rat-on-the-market-508179.shtml\r\nPage 5 of 5\n\n http://news.softpedia.com/news/free-darktrack-rat-has-the-potential-of-being-the-best-rat-on-the-market-508179.shtml \nUPDATE [September 14, 2016]: Following our article and the attention the RAT received from security\nresearchers, Luckyduck shut down the Draktrack website and published the following message.\n Page 3 of 5", "extraction_quality": 1, "language": "EN", "sources": [ "Malpedia" ], "references": [ "http://news.softpedia.com/news/free-darktrack-rat-has-the-potential-of-being-the-best-rat-on-the-market-508179.shtml" ], "report_names": [ "free-darktrack-rat-has-the-potential-of-being-the-best-rat-on-the-market-508179.shtml" ], "threat_actors": [], "ts_created_at": 1775434464, "ts_updated_at": 1775791333, "ts_creation_date": 0, "ts_modification_date": 0, "files": { "pdf": "https://archive.orkl.eu/1683f8892980531318fb631d60b20150bdc5a8a6.pdf", "text": "https://archive.orkl.eu/1683f8892980531318fb631d60b20150bdc5a8a6.txt", "img": "https://archive.orkl.eu/1683f8892980531318fb631d60b20150bdc5a8a6.jpg" } }