{ "id": "8804d73a-f441-4c34-8c11-dc10b134602c", "created_at": "2026-04-06T01:29:43.104191Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T03:20:27.067394Z", "deleted_at": null, "sha1_hash": "fcc113098c24bccf707288e2876962a475fc38e3", "title": "DBatLoader: Abusing Discord to Deliver Warzone RAT", "llm_title": "", "authors": "", "file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_size": 87765, "plain_text": "DBatLoader: Abusing Discord to Deliver Warzone RAT\r\nBy Gustavo Palazolo\r\nPublished: 2021-10-21 · Archived: 2026-04-06 00:59:59 UTC\r\nSummary\r\n67% of the malware downloads Netskope blocks come from popular cloud applications being abused by attackers.\r\nOne of the services commonly abused by threat actors is Discord, which is abused to host malware such as\r\nTroubleGrabber using public attachment URLs.\r\nIn this blog post, we will analyze a recent DBatLoader (a.k.a. ModiLoader) sample that uses this technique on\r\nDiscord to deliver a malware known as Warzone (a.k.a. Ave Maria), a Remote Access Trojan created in 2018. \r\nThis malware is actively being sold on the internet, through a dedicated website:\r\nWarzone RAT website.\r\nIt offers a long list of capabilities, such as:\r\nRemote Desktop\r\nWebCam Live Stream\r\nDownload/Upload Files\r\nPassword Grabber (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Edge, Outlook, etc.)\r\nOffline/Online Keylogger\r\nhttps://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat\r\nPage 1 of 17\n\nWarzone features, according to their website.\r\nThe malware is being sold under many prices, depending on the selected plan:\r\nhttps://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat\r\nPage 2 of 17\n\nWarzone RAT prices.\r\nThe website even includes a knowledge base that contains information about the usage of Warzone RAT.\r\nhttps://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat\r\nPage 3 of 17\n\nWarzone RAT knowledge base.\r\nAnalysis\r\nIt all starts with the first stage of DBatLoader, which is known for abusing cloud services, like Google Drive and\r\nDiscord, to retrieve its second stage, both of which are developed in Delphi.\r\nhttps://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat\r\nPage 4 of 17\n\nFirst stage of DBatLoader.\r\nThe sample is signed with a revoked certificate from “Afia Wave Enterprises”.\r\nhttps://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat\r\nPage 5 of 17\n\nDBatLoader digital signature.\r\nOnce running, the malware allocates and executes a shellcode, which is responsible for downloading the second\r\nstage.\r\nhttps://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat\r\nPage 6 of 17\n\nDBatLoader shellcode.\r\nLater, the second stage is downloaded from Discord, which is eventually decrypted and executed in memory.\r\nhttps://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat\r\nPage 7 of 17\n\nDBatLoader downloading its second stage from Discord.\r\nLooking at the decrypted file strings, we can see references to a few batch scripts that are usually created and\r\nexecuted by this malware to accomplish small tasks, like disabling Windows Defender. However, this sample\r\ndoesn’t contain the routines to run these files.\r\nhttps://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat\r\nPage 8 of 17\n\nStrings related to batch scripts.\r\nThe loader then copies itself to “%AppData%” as “windows explorer.exe” and creates a very simple persistence\r\ntechnique through Windows Registry.\r\nhttps://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat\r\nPage 9 of 17\n\nDBatLoader persistence mechanism.\r\nThe final payload is encrypted and stored in DBatLoader’s resources, named “YAK”.\r\nhttps://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat\r\nPage 10 of 17\n\nWarzone RAT encrypted payload.\r\nAfter decrypting these bytes, the payload is executed using a technique known as Process Hollowing. Simply put,\r\nthe code is injected through the following steps:\r\n1. The target process is created in a suspended state with CreateProcessA;\r\n2. The original process’ code section is removed with NtUnmapViewOfSection;\r\n3. New space is allocated in the process with VirtualAllocEx;\r\n4. The malicious code is written using WriteProcessMemory;\r\n5. Finally, the code is resumed with SetThreatContext and ResumeThread.\r\nhttps://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat\r\nPage 11 of 17\n\nWarzone RAT being injected through Process Hollowing.\r\nThis is a very common process injection technique, used by many malware such as Astaroth, Cobalt Strike, and\r\nTrickbot. After injecting Warzone RAT, DBatLoader exits the process without further actions. \r\nThe final payload can be dumped from memory using a debugger or the pe-sieve tool.\r\nhttps://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat\r\nPage 12 of 17\n\nWarzone RAT strings.\r\nAs we mentioned earlier in this blog post, Warzone provides full access to the infected machine and is also able to\r\nsteal passwords from many browsers and email clients.\r\nhttps://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat\r\nPage 13 of 17\n\nPart of the Warzone RAT function that grabs passwords from browsers.\r\nThe malware communicates to its C2 server via TCP using sockets, through the port 1990 in this case.\r\nhttps://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat\r\nPage 14 of 17\n\nWarzone RAT C2 communication.\r\nThis information is encrypted and stored within the PE file in a section named “.bss”. The first 4 bytes of the\r\nsection are the key length, followed by the key and the encrypted data.\r\nhttps://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat\r\nPage 15 of 17\n\nWarzone RAT encrypted configuration.\r\nThe data is encrypted with RC4 and, once we understood this structure, we created a python script that is able to\r\nparse and decrypt the C2 address from Warzone.\r\nDecrypted data from Warzone.\r\nConclusion\r\nUsing Discord to host malicious payloads isn’t something new, as we saw in TroubleGrabber in 2020. However,\r\nwe should expect more malware to abuse not only Discord but other cloud services as well, as it can be more\r\nreliable and harder to detect. Netskope is actively monitoring attackers abusing cloud apps for malware delivery.\r\nProtection\r\nhttps://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat\r\nPage 16 of 17\n\nNetskope Threat Labs is actively monitoring this campaign and has ensured coverage for all known threat\r\nindicators and payloads. \r\nNetskope Threat Protection\r\nWin32.Trojan.Modiloader\r\nWin32.Trojan.WarzoneRAT\r\nNetskope Advanced Threat Protection provides proactive coverage against this threat.\r\nGen.Malware.Detect.By.StHeur indicates a sample that was detected using static analysis\r\nGen.Malware.Detect.By.Sandbox indicates a sample that was detected by our cloud sandbox\r\nIOCs\r\nSHA256 Hashes\r\nDBatLoader First Stage 07915b1a44803fc9bd86d2d9ddad19434440b3d73f5c77f3400c84a935dd0255\r\nDBatLoader Second Stage 8f1d0ba030b897786c9ad6b68bb9165e539371648a8a60e2a6f1136647b5104e\r\nWarzone RAT e89c137a4faa31d639492b045a78dd115468f9191143c302d165aefe85b3c06a\r\nThe full list of IOCs, the script that decrypts Warzone configuration, and a Yara rule can be found in our Github\r\nrepository.\r\nSource: https://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat\r\nhttps://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat\r\nPage 17 of 17", "extraction_quality": 1, "language": "EN", "sources": [ "Malpedia" ], "references": [ "https://www.netskope.com/blog/dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat" ], "report_names": [ "dbatloader-abusing-discord-to-deliver-warzone-rat" ], "threat_actors": [], "ts_created_at": 1775438983, "ts_updated_at": 1775791227, "ts_creation_date": 0, "ts_modification_date": 0, "files": { "pdf": "https://archive.orkl.eu/fcc113098c24bccf707288e2876962a475fc38e3.pdf", "text": "https://archive.orkl.eu/fcc113098c24bccf707288e2876962a475fc38e3.txt", "img": "https://archive.orkl.eu/fcc113098c24bccf707288e2876962a475fc38e3.jpg" } }