On 15 October 2023, threat actor GhostSocks advertised a new Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) on the Russia-based cybercrime forum xss[.]is. The service converts infected Windows PCs into residential SOCKS5 proxies, enabling attackers to disguise malicious traffic as legit user traffic. GhostSocks is offered as a 32-bit DLL or standalone executable in Go and obfuscated with the open-source "garble" project. Upon installation, it talks to its C2 servers, pays registration of the victim device, and establishes a SOCKS5 tunnel to tunnel attacker-controlled traffic. GhostSocks became popular in dark forums due to being cheap and combined with other well-known malware families. Early 2025 also witnessed leaked BlackBasta gang chat logs confirm its use alongside Lumma Stealer, with stolen credentials being directed through GhostSocks proxy nodes to evade detection and provide prolonged network access. While takedowns against Lumma Stealer infrastructure, GhostSocks development and sales continued unabated, demonstrating its resilience and growing position in the MaaS ecosystem. The service is appealing to a wide range of cybercrooks—ranging from fraud operators to ransomware partners—due to its availability, latency, and ability to bypass anti-fraud defense. To mitigate this threat, organizations can inspect exiting SOCKS5 traffic, block known GhostSocks relay servers, and implement stringent network segmentation to limit lateral movement. Security admins must keep operating system, antivirus signature, and third-party software up to date. Users should avoid running suspicious executables and be cautious with unexpected attachments. Deploying behavioral detection, endpoint monitoring, and traffic inspection will help detect malicious proxy activity and limit exposure to GhostSocks-based attacks.
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