Cybercriminals Exploit Free Software Lures to Deploy Hijack Loader and Vidar Stealer

Threat actors are distributing malware through pirated or fake installers, SEO-poisoned sites, and malicious HTML attachments to deliver loaders (Hijack Loader/DOILoader) that sideload and drop information stealers (Vidar, Lumma, SolarMarker) as well as follow-on payloads like Amadey, miners (XMRig), clippers, and remote access tools; the campaigns employ DLL side-loading, UAC bypass via CMSTPLUA, PowerShell/AutoIt scripts, and clipboard/HTML social-engineering techniques to evade detection and escalate privileges.