Pirated Copies of 'The Odyssey' Are Hiding Crypto-Stealing Malware – Decrypt

Followers making an attempt to seize a bootleg copy of “The Odyssey” could find yourself handing over their crypto wallets as a substitute.

Safety agency Bitdefender stated this week that pretend pirated downloads of the newly launched blockbuster are already circulating loaded with Lumma Stealer, an information-stealing malware that hunts for cryptocurrency wallets amongst different delicate knowledge.

In response to Bitdefender, the malicious information surfaced inside days of the movie’s launch, disguised as high-definition WEBRip and Blu-ray rips with names mimicking reliable torrent releases. In actuality, they’re Home windows executables that infect a machine reasonably than play a film.

To promote the disguise, attackers usually swap in icons resembling VLC Media Participant or video information, a trick made more practical as a result of Home windows hides file extensions by default, leaving many customers unable to inform an “.exe” from an precise video.

As soon as run, Lumma Stealer scrapes browser passwords, saved fee particulars, autofill knowledge, distant desktop credentials and crypto wallets. It additionally lifts authentication cookies, which means victims can lose entry to accounts even with multi-factor authentication switched on.

Bitdefender stated its merchandise blocked the downloads and flagged command-and-control domains tied to the operation, and famous the marketing campaign mirrors a near-identical one in 2025 that hid the identical malware inside pretend “Mission: Unattainable – The Ultimate Reckoning” information.

The findings underscore how routinely attackers now bury wallet-draining code inside content material individuals are desperate to obtain.

Over time, there was a gentle drumbeat of comparable schemes, together with malware smuggled by pretend CAPTCHA pages routed by way of BNB Chain, the SparkKitty marketing campaign that slipped wallet-stealing code into cellular apps, and malicious “anime lady” wallpapers geared toward Steam avid gamers. Attackers have additionally poisoned developer tooling, planting crypto-stealing code inside a booby-trapped Python library.

The frequent thread is that the malware rides in on one thing the sufferer actively desires, whether or not a pirated movie, a recreation mod or a coding package deal. Bitdefender’s recommendation is blunt: persist with reliable streaming companies, by no means run an executable marketed as a video, and allow Home windows’ file-extension show so a disguised “.exe” cannot move as a film.