A threat actor known as Spyboy is advertising a tool called “Terminator” on a Russian-speaking hacking forum, claiming it can terminate any antivirus, XDR, and EDR platform. However, cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has identified Terminator as a sophisticated Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) attack.
Terminator allegedly bypasses 24 different security solutions, including Windows Defender, on Windows 7 and later devices. Spyboy sells the tool at prices ranging from $300 for a single bypass to $3,000 for an all-in-one bypass. The tool requires administrative privileges on targeted Windows systems, and users must deceive the target into accepting a User Account Controls (UAC) pop-up to run it.
According to a CrowdStrike engineer, Terminator operates by dropping a legitimate Zemana anti-malware kernel driver into the C:\Windows\System32\ folder with a randomly generated name.
Once written to the disk, the malicious driver is loaded and leverages kernel-level privileges to terminate user-mode processes of antivirus and EDR software on the device. While the exact mechanism of interaction between Terminator and the driver remains unclear, a proof-of-concept exploit released in 2021 exploited vulnerabilities in the driver to execute commands with Windows Kernel privileges.
This could enable the termination of normally protected security software processes.
A VirusTotal scan reveals that currently only one anti-malware scanning engine detects the driver used by Terminator as vulnerable. Fortunately, researchers have shared YARA and Sigma rules that can assist defenders in identifying the vulnerable driver.
This technique of using vulnerable drivers to bypass security software is common among threat actors who escalate privileges and install signed drivers capable of running with kernel privileges on compromised machines.
This approach enables them to disable security solutions, execute malicious code, and deliver additional payloads. Recent observations by Sophos X-Ops security researchers highlight the usage of a new hacking tool called AuKill, which employs a vulnerable Process Explorer driver to disable EDR software before initiating BYOVD attacks involving ransomware deployment.
