MALWARE FAMILY

DarkComet

Internal ID: win.darkcomet

aliases

Last seen:Mar 17, 2026

Intelligence Profile

DarkComet is one of the most famous RATs, developed by Jean-Pierre Lesueur in 2008. After being used in the Syrian civil war in 2011, Lesuer decided to stop developing the trojan. Indeed, DarkComet is able to enable control over a compromised system through use of a simple graphic user interface. Experts think that this user friendliness is the key of its mass success.

Threat Analysis

DarkComet is a malware family tracked by threat intelligence researchers and catalogued in the Malpedia dataset. It represents a distinct malicious software lineage with identifiable code characteristics, behaviors, and victimology.

External References

→http://contagiodump.blogspot.com/2012/06/rat-samples-from-syrian-targeted.html

→https://any.run/cybersecurity-blog/darkcomet-rat-technical-analysis/

→https://asec.ahnlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Lazarus-%EA%B7%B8%EB%A3%B9%EC%9D%98-NukeSped-%EC%95%85%EC%84%B1%EC%BD%94%EB%93%9C-%EB%B6%84%EC%84%9D-%EB%B3%B4%EA%B3%A0%EC%84%9C.pdf

→https://blog.malwarebytes.com/threat-analysis/2012/06/you-dirty-rat-part-1-darkcomet/

→https://blog.malwarebytes.com/threat-analysis/2012/10/dark-comet-2-electric-boogaloo/

→https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2022/02/threat-roundup-0204-0211.html

→https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2022/06/avoslocker-new-arsenal.html

→https://brandefense.io/blog/apt-groups/mythic-leopard-apt-group/

→https://businessinsights.bitdefender.com/tech-advisory-manageengine-cve-2022-47966

→https://content.fireeye.com/apt/rpt-apt38

Quick Facts

TypeMalware Family

Aliases1

Also Known As

win.darkcomet

Research Links

MITRE ATT&CK VirusTotal Google (news) Twitter/X search

Data sourced from Malpedia, Ransomware.live, RansomLook, and CTIWATCH OSINT collection. Actor attribution is based on available intelligence and may be incomplete.

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