A Honeypot Disguised as a Hacker’s Dream Tool
Cristian Cornea, founder of the annual BSides Transylvania cyber conference in Romania, decided to flip the script and start hunting cybercriminals using deception and a honeypot.
On a well-known Deep Web forum, Cristian, under a different alias, of course, posted an offer for a tool called Jinn Ransomware v1.0 Builder.
The package claimed to include source code that attackers could freely modify, allowing them to change the ransomware’s behavior, choose which file types are encrypted, alter distribution methods, and even customize the ransom note.
It was marketed as fully undetectable and designed to help attackers engineer new ransomware variants tailored to their needs.
The tool spread quickly, and more than 100 users downloaded it with malicious intent.
The Real Payload Hidden in the Code
While the attackers believed they had gained a powerful weapon, Cristian was the one gaining the real advantage.
Inside the Jinn source code, he had planted reporting functions that secretly sent back information about users and their activity.
All of Jinn’s advertised capabilities, including supposed support for multiple languages like Python, C, and PowerShell, and even its AES encryption features, were incomplete or entirely fake.
They existed only to create the illusion of a sophisticated ransomware builder, while in reality, they had almost no functional value.
While attackers were busy testing the tool, Cristian remotely connected to their devices using a C and C server he controlled.
He collected extensive intelligence on their techniques, infrastructure, and most importantly, their identities.
He then reported everything to law enforcement, together with solid forensic evidence.
DarkSignal’s Closing Thoughts
The attackers’ downfall was trust, which is exactly what honeypots exploit.
Just like bait in nature, a tempting digital asset such as a sensitive database, a seemingly perfect hacking tool, or direct access to corporate servers should always raise suspicion.
Someone might be waiting for exactly that moment, and the attacker’s actions could play directly into the defender’s hands.
If even one of the users who downloaded Jinn had taken a basic look at the source code, they would likely have spotted the backdoor and the missing functionality that should have immediately raised doubts.