Does anyone have an actual, real, live sample of a trojan or virus that steals wallets and bitcoins? It would be great to submit them to antivirus producers.
I havn't read the entire thread, so please forgive me if there are any duplicate comments, but I wanted to address this question out of my experience. Again, this is simply my take on the subject from only a few hours of research coupled with previous knowledge.
I am a programmer / network administrator by trade, and have close associations with a CEH certified pen tester. Together in our spare time we theorycraft exploits and research this type of thing in a purely educational light. After seeing some concept code for the bitcoin stealing wallet and I convinced of 2 things:
1. the antivirus company's are not oblivious - as the code from the prominent trojan a few months back, is actually published by the AV companies and
2. the code is deviously simplistic - once it makes it to your computer, there is very little you can do to prevent it from stealing your wallet. That being said of course the thieves will need to get through your encryption (you are encrypted, right?), but getting the actual file off of your computer is unfortunately a "no brainer" in the eyes of a moderately skilled coder (this is of course once the malicious software has been downloaded).
I am not an expert at concealing bitcoin wallets, so I will defer to the other threads on the subject posted around this forum. Some of the best generic advice I can give everyone is to be extremely cautious when downloading files, and honestly even following links on the web. Any site that is dedicated to bitcoin (and even some that are not) are likely places for someone to attempt to social engineer an attack onto your computer. Use NoScript (available for firefox at least), and use extreme prejudice when taking a websites word about what their linking you to, or having you download. Remember you can normally mouse over links to investigate the "actual" target, this is a good habit to get into.
I am sure that as bitcoin gains speed, there will continue to be malicious people and computers out there trying to steal your hard earned/mined coinage. Just make yourself aware of the possibility, as awareness is the first step toward prevention (wow, I sound like a cliche'd planned parenthood advocate)...
Hope this isn't too obvious of information and is helpful to at least one of you out there!
