The source code for SpyEye, an infamous data-stealing Trojan, has been published on the Web and could easily be adapted and used by any savvy cybercriminal with virtually no cost or chance of getting caught, a researcher said Monday.

"One of the most dangerous Swiss Army knives in malware is now available to billions," said Sean Bodmer, senior threat intelligence analyst at security vendor Damballa.

According to a blog posted by Bodmer on the Damballa website, the SpyEye builder patch source code (release 1.3.45) was leaked by French security researcher Xyliton, part of the Reverse Engineers Dream (RED) Crew.

"He was able to locate a copy of SpyEye builder 1.3.45 and created a walkthrough/tutorial that enables the reader [once in possession of SpyEye builder] to crack the hardware identification [HWID] which has been secured using VMProtect, a licensing tool that locks an installation of software to a particular physical device," the blog said.

The SpyEye malware kit has been widely used in cyberspace for some time now, but it generally was sold at a price of around $10,000--not a price paid by the average script kiddie, Bodmer observed. Now, with the crack, the kit is being sold inexpensively on hacker forums.

"What this means is that anybody can use it," Bodmer said.

Perhaps just as important, the "crack" enables malware developers to avoid the attribution that was previously associated with the high-priced toolkit, Bodmer stated. Where previous exploits using the kit could often be traced back to the original buyer of the toolkit, there have already been some SpyEye exploits spotted that have no attribution, he said.

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