Shadow brokers ask 20,000 euros for an exploit subscription

The Shadowbrokers, who previously put NSA exploits online, have disclosed the cost of their monthly dump of exploits. Interested parties must pay an amount of 20,000 euros for the month of June, to be transferred in the Zcash crypto currency.

The Shadowbrokers announce that participation in the subscription for June is possible by transferring 100 Zcash to a specific address. The currency, like bitcoin, uses a public blockchain, but the sender, recipient and amount of Zcash transferred remain unknown. The Shadowbrokers write that every transaction must be provided with an email address for delivery.

Parties who have paid the amount will then receive an email with a confirmation and then a password to decrypt the dump. The group does not disclose the contents of the upcoming collection of exploits. Due to the amount to be paid for the ‘service’, the Shadowbrokers say it is only suitable for ‘high rollers, hackers and security companies’. They further state that the choice for Zcash is not certain and that there may be another payment method for the July dump.

The Shadowbrokers announced the subscriptions earlier this month. Then they gave examples of the contents of the dumps. For example, exploits and tools for browsers, routers and handsets, new exploits for Windows 10, stolen data about Swift payment providers and central banks. In addition, the hacker group spoke of stolen network data from Russian, Chinese, Iranian or North Korean nuclear activities and missile programs.

The group has in the past published hacking tools coming from the Equation Group, believed to be the NSA. Recently, the Shadowbrokers published information about Windows exploits. The exploits were later released and one of them, Eternalblue, uses a vulnerability in the SMB protocol. That vulnerability played an important role in the distribution of the WannaCry ransomware.