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What is the difference between a Remote Access Trojan and a hidden Virtual Network Computing?

It seems that both software allows a hacker to access a victim's computer and to spy on activity.

HardCoder_9
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A Remote Access Trojan (RAT) is a category of software. Lots of things can be RATs. Even hVNC.

hVNC is an implementation of VNC. One of the use cases is to use it as a RAT. But it can be used for other purposes, too.

schroeder
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  • My question could be "difference between Remote Access Trojan and hVNC" for more relevance.. So if we talk about RAT (T for Trojan), RAT is a trojan so it's malicious. RAT can be graphical like a hVNC or just simply under the form of a terminal. RAT includes a backdoor to give an access to an attacker and it offers to him different features for spying. I always thought that a trojan is just a trap looking like a legitimate software and containing malicious paylod.. – HardCoder_9 Jun 08 '21 at 09:20
  • It's far more nuanced than that. RATs do not need to include backdoors. Backdoors mean that you can *return* to the target. – schroeder Jun 08 '21 at 09:23
  • A RAT has to include a backdoor or at least a way to open a tunnel to exfiltrate desired informations. – HardCoder_9 Jun 08 '21 at 10:53
  • https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/RAT-remote-access-Trojan – HardCoder_9 Jun 08 '21 at 10:53
  • I do not agree with that narrow definition. A backdoor implies persistence. I.E. that you can return at a later date. That's not a requirement for a RAT. – schroeder Jun 08 '21 at 11:05
  • That's why I'm trying to understand what is concretely the exact definition of a Remote Access Trojan. – HardCoder_9 Jun 10 '21 at 11:51
  • No, you've asked for the difference between RAT and hVNC. If your goal is to better understand RAT, then that's a separate issue. – schroeder Nov 05 '21 at 13:13