How a stealer log is different from a breach
In a normal breach, one company gets hacked and the attacker walks away with that company's user table. You change one password and you are mostly done.
A stealer log comes from your own device. The malware does not care which sites you use. It takes every login your browser saved, so one infection can expose your email, your bank, your work SSO and your Discord all at once. The site you used was not hacked at all. Your machine was.
What is usually in a stealer log
It depends on the malware family, but a typical log carries:
- 01Usernames and passwords saved in the browser, listed next to the site each was saved for
- 02Browser cookies, including the session cookies that keep you logged in
- 03Autofill data such as names, addresses and sometimes card details
- 04Crypto wallet files and browser wallet extension data
- 05System details such as the computer name, IP address, operating system and often a hardware or machine ID
- 06Sometimes a screenshot of the desktop at the moment of infection
How people get infected
Most infections come from running something you downloaded. The common routes are:
- 01Cracked software, keygens and free versions of paid apps
- 02Game cheats, mods and fake launchers, often passed around on Discord and YouTube
- 03Search ads that look like the download page for a popular tool but are not
- 04Fake verification pages that ask you to paste a command into the Run box or a terminal
- 05Email attachments dressed up as invoices or shipping notices
How to check if you are in a stealer log
Start with the identifier you actually have. An empty result does not mean you are clean: it means the sources checked did not hold that identifier.
For a company, search the email domain rather than individual addresses. That is how staff or customer logins that leaked from machines you do not manage show up.
Many logs also carry a machine or hardware identifier. If you have one from a log sample or an incident, searching it can tie other records back to the same device.
What to do if you are in one
Order matters. If you change passwords while the malware is still on the machine, it simply steals the new ones.
- 01Clean the device first. Run a full antivirus scan; if it had cracked software or you are unsure, reinstall the operating system. That is the only fix you can trust.
- 02Change passwords from a different, clean device. Start with your email account, since it can reset everything else, then your password manager, banking and work accounts.
- 03Sign out of all sessions. Google, Microsoft, Discord, Steam and most other services have a sign out everywhere option, which kills any stolen cookie.
- 04Turn on two factor with an app or a passkey, rather than SMS where you can avoid it.
- 05Move crypto to a new wallet if wallet files or extensions were on that machine. A new password does not protect a wallet whose keys were copied.
- 06Tell your IT or security team if any work account was in the log, even from a personal device.
For security teams
Treat a staff account in a stealer log as an active compromise rather than an old leak. Revoke the user's sessions and tokens, reset the password, and check SSO and VPN logs for sign-ins from new locations around the date in the log.
Find out whether the infected device was managed. If it was not, a password reset alone will not stop the next log. Check the domain again after cleanup to see whether new entries keep arriving.