[ALERT] PURN Wallet May Contain Malware – Detected REMCOS Remote Access Trojan After Execution
⚠️ URGENT SECURITY WARNING – DO NOT DOWNLOAD PURN EXECUTABLES UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE ⚠️

Hello fellow miners and crypto enthusiasts,

I’m posting this as a critical warning regarding the newly released PURN project (https://github.com/PURN-NETWORK), which claims to offer a novel Blake3-based Proof of Work algorithm with AI integration (PAIW) and a smart contract layer.

I downloaded the official Windows binaries from the PURN GitHub release:

https://github.com/PURN-NETWORK/PURN/releases/tag/1.0.0

Immediately after launching the wallet and node binaries (purn-qt.exe, purnd.exe, etc.), Windows Defender triggered a severe threat detection:

🛑 Threat Details:
Threat Name: Behavior:Win32/Remcos.gen!MTB

Type: Remote Access Trojan (RAT)

Behavior: Executes commands from an attacker, logs keystrokes, and can access files, clipboard, wallets, and more

Affected File: BridgeMa.exe found in %AppData%\Local\Temp (spawned after PURN launch)

Status: Automatically removed by Windows Defender at runtime

⚠️ Why This is Dangerous:
REMCOS is a known Trojan toolkit used by cybercriminals to take over machines remotely.

It can silently steal passwords, crypto wallet seeds, clipboard content, and deploy further malware.

In my case, the RAT installed itself after launching the PURN wallet or node — suggesting the binaries may be infected or tampered with.

📉 Additional Observations:
The PURN node is non-functional (endless DNS loop, no block syncing)

No working explorer or block height confirmation exists

The GitHub project has no verified maintainers, no build verification, and no signed binaries

purncli.exe lacks basic commands like getinfo or getblockheight, suggesting immaturity or obfuscation

✅ What I Did After Detection:
Deleted all PURN-related files and wiped %Temp%, %AppData%, and Windows temp directories

Ran full system scans with Windows Defender and Malwarebytes

Cleared scheduled tasks and startup entries

Reset all passwords used since the executable launch

Rebooted and monitored network activity for outbound connections

🔒 Final Recommendation:
🛑 DO NOT RUN PURN BINARIES until the project can provide:

Verifiable signed builds

A working block explorer and syncable nodes

A full security audit or third-party confirmation

An explanation from the developers regarding this RAT alert

I strongly encourage other users to scan their systems and post their own findings here. If this turns out to be a deliberate malware deployment disguised as a “new coin,” we must act quickly to protect the community.

To the PURN developers:
If this was a mistake, supply a SHA256 hash of a clean build and a signed explanation ASAP. If not, this project may be flagged as malicious across multiple platforms and repositories.

Stay safe out there. If you value your keys, wallets, or system integrity — treat new coins with extreme caution.

Difficulty jumped to 14.6 T, which is crazy considering it was in the low 50 G in the beginning:

Quote from: geekg1rl on April 30, 2025, 02:16:10 PM
After spending some time observing and interacting with the team and community around this project, I want to share a few honest observations and concerns. These aren't meant as personal attacks, but as a technical and structural critique of how the system currently operates.

1. Lack of Transparency
The recent 6x manual increase in mining difficulty happened without any prior notice or community discussion. In any serious crypto project, even hybrid ones, core parameter changes like this should be predictable, rule-based, and transparent. Here, they were not. Transparency is a key element of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency ecosystems. Without transparency, the system opens the door to potential manipulation, especially when key parameters like mining difficulty can be adjusted on a whim by the development team.

2. Central Control Without Accountability
The project markets itself as a hybrid between centralized and decentralized models, but there's no clear boundary or structure defining who controls what, and under what circumstances. As it stands, it appears the team has full authority to intervene in core mechanisms like mining, which effectively negates the “trustless” aspect. According to their whitepaper, the Centralized Ledger system is hosted on a dedicated server controlled by the development team, which manages all transactions. This undermines decentralization, as true crypto systems are supposed to be decentralized, with no single entity having complete control over the ledger. This project seems to be centralized in nature, despite the marketing that it is decentralized.

3. Vague Technical Claims
Buzzwords like “Chain-of-Ownership” and “unbreakable cryptography” are thrown around, but without any technical documentation, whitepaper, or open-source code to back them up. That raises red flags about whether this is actually a novel protocol or just a closed system with marketing polish. The "Chain of Ownership" concept is presented as revolutionary, but it lacks proper technical documentation or open access to the codebase. Without these, it's difficult to verify the security, scalability, or functionality of the system. Claims like "unbreakable cryptography" are meaningless unless they're backed by well-documented and open implementations that can be reviewed by the community.

4. Immature Community Dynamics
Attempts to raise valid technical concerns have been met with sarcasm, mockery ("IQ 55" comments), and emotional responses instead of constructive dialogue. That kind of culture makes it difficult to take the project seriously and is harmful to the growth of any real crypto ecosystem. A professional and respectful approach to addressing concerns is critical in any technical community, and dismissing valid concerns with derogatory comments is a sign of an immature, closed-off community that doesn't encourage constructive feedback.

5. Poor Design Decisions
If mining was allowed to progress unchecked until the team suddenly decided it was “too fast,” and then manually intervened, that suggests a lack of proper tokenomics and long-term planning. Serious protocols design this before launch, not on the fly. According to the whitepaper, PoW is used for minting the coins, but there seems to be a lack of foresight into how the coin's distribution would evolve over time. The project’s intervention to manually adjust mining difficulty shows poor tokenomics and a failure to anticipate how the system would function in practice. Well-designed projects calculate these parameters upfront and build robust mechanisms for automatic adjustment, not through ad-hoc manual interventions.

6. Concerns About Centralized Wallets and Security
In addition to the issues mentioned, the wallets are online-based, which implies they may be centralized and controlled by the project team. This poses serious security risks because online wallets are vulnerable to hacking or data breaches. A truly decentralized system should allow users to manage their own wallets securely, without relying on centralized services that could be compromised. Furthermore, the lack of any public repository for the wallet code raises further concerns about trust and security.

💬 Conclusion
This project appears to rely more on centralized control, vague promises, and defensive community behavior than on the principles that actually make crypto networks secure, transparent, and decentralized. The claims about decentralization in the whitepaper do not align with the actual structure of the system, and the lack of transparency, central control over key parameters, and absence of open-source code are serious red flags. Unless there's a major shift toward openness, community-driven governance, and true decentralization, it's difficult to see this as anything more than an experimental platform under tight centralized control, likely to face long-term credibility issues.


Here are the key red flags in brief:

1. Lack of Transparency – Key changes like the 6x increase in mining difficulty were made without prior notice or community discussion.

2. Centralized Control Without Accountability – The project claims to be hybrid, but the team has full control over important parameters like mining difficulty, undermining the "trustless" aspect.

3. Vague Technical Claims – Terms like "Chain-of-Ownership" and "unbreakable cryptography" are used without technical documentation or open-source code to verify them.

4. Immature Community Dynamics – Valid concerns are dismissed with sarcasm or insults rather than constructive feedback.

5. Poor Design Decisions – The team intervened in mining difficulty without a well-thought-out plan for tokenomics and automatic adjustments.

6. Centralized Wallets – Online wallets that may be centrally controlled, posing security risks for user funds.

7. No Open-Source Code – No access to the source code or GitHub page, at least i can't find and is not mentioned, making it impossible to verify the system's security and integrity.

When does TeslaChain launch?

Thank you for the update an extremely valuable information.  When the difficulty jumped to 1.7T, I figured something nefarious was happening.