The researcher, who uses the pseudonym hasherezade, posted a tweet identifying the code that had been taken from Hutchins' repository on GitHub.
yes, it all make sense... this is from Kronos: pic.twitter.com/kvEQyrmOgu
— hasherezade (@hasherezade) 16 August 2017
Hutchins, who came to prominence when he inadvertently stopped the spread of the WannaCry ransomware in May, was arrested by the FBI in Las Vegas on 2 August after he had boarded a plane to leave the US.
He had been in Las Vegas to attend the annual DEFCON security conference.
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Hasherezade also located a tweet from Hutchins in 2015 in which he said he had found the hooking engine that he had made for his blog in a malware sample.
Just found the hooking engine I made for my blog in a malware sample. This is why we can't have nice things, fuckers.
— MalwareTech (@MalwareTechBlog) 7 February 2015
In another tweet, Hasherezade said it looked like the creators of Kronos had simply stolen this code.
A blog post by Hutchins in January 2015 detailed the creation of the hooking engine.
Hutchins appeared in court on 14 August and pleaded not guilty to the six charges levelled against him.
so it looks like they have just stolen this code: https://t.co/tZCCGRKAhi
— hasherezade (@hasherezade) 16 August 2017
He is now free on bail and awaiting his next court appearance in Milwaukee in October.
While the chargesheet filed against Hutchins only accuses him of being involved in writing and spreading Kronos, the head of a security firm, Dave Aitel of Immunity, has alleged that he was involved in WannaCry himself.
