  In recent years, the darknet has become the key location for the distribution
of malware and exploits. We have seen scenarios where software vulnerabilities
have been disclosed by vendors and shortly after, operational exploits are
available on darknet forums and marketplaces. Many marketplace vendors offer
zero-day exploits that have not yet been discovered or disclosed. This trend
has led to security companies offering darknet analysis services to detect new
exploits and malware, providing proactive threat intelligence. This paper
presents information on the scale of malware distribution, the trends of
malware types offered, the methods for discovering new exploits and the
effectiveness of darknet analysis in detecting malware at the earliest possible
stage.
