Analysis by: Bren Matthew Ebriega
ALIASES:

Backdoor:Win32/Vatet.G!dha (MICROSOFT); HEUR:Trojan.Win32.Vatet.gen (KASPERSKY)

 PLATFORM:

Windows

 OVERALL RISK RATING:
 DAMAGE POTENTIAL:
 DISTRIBUTION POTENTIAL:
 REPORTED INFECTION:
 INFORMATION EXPOSURE:

  • Threat Type: Trojan

  • Destructiveness: No

  • Encrypted: No

  • In the wild: Yes

  OVERVIEW

Infection Channel: Downloaded from the Internet

This Trojan arrives on a system as a file dropped by other malware or as a file downloaded unknowingly by users when visiting malicious sites.

  TECHNICAL DETAILS

File Size: 2,558,464 bytes
File Type: EXE
Memory Resident: No
Initial Samples Received Date: 20 Oct 2020
Payload: Deletes files

Arrival Details

This Trojan arrives on a system as a file dropped by other malware or as a file downloaded unknowingly by users when visiting malicious sites.

Other Details

This Trojan does the following:

  • It is a recompiled notepad++.exe which loads and decrypts malicious files defined by the following filenames:
    • %Windows%\debug\config.dat → Detected as Trojan.Win32.VATET.ENC
  • If no config.dat was found it will execute as a normal notepad++.exe application.

(Note: %Windows% is the Windows folder, where it usually is C:\Windows on all Windows operating system versions.)

It deletes the following files to remove its traces in the system:

  • %Windows%\debug\config.dat

(Note: %Windows% is the Windows folder, where it usually is C:\Windows on all Windows operating system versions.)

  SOLUTION

Minimum Scan Engine: 9.800
FIRST VSAPI PATTERN FILE: 16.298.08
FIRST VSAPI PATTERN DATE: 20 Oct 2020
VSAPI OPR PATTERN File: 16.299.00
VSAPI OPR PATTERN Date: 21 Oct 2020

Step 1

Trend Micro Predictive Machine Learning detects and blocks malware at the first sign of its existence, before it executes on your system. When enabled, your Trend Micro product detects this malware under the following machine learning name:

Step 2

Before doing any scans, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 users must disable System Restore to allow full scanning of their computers.

Step 3

Scan your computer with your Trend Micro product to delete files detected as Trojan.Win32.VATET.SM. If the detected files have already been cleaned, deleted, or quarantined by your Trend Micro product, no further step is required. You may opt to simply delete the quarantined files. Please check the following Trend Micro Support pages for more information:


Did this description help? Tell us how we did.