What is a remote access trojan (RAT)?
What is a Remote Access Trojan (RAT)? Malware developers code their software for a specific purpose, but to gain remote control of a user’s device is the ultimate benefit for an attacker who wants to steal data or take over a user’s computer.
What should I do if I find a remote access trojan?
If Remote Access Trojan programs are found on a system, it should be assumed that any personal information (which has been accessed on the infected machine) has been compromised. Users should immediately update all usernames and passwords from a clean computer, and notify the appropriate administrator of the system of the potential compromise.
Which is the Best Antivirus for remote access trojan detection?
Remote Access Trojan Detection 1 Avast 2 AVG 3 Avira 4 Bitdefender 5 Kaspersky 6 Malwarebytes 7 McAfee 8 Microsoft Windows Defender 9 Norton 10 PC Matic 11 Sophos 12 Trend Micro More ...
What happened to remote control PCs in the late 1990s?
In the late 1990s, when the internet was still young, it was common for tech-savvy kids to scare their friends by controlling their PCs remotely. They would eject the CD tray, swap the mouse buttons, or change the desktop colors. To the unwitting user, it looked like a ghost was taking over the machine.
What can remote access Trojans do?
Remote access trojans (RATs) are malware designed to allow an attacker to remotely control an infected computer. Once the RAT is running on a compromised system, the attacker can send commands to it and receive data back in response.
How are remote access Trojans delivered?
A remote access Trojan (RAT) is a malware program that includes a back door for administrative control over the target computer. RATs are usually downloaded invisibly with a user-requested program -- such as a game -- or sent as an email attachment.
What is a Mobile Remote Access Trojan?
A Remote Access Trojan, or RAT, is a type of malware that disguises itself as a file that's either harmless or beneficial to the user—this could be anything from a file to programs and apps. But unlike other types of malware, a RAT doesn't just steal or ruin data and files it was pre-programmed to do.
What was the first Remote Access Trojan?
The oldest RAT was first developed in 1996 [10], however legitimate remote access tools were first created in 1989 [11]. Since then, the number of RATs has grown rapidly. The first phase was marked by home-made RATs. In these years, everyone made their own RAT, however these did not prosper and were not heavily used.
Is TeamViewer a RAT?
The JS script then launches the malware, which installs a version of TeamViewer, a remote administration tool (RAT), modified by the attackers. As in earlier attacks, the attackers use a malicious DLL library to hide the graphical user interface in order to control the infected system without the user's knowledge.
Can you get a RAT on your phone?
RAT infected Android devices can be remotely zombified by the perpetrator, allowing virtually unlimited access to photos, data and messages on the device. The Dendroid RAT provides full access to infected devices' camera and microphone, and can place calls or listen in on a user's phone conversations or text messages.
Can Kaspersky detect remote access Trojan?
Put a good antivirus on your smartphone. For example, Kaspersky Internet Security for Android not only finds and removes Trojans, but also blocks websites with malware and mobile subscriptions.
How can I find a hidden virus on my computer?
You can also head to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Security > Open Windows Security on Windows 10, or Settings > Privacy and Security > Windows Security > Open Windows Security on Windows 11. To perform an anti-malware scan, click “Virus & threat protection.” Click “Quick Scan” to scan your system for malware.
Which of the following is a remote Trojan?
Troya is a remote Trojan that works remotely for its creator.
What is a backdoor Trojan?
Backdoor malware is generally classified as a Trojan. A Trojan is a malicious computer program pretending to be something it's not for the purposes of delivering malware, stealing data, or opening up a backdoor on your system.
What are the common backdoor?
7 most common application backdoorsShadowPad. ... Back Orifice. ... Android APK backdoor. ... Borland/Inprise InterBase backdoor. ... Malicious chrome and Edge extension backdoor. ... Backdoors in outdated WordPress plugins. ... Bootstrap-Sass Ruby library backdoor.
What is backdoor in cyber security?
A backdoor is a means to access a computer system or encrypted data that bypasses the system's customary security mechanisms. A developer may create a backdoor so that an application or operating system can be accessed for troubleshooting or other purposes.
What types of ports do successful Trojan programs commonly use?
What types of ports do successful Trojan programs commonly use? A good software or hardware firewall would most likely identify traffic that's using unfamiliar ports, but Trojan programs that use common ports, such as TCP port 80 (HTTP) or UDP port 53 (DNS), are more difficult to detect.
What is data sending Trojan?
A data-sending Trojan is a kind of Trojan virus that relays sensitive information back to its owner. This type of Trojan can be used to retrieve sensitive data, including credit card information, email addresses, passwords, instant messaging contact lists, log files and so on.
Is someone using my computer remotely?
Open your Task Manager or Activity Monitor. These utilities can help you determine what is currently running on your computer. Windows – Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc. Mac – Open the Applications folder in Finder, double-click the Utilities folder, and then double-click Activity Monitor.
What is a backdoor Trojan?
Backdoor malware is generally classified as a Trojan. A Trojan is a malicious computer program pretending to be something it's not for the purposes of delivering malware, stealing data, or opening up a backdoor on your system.
Can a Remote Access Trojan be installed to BIOS?
Access to the BIOS has been known to the world’s hackers since 2015. Many believe that the NSA was planting RATs and trackers on BIOS even earlier.
How is a Remote Access Trojan RAT different from a regular Trojan horse?
A Trojan is a virus that gets onto a victim computer by passing itself off as a legitimate piece of software. A RAT is a Trojan that the hacker can...
What is the Sakula Remote Access Trojan RAT?
Sakula is a RAT that is used to intrude on IT systems serving government departments and agencies, healthcare facilities, and other large organizat...
How are Remote Access Trojans Useful to Hackers?
Attackers using remote control malware cut power to 80,000 people by remotely accessing a computer authenticated into SCADA (supervisor y control and data acquisition) machines that controlled the country’s utility infrastructure. RAT software made it possible for the attacker to access sensitive resources through bypassing the authenticated user's elevated privileges on the network. Having access to critical machines that control city resources and infrastructure is one of the biggest dangers of RAT malware.
Why do attackers use remote devices?
Instead of storing the content on their own servers and cloud devices, attackers use targeted stolen devices so that they can avoid having accounts and servers shut down for illegal content.
What is remote control software?
Legitimate remote-control software exists to enable an administrator to control a device remotely. For example, administrators use Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) configured on a Windows server to remotely manage a system physically located at another site such as a data center. Physical access to the data center isn’t available to administrators, so RDP gives them access to configure the server and manage it for corporate productivity.
What happens if you remove the internet from your computer?
Removing the Internet connection from the device disables remote access to your system by an attacker. After the device can no longer connect to the Internet, use your installed anti-malware program to remove it from local storage and memory. Unless you have monitoring configured on your computer, you won't know which data and files transferred to an attacker. You should always change passwords across all accounts, especially financial accounts, after removing malware from your system.
How to install a RAT?
An attacker must convince the user to install a RAT either by downloading malicious software from the web or running an executable from a malicious email attachment or message. RATs can also be installed using macros in Microsoft Word or Excel documents. When a user allows the macro to run on a device, the macro silently downloads RAT malware and installs it. With the RAT installed, an attacker can now remotely control the desktop, including mouse movement, mouse clicks, camera controls, keyboard actions, and any configured peripherals.
What is intrusion detection?
Intrusion detection systems are important tools for blocking software intrusion that can evade detection by antivirus software and firewall utilities. The SolarWinds Security Event Manager is a Host-based Intrusion Detection System. However, there is a section of the tool that works as a Network-based Intrusion Detection System. This is the Snort Log Analyzer. You can read more about Snort below, however, you should know here that it is a widely used packet sniffer. By employing Snort as a data collector to feed into the Snort Log Analyzer, you get both real-time and historic data analysis out of the Security Event Manager.
Who used RATs?
The original users of RATs for industrial espionage and sabotage were Chinese hackers. Over the years, Russia has come to appreciate the power of RATs and has integrated them into its military arsenal. APTs are now officially part of the Russian offense strategy that is known as “ hybrid warfare .”
What can a hacker do with a RAT?
A hacker with a RAT can command power stations, telephone networks, nuclear facilities, or gas pipelines. RATs not only represent a corporate network security risk, but they can also enable belligerent nations to cripple an enemy country.
Can antivirus be used to get rid of a RAT?
Antivirus systems don’t do very well against RATs. Often the infection of a computer or network goes undetected for years. The obfuscation methods used by parallel programs to cloak the RAT procedures make them very difficult to spot. Persistence modules that use rootkit techniques mean that RATs are very difficult to get rid of. Sometimes, the only solution to rid your computer of a RAT is to wipe out all of your software and reinstall the operating system.
Can a hacker use your internet address?
The hacker might also be using your internet address as a front for illegal activities, impersonating you, and attacking other computers. Viruses downloaded through RAT will infect other computers, while also causing damage to your system by erasing or encryption essential software.
Can a Remote Access Trojan be installed to BIOS?
Access to the BIOS has been known to the world’s hackers since 2015. Many believe that the NSA was planting RATs and trackers on BIOS even earlier.
How to protect yourself from remote access trojans?
Just like protecting yourself from other network malware threats, for remote access trojan protection, in general, you need to avoid downloading unknown items; keep antimalware and firewall up to date, change your usernames and passwords regularly; (for administrative perspective) block unused ports, turn off unused services, and monitor outgoing traffic.
What is a RAT trojan?
RAT trojan is typically installed on a computer without its owner’s knowledge and often as a trojan horse or payload. For example, it is usually downloaded invisibly with an email attachment, torrent files, weblinks, or a user-desired program like a game. While targeted attacks by a motivated attacker may deceive desired targets into installing RAT ...
How does RAT malware work?
Once get into the victim’s machine, RAT malware will hide its harmful operations from either the victim or the antivirus or firewall and use the infected host to spread itself to other vulnerable computers to build a botnet.
Why is Darkcomet no longer available?
The reason is due to its usage in the Syrian civil war to monitor activists as well as its author’s fear of being arrested for unnamed reasons.
Why do RATs use a randomized filename?
It is kind of difficult. RATs are covert by nature and may make use of a randomized filename or file path structure to try to prevent identification of itself. Commonly, a RAT worm virus does not show up in the lists of running programs or tasks and its actions are similar to those of legal programs.
How to check if my computer is safe?
Open the command prompt better as administrator, type “ system.ini ”, and press Enter. Then, a notepad will pop up showing you a few details of your system. Take a look at the drivers section, if it looks brief as what the below picture shows, you are safe. if there are some other odd characters, there may be some remote devices accessing your system via some of your network ports.
Is Sub 7 a trojan horse?
Typically, Sub 7 allows undetected and unauthorized access. So, it is usually regarded as a trojan horse by the security industry. Sub7 worked on the Windows 9x and Windows NT family of OSes, up to and including Windows 8.1. Sub7 has not been maintained since 2014. 4.
What is remote access trojan?
Remote Access Trojans are programs that provide the capability to allow covert surveillance or the ability to gain unauthorized access to a victim PC. Remote Access Trojans often mimic similar behaviors of keylogger applications by allowing the automated collection of keystrokes, usernames, passwords, screenshots, browser history, emails, chat lots, etc. Remote Access Trojans differ from keyloggers in that they provide the capability for an attacker to gain unauthorized remote access to the victim machine via specially configured communication protocols which are set up upon initial infection of the victim computer. This backdoor into the victim machine can allow an attacker unfettered access, including the ability to monitor user behavior, change computer settings, browse and copy files, utilize the bandwidth (Internet connection) for possible criminal activity, access connected systems, and more.
How can remote access Trojans be installed?
Specially crafted email attachments, web-links, download packages, or .torrent files could be used as a mechanism for installation of the software. Targeted attacks by a motivated attacker may deceive desired targets into installing such software via social engineering tactics, or even via temporary physical access of the desired computer.
What is browser hijacker?
Browser hijackers, or simply hijackers, are a type of malware created for the purpose of modifying Internet browser settings without the user’s knowledge or consent. Typically, hijackers change the homepage and default search settings. However, some are known to inject advertisements—thus, they are qualified to be called adware, automatically redirecting users to potentially malicious destinations when they visit certain sites, and sometimes making drastic changes to the affected system. Some hijackers also contain keyloggers, which are capable of recording user keystrokes to gather potentially valuable information they enter into websites, such as account credentials.
What is a rogue scanner?
Rogue scanners, also known as fake scanners, fake AV, or rogueware, are pieces of code injected into legitimate sites or housed in fake sites. Their social engineering tactic normally involve displaying fictitious security scan results, threat notices, and other deceptive tactics in an effort to manipulate users into purchasing fake security software or licenses in order to remove potential threats that have supposedly infected their systems. Their warnings were deliberately crafted to closely resemble interfaces of legitimate AV or anti-malware software, further increasing the likelihood that users who see them will fall for the ploy. These malware can target and affect PCs and Mac systems alike. In 2011, known names in the security industry have noted the dramatic decline of rogue scanners, both in detection of new variants and search engine results for their solutions.
What are the different types of POS malware?
POS malware may come in three types: keyloggers, memory dumpers, and network sniffers.
What is POS malware?
Point-of-sale (POS) malware is software specifically created to steal customer data, particularly from electronic payment cards like debit and credit cards and from POS machines in retail stores. It does this by scraping the temporarily unencrypted card data from the POS’s memory (RAM), writing it to a text file, and then either sending it to an off-site server at a later date or retrieving it remotely. It is believed that criminals behind the proliferation of this type of malware are mainly after data they can sell, not for their own personal use. Although deemed as less sophisticated than your average PC banking Trojan, POS malware can still greatly affect not just card users but also merchants that unknowingly use affected terminals, as they may find themselves caught in a legal mess that could damage their reputation.
Can you click on an unknown website?
As in all cases, never click email or website links from unknown locations or install software at the urging of unknown parties. Using a reputable antivirus and anti-malware solution will help to ensure Remote Access Trojans are unable to properly function, and will assist in mitigating any collection of data. Always lock public computers when not in use, and be wary of emails or telephone calls asking to install an application.
How do remote access Trojans work?
The Remote Access Trojans get themselves downloaded on a device if the victims click on any attachment in an email or from a game. It enables the attacker to get control over the device and monitor the activities or gaining remote access. This RAT makes itself undetected on the device, and they remain in the device for a longer period of time for getting data that may be confidential.
What is the advantage of remote access?
Advantage of Remote Access Trojans : It can be used to capture screenshots. The attacker can activate the webcam, or they can record video. The RAT can be used to delete the files or alter files in the system. It can also be used to capture screenshots.
What is the most powerful Trojan?
One of the most powerful Trojans that are popularly used by the attacker or hacker is Remote Access Trojan. This is mostly used for malicious purposes. This Trojan ensures the stealthy way of accumulating data by making itself undetected. Now, these Trojans have the capacity to perform various functions that damages the victim.
Can an attacker record video?
The attacker can activate the webcam, or they can record video.
When was remote access first used?
The oldest legitimate remote access software was built in the late 1980s, when tools such as NetSupport appeared. Soon after that, in 1996, their first malicious counterparts were created. NokNok and D.I.R.T. were among the first, followed by NetBus, Back Orifice and SubSeven.
Who was the law professor that was targeted by NetBus?
In 1999, someone downloaded NetBus and targeted Magnus Eriksson, a law professor at Lund University in Sweden. The attacker planted 12,000 pornographic images on his computer, 3,500 of which featured child pornography. The system administrators discovered them, and the law professor lost his job.
What tools did RAT authors use in the 2000s?
In the 2000s, RAT authors were not naive kids who wanted to see how far they could go. Most of them were familiar with tools such as NetBus, SubSeven or Back Orifice, and they knew exactly what they were doing.
Is NetBus a legit tool?
The developer claimed he didn’t want NetBus to be used maliciously, saying it was “a legit remote admin tool,” security researcher Seth Kulakow wrote in a paper he published with the SANS Institute. “However, if you didn’t already figure it out, it is still a very nice tool to use for the other purpose,” Kulakow wrote.