What is a remote access trojan (RAT)?
What Is RAT Software? One malicious example of remote access technology is a Remote Access Trojan (RAT), a form of malware allowing a hacker to control your device remotely.
How can I avoid remote access trojans?
While it perhaps sounds simple or obvious, the best way to avoid Remote Access Trojans is to avoid downloading files from untrustworthy sources. Do not open email attachments from people you don’t know (or even from people you do know if the message seems off or suspicious in some way), and do not download files from strange websites.
How can organizations defend against DNS tunneling?
Unit 42 has seen multiple instances of malware, and the actors behind them, abusing DNS to succeed in their objectives, as discussed in this report. Organizations can defend themselves against DNS tunneling in many different ways, whether using Palo Alto Networks’ Security Operating Platform, or Open Source technology.
How can DNS be used as a tool for malware?
This could be used for the malware to work through a set of tasks automatically, and report back accordingly to the actors to receive their next task. DNS is a very powerful tool used almost everywhere allowing applications and systems to lookup resources and services with which to interact.
How does spoofing a domain work?
Can a security threat have multiple names?
Can an attack on a domain affect only one user?
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Can a Trojan give remote access?
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.
What are the main features of a remote access Trojan?
RAT (remote access Trojan)Monitoring user behavior through keyloggers or other spyware.Accessing confidential information, such as credit card and social security numbers.Activating a system's webcam and recording video.Taking screenshots.Distributing viruses and other malware.Formatting drives.More items...
What are the variant of remote access Trojan?
There are a large number of Remote Access Trojans. Some are more well-known than others. SubSeven, Back Orifice, ProRat, Turkojan, and Poison-Ivy are established programs. Others, such as CyberGate, DarkComet, Optix, Shark, and VorteX Rat have a smaller distribution and utilization.
Which of the following is a remote Trojan?
Troya is a remote Trojan that works remotely for its creator.
How do I know if someone is accessing my computer remotely?
You can try any of these for confirmation.Way 1: Disconnect Your Computer From the Internet.Way 2. ... Way 3: Check Your Browser History on The Computer.Way 4: Check Recently Modified Files.Way 5: Check Your computer's Login Events.Way 6: Use the Task Manager to Detect Remote Access.Way 7: Check Your Firewall Settings.More items...•
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 is the best remote access Trojan?
Blackshades is a Trojan which is widely used by hackers to gain access to any system remotely. This tool frequently attacks the Windows-based operating system for access.
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 do Trojan creators look for?
Explanation: Trojan creators do not look for securing victim's system with their programs, rather they create such trojans for stealing credit card and financial details as well as important documents and files.
What is the difference between a backdoor and a Trojan?
Once activated, a trojan can spy on your activities, steal sensitive data, and set up backdoor access to your machine. A backdoor is a specific type of trojan that aims to infect a system without the knowledge of the user.
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.
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 an Iphone get a remote access Trojan?
The iOS Trojan is smart and spies discretely, i.e. does not drain a battery. The RCS mobile Trojans are capable of performing all kinds of spying you can expect from such a tool, including location reporting, taking photos, spying on SMS, WhatsApp and other messengers, stealing contacts and so on.
What is a Remote Access Trojan which is installed by SMS spoofing used for?
Malware may also be used to install a backdoor to a system by taking advantage of some vulnerability in the software. For example, Remote Access Trojans are used to create such backdoors, allowing the attacker access to your system from a remote location.
Are PUPs malware?
Type and source of infection. Detections categorized as PUPs are not considered as malicious as other forms of malware, and may even be regarded by some as useful. Malwarebytes detects potentially unwanted programs for several reasons, including: They may have been installed without the user's consent.
[Tutorial] What’s Remote Access Trojan & How to Detect ... - MiniTool
Remote Access Trojan Examples. Since spam RAT comes into being, there have existing lots of types of it.. 1. Back Orifice. Back Orifice (BO) rootkit is one of the best-known examples of a RAT. It was made by a hacker group named the Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc) to show the security deficiencies of Microsoft’s Windows 9X series of operating systems (OS).
remote-access-trojan · GitHub Topics · GitHub
👻 RAT (Remote Access Trojan) - Silent Botnet - Full Remote Command-Line Access - Download & Execute Programs - Spread Virus' & Malware
What is remote access trojan?
Like most other forms of malware, Remote Access Trojans are often attached to files appearing to be legitimate, like emails or software bundles. However, what makes Remote Access Trojans particularly insidious is they can often mimic above-board remote access programs.
What happens if you install remote access Trojans?
If hackers manage to install Remote Access Trojans in important infrastructural areas—such as power stations, traffic control systems, or telephone networks—they can wreak havoc across neighborhoods, cities, and even entire nations.
How does Snort intrusion detection work?
The intrusion detection mode operates by applying threat intelligence policies to the data it collects, and Snort has predefined rules available on their website, where you can also download policies generated by the Snort user community. You can also create your own policies or tweak the ones Snort provides. These include both anomaly- and signature-based policies, making the application’s scope fairly broad and inclusive. Snort’s base policies can flag several potential security threats, including OS fingerprinting, SMB probes, and stealth port scanning.
What is the best way to detect malware?
The best option, especially for larger organizations, is to employ an intrusion detection system, which can be host-based or network-based. Host-based intrusion detection systems (HIDSs), which are installed on a specific device, monitor log files and application data for signs of malicious activity; network-based intrusion detection systems (NIDSs), on the other hand, track network traffic in real time, on the lookout for suspicious behavior. When used together, HIDSs and NIDSs create a security information and event management (SIEM) system. SIEM is an incredibly beneficial part of a strong security regimen and can help to block software intrusions which have slipped past firewalls, antivirus software, and other security countermeasures.
What was the Russian attack on Georgia?
An example of this occurred in 2008, when Russia used a coordinated campaign of physical and cyber warfare to seize territory from the neighboring Republic of Georgia. The Russian government did this using distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks which cut off internet coverage across Georgia, combined with APTs and RATs allowing the government to both collect intelligence about and disrupt Georgian military operations and hardware. News agencies across Georgia were also targeted, many of which had their websites either taken down or radically altered.
How do remote access Trojans evade live data analysis?
One way in which Remote Access Trojans can evade the live data analysis NIDSs provide is by dividing the command messaging sent through the malware across multiple data packets. NIDSs like Zeek, which focus more on application layers, are better able to detect split command messaging by running analyses across multiple data packets. This is one advantage Zeek has over Snort.
Is remote access Trojans good?
That said, antivirus software will not do much good if users are actively downloading and running things they shouldn’t.
How does spoofing a domain work?
One type of domain name spoofing involves gaining sufficient privileges on the domain name system (DNS) in order to change the resource records in its database. If an adversary changes the address record so that it associates the adversary’s IP address with the legitimate domain name, any computer requesting resolution of that domain name will be directed to the adversary’s computer. This is called pharming, and its effectiveness derives from the fact that the target is surfing to a legitimate domain name. If the DNS server belonging to the domain is altered, everyone on the Internet will receive the adversary’s IP address when resolution of the domain name is requested. If the DNS server of the target’s company is altered, only users in the target company are fooled. The company DNS server maintains a cache of the answers it gets from other DNS servers in case another user in the company requests the same information. By poisoning the cache, all users in the company receive the adversary’s IP address when they request resolution of this domain name.
Can a security threat have multiple names?
Antivirus and security vendors rarely agree on naming conventions, so the same threat can have multiple names, de pending on which vendor is supplying the information. Here are some aliases for SDBot from the top antivirus vendors:
Can an attack on a domain affect only one user?
The attack can also be brought down to the level where it only affects one user. Every IP-enabled client computer has a hosts file where the user can hard-code the association between a domain name and an IP address. By poisoning this file, the user of the affected computer goes to the adversary’s IP address specified in the file, whenever he or she surfs to that domain.
How Do RATs End Up On Computers?
Trojans end up on a PC after the end user receives an email asking them to open an “important” document or file. Once the user opens the document or file, their PC becomes infected. Like most pieces of malware, the Trojan can lay dormant on the PC for days, weeks, or even months before actually using DNS queries to send data.
What Can I Do About These Infections?
As this picture suggests, you could have a tiny Spartan army at your desk waiting to defend your computer from attack. Since this is not Night at the Museum, however, that is impossible. The first rule of thumb is never open an email from an address you do not recognize.
RAT Logic
No one’s saying that a RAT has to be all that complicated. The main processing loop accepts messages that tells the malware to execute commands and send results back.
Stealthy RAT
As noted by security pros, DNSMessenger is effectively “file-less” since it doesn’t have to save any commands from the remote server onto the victim’s file system. Since it uses PowerShell, this makes DNSMessenger very difficult to detect when it’s running. Using PowerShell also means that virus scanners won’t automatically flag the malware.
Varonis Edge
We’ve recently introduced Varonis Edge, which is specifically designed to look for signs of attack at the perimeter, including VPNs, Web Security Gateways, and, yes, DNS.
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.
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 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.
What information can be gleaned from DNS server logs?
This article provides some idea of the type of information that could be gleaned from DNS server logs; an adversary operating such a server gets the remote IP sending the request – though this could be the last hop or DNS server’s IP, not the exact requesting client’s IP – as well as the query string itself, and whatever the response was from the server.
What port is used for DNS?
DNS uses Port 53 which is nearly always open on systems, firewalls, and clients to transmit DNS queries. Rather than the more familiar Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) these queries use User Datagram Protocol (UDP) because of its low-latency, bandwidth and resource usage compared TCP-equivalent queries.
Why is DNS important?
DNS provides a communication foundation enabling higher-level and more powerful protocols to function but can mean it’s overlooked from a security point of view, especially when you consider how much malware is delivered via email protocols or downloaded from the web using HTTP.
What is resolved name to IP?
Once a name is resolved to an IP caching also helps: the resolved name-to-IP is typically cached on the local system (and possibly on intermediate DNS servers) for a period of time. Subsequent queries for the same name from the same client then don’t leave the local system until said cache expires. Of course, once the IP address of the remote service is known, applications can use that information to enable other TCP-based protocols, such as HTTP, to do their actual work, for example ensuring internet cat GIFs can be reliably shared with your colleagues.
What is DNS in the internet?
DNS is a critical and foundational protocol of the internet – often described as the “phonebook of the internet” – mapping domain names to IP addresses, and much more, as described in the core RFCs for the protocol . DNS’ ubiquity (and frequent lack of scrutiny) can enable very elegant and subtle methods for communicating, and sharing data, beyond the protocol’s original intentions.
What is C2 in DNS?
Malicious actors have utilized Command & Control (C2) communication channels over the Domain Name Service (DNS) and, in some cases, have even used the protocol to exfiltrate data. This is beyond what a C2 “heartbeat” connection would communicate. Malicious actors have also infiltrated malicious data/payloads to the victim system over DNS and, for some years now, Unit 42 research has described different types of abuse discovered.
Does DNS leave a trace?
Just as when you browse the internet, whether pivoting from a search engine result or directly accessing a website URL, your DNS queries also leave a trace. How much of a trace depends on the systems and processes involved along the way, from the query leaving the operating system, to receiving the resultant IP address.
Introduction
A Remote Access Trojan (RAT) is part of the malware family. It enables covert surveillance, a backdoor channel and unfettered and unauthorized remote access to a victim’s computer. Using this malware, attackers can remotely perform various illegal activities on a victim machine, such as manipulating files and installing and removing programs.
How do RATs work?
First and foremost, intruders gain access to the victim machine by covertly installing the RAT. This is often done through malicious links, crafted email attachments or infected torrents.
Discovering RATs
RATs are sophisticated in their operations because in many cases, they don’t show up in systems running processes and tasks. RATs also don’t have any effect on the speed of your computer. Instead, they consume the bandwidth of your internet connection.
Conclusion
A RAT is undoubtedly one of the most dangerous types of malware. Using a RAT, an attacker can cause damage from a remote place. However, incident responders can discover RATs if they are using some useful techniques, such as Fix Windows DLL: SVCHOST.EXE and by foiling the use of listening ports and TCP communication.
How does spoofing a domain work?
One type of domain name spoofing involves gaining sufficient privileges on the domain name system (DNS) in order to change the resource records in its database. If an adversary changes the address record so that it associates the adversary’s IP address with the legitimate domain name, any computer requesting resolution of that domain name will be directed to the adversary’s computer. This is called pharming, and its effectiveness derives from the fact that the target is surfing to a legitimate domain name. If the DNS server belonging to the domain is altered, everyone on the Internet will receive the adversary’s IP address when resolution of the domain name is requested. If the DNS server of the target’s company is altered, only users in the target company are fooled. The company DNS server maintains a cache of the answers it gets from other DNS servers in case another user in the company requests the same information. By poisoning the cache, all users in the company receive the adversary’s IP address when they request resolution of this domain name.
Can a security threat have multiple names?
Antivirus and security vendors rarely agree on naming conventions, so the same threat can have multiple names, de pending on which vendor is supplying the information. Here are some aliases for SDBot from the top antivirus vendors:
Can an attack on a domain affect only one user?
The attack can also be brought down to the level where it only affects one user. Every IP-enabled client computer has a hosts file where the user can hard-code the association between a domain name and an IP address. By poisoning this file, the user of the affected computer goes to the adversary’s IP address specified in the file, whenever he or she surfs to that domain.