Remote-access Guide

how to identify a remote access trojan

by Piper Stokes Published 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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There are some software detection tools by which we can use to detect Remote Access Trojan : 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.

Full Answer

What is remote access trojan (RAT)?

A Remote Access Trojan (RAT) is a type of malware that lets a hacker take control of your computer. The spying activities that the hacker may carry out once that RAT is installed vary from exploring your files system, watching activities on the screen,...

How do I protect against a remote access trojan?

While there are several measures that can be helpful depending on the size of the environment you’re looking to protect—including security awareness training and antivirus software— intrusion detection systems are your best bet for preventing a Remote Access Trojan from slipping past your security setup.

What are the best open-source intrusion detection systems?

Sagan is another open-source host-based intrusion detection system employing anomaly-based and signature-based detection policies. The application includes threat remediation countermeasures helping to quarantine security breaches once they’ve been identified.

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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...

Which of the following is a remote Trojan?

Troya is a remote Trojan that works remotely for its creator.

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.

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...•

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.

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 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 a logic bomb virus?

A logic bomb is a malicious program that is triggered when a logical condition is met, such as after a number of transactions have been processed, or on a specific date (also called a time bomb). Malware such as worms often contain logic bombs, behaving in one manner, then changing tactics on a specific date and time.

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.

How would users recognize if ones computer is infected?

Signs of an infection include your computer acting strangely, glitching and running abnormally slow. Installing and routinely updating antivirus software can prevent virus and malware infections, as can following cautious best practices.

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.

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.

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.

Which programming language is commonly used to create remote access Trojans?

For remote attacks on servers the Python language is popular among hackers.

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.

What is RAT software?

RAT can also stand for remote administration tool, which is software giving a user full control of a tech device remotely. With it, the user can ac...

What’s the difference between the RAT computer virus and RAT software?

As for functions, there is no difference between the two. Yet, while remote administration tool is for legit usage, RAT connotes malicious and crim...

What are the popular remote access applications?

The common remote desktop tools include but are not limited to TeamViewer, AnyDesk, Chrome Remote Desktop, ConnectWise Control, Splashtop Business...

What Is A Remote Access Trojan Attack?

Remote access Trojan (RAT) programs are malware programs that allow the target computer to be controlled remotely. A user may download RATs invisibly with a program they request — such as a game — or send them as an email attachment. Keylogging or other spyware can be used to monitor user behavior.

How Do I Detect Remote Access?

The Admin tab is located at the top. The Action Log Viewer can be found in the Tools section . The Remote Control checkbox can be found under the Select Module Type section. You can click on the show button.

Is There A Way To Tell If Someone Is Remotely Viewing Your Computer?

Activity Monitor or Task Manager are both accessible from the menu. Checking the status of your computer with these utilities is easy. Ctrl + Shift + Esc are the keys to the Windows keyboard. Activity Monitor can be found in the Applications folder in Finder, which is double-clicked in the Utilities folder.

Is Ratting Someone’s Computer Illegal?

Computer crime statutes make hacking a crime. In addition, unauthor ized access to a computer or computer network is punished by the law, with penalties ranging from a class B misdemeanor to a class D felony (up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $5,000, or both).

Can Antivirus Detect Remote Access?

In this post, I will discuss how to detect Remote Administration Tool (RAT) on Windows, RAT is also known as Remote Access trojan. In spite of the fact that antivirus software can detect some RATs like this, we still have many RATs that are undetected.

What Damage Can A Trojan Do?

In general, a Trojan is designed to damage, disrupt, steal, or in general cause some other harm to your data or network. You are fooled by a Trojan by pretending to be a legitimate application or file.

Are Remote Access Trojans Illegal?

According to law enforcement officials, it is not illegal to possess a remote-access tool. IT support is often provided by remote-access tools in corporate environments. The use of such tools for illegal purposes is a different ballgame, never mind the purpose-built remote access Trojan that can be used.

What is Adwind malware?

Adwind is a paid malware platform that allows attackers to log keystrokes, steal passwords, capture webcam video, and more. Nasty stuff, for sure. Let’s break down what happened when the victim downloaded a so-called “important document” containing the Adwind RAT.

Is Threat Detection Report available for 2021?

All 2021 Threat Detection Report content is fully available through this website. If you prefer to download a PDF, just fill out this form and let us know what email to send it to.

Do you need administrator privileges to write files to AppData?

Since AppData is owned by the user, an attacker doesn’t need to have Administrator privileges in order to write files there. In addition, many legitimate applications launch processes from AppData, so the file location alone isn’t likely to raise many red flags to defenders.

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.

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. Once a RAT program is connected to your computer, the hacker can examine the local files, acquire login credentials and other personal information, or use the connection to download viruses you could unwittingly spread along to others.

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.

How to protect your computer from phishing?

As mentioned above, you can't. What you can is follow best practices, that are repeated over and over again by security experts: 1 Keep your system up-to-date 2 Don't install software from untrustworthy sources 3 Use a password manager 4 Make backups on an external device 5 Don't click on links in phishing emails and don't answer them.

What is information security stack exchange?

Information Security Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for information security professionals. It only takes a minute to sign up.

Does 100% security exist?

A 100% does not exist in security. You could scan for known RATs, and you could try and actively found the type of bugs RATs exploit, that’s about it.

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.

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 happens if you don't see malware in Task Manager?

If you don’t see any potential malware in Task Manager, you could still have a RAT that an author programmed to avoid detection. Good anti-malware applications detect most of the common RATs in the wild. Any zero-day malware remains undetected until the user updates their anti-malware software, so it’s important to keep your anti-malware and antivirus software updated. Vendors for these programs publish updates frequently as new malware is found in the wild.

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.

Can malware writers name processes?

For most applications and processes, you can identify any suspicious content in this window, but malware writers name processes to make them look official. If you find any suspicious executables and processes, search online to determine if the process could be a RAT or other type of malware.

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.

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.

How does a RAT toolkit work?

Other elements propagate the RAT by sending out links to infected web pages. These are sent to the social media contacts of an infected user.

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.

Why are remote access Trojans important?

Remote Access Trojans fulfill an important function for hackers. Most attack vectors, like phishing, are ideal for delivering a payload to a machine but don’t provide the hacker with the ability to explore and interact with the target environment. RATs are designed to create a foothold on the target machine that provides the hacker with the necessary level of control over their target machine.

What is the next step in a phishing attack?

Once a hacker has gained initial access to a target machine, expanding and solidifying that foothold is the next logical step. In the case of a phishing attack, this involves using malware to take advantage of the access provided by the email.

What is the primary evaluation criteria for a given RAT?

The primary evaluation criteria for a given RAT is how well they allow a hacker to accomplish their goals on the target computer. Different RATs are specialized for certain purposes, but many of the top RATs are designed to provide a great deal of functionality on a variety of different systems.

What is PhoneSpector?

PhoneSpector offers the hacker the ability to monitor a wide variety of activities on the device. This includes monitoring phone calls and SMS messages (even those that were deleted) as well as app activity. PhoneSpector even provides a customer service helpline in case a hacker gets in a bind. 4.

How does PhoneSpector work?

One of these is PhoneSpector, which bills itself as being designed to help parents and employers but acts like malware. The software can be installed by getting the device owner to click on a link and enter a product key on their device. It then monitors the device while remaining undetectable to the user.

Do remote access Trojans exist?

Many different Remote Access Trojans exist, and some hackers will modify existing ones or develop their own to be better suited to their preferences. Different RATs are also designed for different purposes, especially with RATs geared specifically to each potential target (desktop versus mobile, Windows versus Apple and so on).

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.

Who created NetBus?

Yet, they were “innovative and disruptive,” Valeros says. NetBus, for instance, was created by Carl-Fredrik Neikter in 1998, and its name, translated from Swedish, means “NetPrank.”

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.

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