What is Gustuff? How to remove Gustuff Trojan from your PC or Mac?
The Gustuff Trojan is a dangerous malware threat which is designed mainly for Microsoft Windows computers. It can be acquired from various sources, every attack campaign can focus on one specific tactic. Usually virus infections like this one are made by interacting with an infected file — this can be either a macro-infected document or a hacker-made software installer. They are often made by taking the legitimate files from their official sources and modifying them with the necessary virus code. Other data can also be affected. All kinds of other data may be used as well — this includes malicious plugins for web browsers and etc. In other cases the hackers can use a direct attacks that will look for system vulnerabilities and weaknesses. If any are found then the Gustuff Trojan will be installed.
This particular threat is known for being spread using a multitude of weaknesses. It is set against both end users and servers. After the infection has been made the Gustuff Trojan can download other threats, launch multiple dangerous modules and install a cryptocurrency miner which will run a sequence of performance-demanding tasks.
Threat Summary
| Name | Gustuff Trojan |
| Type | Malware, Trojan, Miner |
| Short Description | A dangerous malware which can launch a miner and start a Trojan module. |
| Symptoms | The victims may notice performance issues and can get infected with other malware. |
| Distribution Method | Common distribution tactics and direct web attacks. |
| Detection Tool |
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User Experience | Join Our Forum to Discuss Gustuff Trojan. |
Gustuff Trojan — Update October 2019
Several of the latest Gustuff Trojan samples have been found to include an updated code base. What’s particularly dangerous about them is that a large portion of the samples have been sent via Instagram profiles. The exact attack campaign is focused on posting posts on the social network platform using fake or automatically generated profiles. The aim of the hackers is to manipulate the users into downloading and running the malware code. An alternative is to use SMS messages that can impersonate various services and products. The ongoing attack campaign carrying the Gustuff Trojan appears to continue targeting Australian companies — mainly financial institutions, banks, cryptocurrency companies and traders. The main goal is to gather financial information about the victims and use it to for various crimes. The list of extracted data can include the following:
- Personal Information — This includes various identity information about the user that will reveal the user: a person’s name, address, phone number, stored user credentials and etc.
- App data — This can include stored data in web browsers including preferences, bookmarks and any stored configuration settings.
- Machine Information — The main engine can also create a complete report of the installed hardware components. This can be used to generate an unique identifier that is assigned to every contaminated computer.
The Gustuff Trojan will follow the typical behavior patterns by creating a secure connection to a hacker-controlled server and receive commands from them. This allows the hackers to spy on the victims and hijack their data. Other actions that are run include the launching of a security bypass. This step is done by scanning the memory contents and files for any installed products or services that can block the virus: anti-virus programs, firewalls, virtual machine hosts and debug environments.
The updated Gustuff Trojan is used to interact with banking apps and services which means that the malware engine can look up the activities of the users. This is an advanced interactive mechanism that will allow the Trojan to impersonate user actions, spy on the activities and replace values and form data.
Such attacks shows that advanced Trojan infections can cause devastating consequences and also deploy other threats — possibilities include cryptocurrency miners, browser hijackers and ransomware.
Gustuff Trojan — How Did I Get It
The Gustuff Trojan is an infamous banking Trojan that is well-known among various criminal collectives. This means that it is very possible for different hacking groups to take the base code and use it in campaigns. The newest version has been launched by an unidentified hacking collective. The security analysis reveals that the hackers are attacking primarily Australian targets.
At the moment the hacking group is focused on financial and fintech companies and organizations, primarily banks and cryptocurrency wallet holders. This means that the Trojan will be set to target both the end users and the companies and organizations that operate with finances and data. This is usually carried out in phishing and social engineering campaigns. The two most common ways are the following:
- Email Messages — The criminals craft email messages that are designed to appear as impersonating the financial institutions and fintech companies. The victim users will likely receive the relevant scripts and fake/hacked contents.
- Phishing Sites — The hackers can create special hacker-controlled sites that are hosed on similar sounding domain names and can include self-signed security certificates. In order to make the the visitor interact with them the hackers will probably fake login prompts, landing pages and etc.
Some of the intrusions have been found to also use SMS messages to deliver links to the target users. In the latest attack there is a focus on mobile sites meaning that there is a continued interest in acquiring as much victims as possible. The Trojan can be delivered to the visitors using links that are placed in specially made mobile sites. This is done in order to lure in these users. What’s more important is that in order to do so effectively the hackers can also create mobile apps in a way which is very similar to browser hijackers. This means that they the hackers will impersonate developers and upload the apps onto the official repositories and advertise the malware apps using elaborate descriptions. Often fake user reviews will also be posted.
At any time the distribution strategy can change and lead to virus infections via other mechanisms. Such can be the inclusion of the virus scripts in other types of files. Once they are downloaded and run by the users the infection will follow.
A popular spread mechanism is the creation of malware documents which can be of all popular file types — they can be presentations, text files, databases and spreadsheets. As soon as they are opened by the users a prompt will appear asking them to enable the built-in macros. An alternative is the creation of application installers of popular software which is often installed by end users. These files can be distributed over both the phishing emails and sites, as well as file-sharing networks. Larger campaigns can also use fake or stolen social network profiles.
Gustuff Trojan — Capabilities
The Gustuff Trojan and its latest version have been found to contain an array of dangerous modules which will be launched as soon as the virus is installed on a given machine.
Some of the features which are distinct for this Trojan include the dynamic loading of web views. This can be set for specific hacker-controlled domains allowing the criminals to organize complex infection campaigns. The hackers can constantly change the addresses and use proxy servers and botnets in order to hide the real locations of the machines which are used to send out commands and control the infected hosts.
The infections will typically begin with the starting of a data harvesting component which will harvest a lot of sensitive information found on the computers. This will include not only personal information, but also machine data that can be used by other modules. The gathered personal information will reveal the identity of the victims and allow for financial abuse and identity theft to happen. The data which is collected can be used to detect if there are any running security software and will disable that. Usually this is done against the following applications: anti-virus programs, firewalls, virtual machine hosts and etc.
When used in combination with phishing sites and other social engineering tricks it will display a prompt or trigger a site that will ask the victims to update and/or enter their credit card information. This will be done with a design that will impersonate services or companies that the users trusts.
The Trojan like other similar threats will have the ability to take over control of the infected computers. This is done using a connection to a hacker-controlled server which is kept persistent and will allow the hackers to conduct commands and carry out complex operations.
As the Gustuff Trojan is often referred to as a banking Trojan it will include all respective functionality, including the ability to interact with the installed web browsers and detect if the users are accessing any online banks or fintech profiles. Some of the popular tactics which are done by such Trojans include the following actions:
- Automatic Information Collection — When the virus detects that the users are entering in bank information the data will be automatically transmitted to the criminals.
- Field Data Replacement — Among the most popular techniques is the fields replacement action. When the users transfer money or pay for goods the Trojan will automatically replace the recipients bank account. By doing so the victims will be unaware that they have made a transaction to a hacker-controlled bank account.
- Blackmail — By having access to the financial data and personal information the criminals can blackmail their victims for financial gain or for other assets.
Gustuff Trojan — Trojan Apps
During the security analysis the researchers have been able to uncover a partial list of contaminated apps that are uploaded to Google Play and third-party repositories. These applications are designed to appear as legitimate to the victims and are usually posted with scam or hacked developer credentials. Their reputation can be further boosted by counterfeit user reviews and elaborate descriptions. The list includes the following:
com.android.vending, au.com.nab.mobile, com.anz.android.gomoney, org.westpac.bank, au.com.bankwest,mobile, com.ubank.internetbanking, au.com.suncopr.SuncorpBank, org.stgeorge.bank, org.banksa.bank, org.bom.bank, com.anz.android, com.citibank.mobile.au, au.com.ingdirect.android, com.commbank.netbank, com.circle.android, com.moneybookers.skrillpayments, com.westernunion.android.mtapp, piuk.blockchain.android, com.bitcoin.mwallet, com.bitcontract.wallet, com.bitpay.wallet, com.bitpay.copay, btc.org.freewallet.app, org.electrum.electrum, com.xapo, com.airbitz, com.kibou.bitcoin, com.qcan.mobile.bitcoin.wallet, me.cryptopay.android, com.bitcoin.wallet, lt.spectrofinance.spectrocoin.android.wallet, com.kryptokt.jaxx, com.wrex, hcn.org.freewallet.app
How to Remove Gustuff Trojan
In order to fully remove Gustuff from your computer system, we recommend that you follow the removal instructions underneath this article. If the first two manual removal steps do not seem to work and you still see Gustuff or programs, related to it, we suggest what most security experts advise – to download and run a scan of your computer with a reputable anti-malware program. Downloading this software will not only save you some time, but will remove all of Gustuff files and programs related to it and will protect your computer against such intrusive apps and malware in the future.
Martin Beltov
Martin graduated with a degree in Publishing from Sofia University. As a cyber security enthusiast he enjoys writing about the latest threats and mechanisms of intrusion.
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Preparation before removing Gustuff Trojan.
Before starting the actual removal process, we recommend that you do the following preparation steps.
- Make sure you have these instructions always open and in front of your eyes.
- Do a backup of all of your files, even if they could be damaged. You should back up your data with a cloud backup solution and insure your files against any type of loss, even from the most severe threats.
- Be patient as this could take a while.
- Scan for Malware
- Fix Registries
- Remove Virus Files
Step 1: Scan for Gustuff Trojan with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool
Step 2: Clean any registries, created by Gustuff Trojan on your computer.
The usually targeted registries of Windows machines are the following:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
You can access them by opening the Windows registry editor and deleting any values, created by Gustuff Trojan there. This can happen by following the steps underneath:
Tip: To find a virus-created value, you can right-click on it and click "Modify" to see which file it is set to run. If this is the virus file location, remove the value.Step 3: Find virus files created by Gustuff Trojan on your PC.
1.For Windows 8, 8.1 and 10.
For Newer Windows Operating Systems
1: On your keyboard press + R and write explorer.exe in the Run text box and then click on the Ok button.
2: Click on your PC from the quick access bar. This is usually an icon with a monitor and its name is either “My Computer”, “My PC” or “This PC” or whatever you have named it.
3: Navigate to the search box in the top-right of your PC's screen and type “fileextension:” and after which type the file extension. If you are looking for malicious executables, an example may be "fileextension:exe". After doing that, leave a space and type the file name you believe the malware has created. Here is how it may appear if your file has been found:
N.B. We recommend to wait for the green loading bar in the navigation box to fill up in case the PC is looking for the file and hasn't found it yet.
2.For Windows XP, Vista, and 7.
For Older Windows Operating Systems
In older Windows OS's the conventional approach should be the effective one:
1: Click on the Start Menu icon (usually on your bottom-left) and then choose the Search preference.
2: After the search window appears, choose More Advanced Options from the search assistant box. Another way is by clicking on All Files and Folders.
3: After that type the name of the file you are looking for and click on the Search button. This might take some time after which results will appear. If you have found the malicious file, you may copy or open its location by right-clicking on it.
Now you should be able to discover any file on Windows as long as it is on your hard drive and is not concealed via special software.
Gustuff Trojan FAQ
What Does Gustuff Trojan Trojan Do?
The Gustuff Trojan Trojan is a malicious computer program designed to disrupt, damage, or gain unauthorized access to a computer system.
It can be used to steal sensitive data, gain control over a system, or launch other malicious activities.
Can Trojans Steal Passwords?
Yes, Trojans, like Gustuff Trojan, can steal passwords. These malicious programs are designed to gain access to a user's computer, spy on victims and steal sensitive information such as banking details and passwords.
Can Gustuff Trojan Trojan Hide Itself?
Yes, it can. A Trojan can use various techniques to mask itself, including rootkits, encryption, and obfuscation, to hide from security scanners and evade detection.
Can a Trojan be Removed by Factory Reset?
Yes, a Trojan can be removed by factory resetting your device. This is because it will restore the device to its original state, eliminating any malicious software that may have been installed. Bear in mind, that there are more sophisticated Trojans, that leave backdoors and reinfect even after factory reset.
Can Gustuff Trojan Trojan Infect WiFi?
Yes, it is possible for a Trojan to infect WiFi networks. When a user connects to the infected network, the Trojan can spread to other connected devices and can access sensitive information on the network.
Can Trojans Be Deleted?
Yes, Trojans can be deleted. This is typically done by running a powerful anti-virus or anti-malware program that is designed to detect and remove malicious files. In some cases, manual deletion of the Trojan may also be necessary.
Can Trojans Steal Files?
Yes, Trojans can steal files if they are installed on a computer. This is done by allowing the malware author or user to gain access to the computer and then steal the files stored on it.
Which Anti-Malware Can Remove Trojans?
Anti-malware programs such as SpyHunter are capable of scanning for and removing Trojans from your computer. It is important to keep your anti-malware up to date and regularly scan your system for any malicious software.
Can Trojans Infect USB?
Yes, Trojans can infect USB devices. USB Trojans typically spread through malicious files downloaded from the internet or shared via email, allowing the hacker to gain access to a user's confidential data.
About the Gustuff Trojan Research
The content we publish on SensorsTechForum.com, this Gustuff Trojan how-to removal guide included, is the outcome of extensive research, hard work and our team’s devotion to help you remove the specific trojan problem.
How did we conduct the research on Gustuff Trojan?
Please note that our research is based on an independent investigation. We are in contact with independent security researchers, thanks to which we receive daily updates on the latest malware definitions, including the various types of trojans (backdoor, downloader, infostealer, ransom, etc.)
Furthermore, the research behind the Gustuff Trojan threat is backed with VirusTotal.
To better understand the threat posed by trojans, please refer to the following articles which provide knowledgeable details.