What is Jhone? How to remove Jhone Trojan from your PC or Mac?
The Jhone Trojan is a dangerous Trojan that takes advantage of multiple cloud infrastructure to operate. It is being launched in a targeted attack campaign against targets in Middle Eastern countries. It features advanced infection capabilities and can cause a lot of damage to affected hosts. Read our article to learn what the Jhone Trojan is capable of and to read instructions on safely removing active infection.
Threat Summary
| Name | Jhone Trojan |
| Type | Trojan Malware |
| Short Description | A very dangerous banking Trojan capable of overtaking control of the machines. |
| Symptoms | The victims may notice performance issues and can get infected with other malware. |
| Distribution Method | Mainly infected documents and files |
| Detection Tool |
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The Jhone Trojan is a dangerous malicious infection which is currently spread in the Middle East and being spread by an unknown hacking group. We don’t know details about them however it is assumed that they are experienced to have created the dangerous code from scratch or based on one of the famous “bases” which can be acquired from the underground markets. The attacks are categorized as targeted — they will implement a keyboard layout check and will use network lookup in order to blacklist the cloud services that check for abuse.
The Jhone Trojan is currently set against victims located in the following countries: Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Oman, Tunisia, Syria, Yemen, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Lebanon. The start of the attack campaign has been traced back to November 2019.
The main delivery technique used at the moment by the hacking group is a dangerous document files — popular examples includes spreadsheets, text files, databases and presentations. They include malicious macros that will request the execution of the built-in code by the users — the prompt will ask for this to be done by stating that this is required in order to access the contents.
The sending of the documents depend on the use of clever phishing campaigns — an example file will be called Urgent.docx and it may include contents in English or Arabic. The files are hosted on Google Drive in order to avoid blacklisting — the uploading of such data to this cloud will not raise suspicion that they may be actually malware.
Jhone Trojan infections are caused mainly by Microsoft Office documents however there are several different types which are used to deliver the threat. The first ones which which were spread in the first campaigns carried the Urgent.docx names and were written in both English and Arabic. They require the enabling of the built-in macros in order to view the contained within message. However as this copies other ransomware the hackers behind the Jhone Trojan prepared another set of documents — fb.docx which allegedly contain hijacked Facebook usernames and passwords. Another tactic used by the hackers is to impersonate an United Arab Emirates organization and send fake documents branded as important company notifications.
The actual Jhone Trojan is written in Python which allows the hackers to easily modify its core at will by both changing the main code, as well as allowing external components to be run.
Infections with this malware will begin by following a built-in sequence of malware commands. One of the first actions which are started will be to harvest sensitive data from the computer. This includes a detailed report on the installed hardware components including the installed hard drives (and their serial numbers), details about the operating system in use and etc. The hijacked data will then be relayed using a Trojan module — it will establish a secure connection to a special hacker-controlled server and allow the criminals to receive the information. The commands are checked via a special Twitter profile which is used to relay the commands. During the information gathering phase an unique ID will be created for each affected computer, this number will be relayed to the criminals as well .
A distinct part of the Jhone Trojan infection is the data theft mechanism which is used to hijack sensitive data and files from the computers. Instead of using the network connection used during the information gathering the hackers have implemented a different mechanism — the uploading of the data to cloud service hosting providers — ImgBB, Google Drive and Forms. This is done by following a scheme — screenshots are uploaded to ImgBB, binaries to Drive and the actual commands are executed from Forms data.
At the moment some of the Twitter profiles used by the hackers to command the Jhone Trojan are blocked. We anticipate that the code will soon be updated with new instructions which will reactivate the attack campaign.
How to Remove Jhone Trojan
In order to fully remove Jhone 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 Jhone or programs, related to it, we suggest what most security experts advise – to download and run a scan of your comptuer with a reputable anti-malware program. Downloading this software will not only save you some time, but will remove all of Jhone 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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- Guide 1: How to Remove Jhone Trojan from Windows.
- Guide 2: Get rid of Jhone Trojan from Mac OS X.
- Guide 3: Remove Jhone Trojan from Google Chrome.
- Guide 4: Erase Jhone Trojan from Mozilla Firefox.
- Guide 5: Uninstall Jhone Trojan from Microsoft Edge.
- Guide 6: Remove Jhone Trojan from Safari.
- Guide 7: Eliminate Jhone Trojan from Internet Explorer.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
How to Remove Jhone Trojan from Windows.
Step 1: Boot Your PC In Safe Mode to isolate and remove Jhone Trojan
Step 2: Uninstall Jhone Trojan and related software from Windows
Here is a method in few easy steps that should be able to uninstall most programs. No matter if you are using Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista or XP, those steps will get the job done. Dragging the program or its folder to the recycle bin can be a very bad decision. If you do that, bits and pieces of the program are left behind, and that can lead to unstable work of your PC, errors with the file type associations and other unpleasant activities. The proper way to get a program off your computer is to Uninstall it. To do that:
Follow the instructions above and you will successfully uninstall most programs.
Step 3: Clean any registries, created by Jhone 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 Jhone 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.
Before starting "Step 4", please boot back into Normal mode, in case you are currently in Safe Mode.
This will enable you to install and use SpyHunter 5 successfully.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Get rid of Jhone Trojan from Mac OS X.
Step 1: Uninstall Jhone Trojan and remove related files and objects
1. Hit the ⇧+⌘+U keys to open Utilities. Another way is to click on “Go” and then click “Utilities”, like the image below shows:
- Go to Finder.
- In the search bar type the name of the app that you want to remove.
- Above the search bar change the two drop down menus to “System Files” and “Are Included” so that you can see all of the files associated with the application you want to remove. Bear in mind that some of the files may not be related to the app so be very careful which files you delete.
- If all of the files are related, hold the ⌘+A buttons to select them and then drive them to “Trash”.
In case you cannot remove Jhone Trojan via Step 1 above:
In case you cannot find the virus files and objects in your Applications or other places we have shown above, you can manually look for them in the Libraries of your Mac. But before doing this, please read the disclaimer below:
You can repeat the same procedure with the following other Library directories:
→ ~/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
Tip: ~ is there on purpose, because it leads to more LaunchAgents.
Step 2: Scan for and remove Jhone Trojan files from your Mac
When you are facing problems on your Mac as a result of unwanted scripts and programs such as Jhone Trojan, the recommended way of eliminating the threat is by using an anti-malware program. SpyHunter for Mac offers advanced security features along with other modules that will improve your Mac’s security and protect it in the future.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Remove Jhone Trojan from Google Chrome.
Step 1: Start Google Chrome and open the drop menu
Step 2: Move the cursor over "Tools" and then from the extended menu choose "Extensions"
Step 3: From the opened "Extensions" menu locate the unwanted extension and click on its "Remove" button.
Step 4: After the extension is removed, restart Google Chrome by closing it from the red "X" button at the top right corner and start it again.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Erase Jhone Trojan from Mozilla Firefox.
Step 1: Start Mozilla Firefox. Open the menu window
Step 2: Select the "Add-ons" icon from the menu.
Step 3: Select the unwanted extension and click "Remove"
Step 4: After the extension is removed, restart Mozilla Firefox by closing it from the red "X" button at the top right corner and start it again.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Uninstall Jhone Trojan from Microsoft Edge.
Step 1: Start Edge browser.
Step 2: Open the drop menu by clicking on the icon at the top right corner.
Step 3: From the drop menu select "Extensions".
Step 4: Choose the suspected malicious extension you want to remove and then click on the gear icon.
Step 5: Remove the malicious extension by scrolling down and then clicking on Uninstall.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Remove Jhone Trojan from Safari.
Step 1: Start the Safari app.
Step 2: After hovering your mouse cursor to the top of the screen, click on the Safari text to open its drop down menu.
Step 3: From the menu, click on "Preferences".
Step 4: After that, select the 'Extensions' Tab.
Step 5: Click once on the extension you want to remove.
Step 6: Click 'Uninstall'.
A pop-up window will appear asking for confirmation to uninstall the extension. Select 'Uninstall' again, and the Jhone Trojan will be removed.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Eliminate Jhone Trojan from Internet Explorer.
Step 1: Start Internet Explorer.
Step 2: Click on the gear icon labeled 'Tools' to open the drop menu and select 'Manage Add-ons'
Step 3: In the 'Manage Add-ons' window.
Step 4: Select the extension you want to remove and then click 'Disable'. A pop-up window will appear to inform you that you are about to disable the selected extension, and some more add-ons might be disabled as well. Leave all the boxes checked, and click 'Disable'.
Step 5: After the unwanted extension has been removed, restart Internet Explorer by closing it from the red 'X' button located at the top right corner and start it again.
