The Revenge Trojan is a dangerous weapon used against computer users worldwide. It infects mainly via infected software installers. Our article gives an overview of its behavior according to the collected samples and available reports, also it may be helpful in attempting to remove the virus.
Threat Summary
| Name | Revenge Trojan |
| Type | Trojan |
| Short Description | The Revenge Trojan is a computer virus that is designed to silently infiltrate computer systems. |
| Symptoms | The victims may not experience any apparent symptoms of infection. |
| Distribution Method | Software Vulnerabilities, Freeware Installations, Bundled Packages, Scripts and others. |
| Detection Tool | See If Your System Has Been Affected by Revenge Trojan Download Malware Removal Tool |
| User Experience | Join Our Forum to Discuss Revenge Trojan. |
Revenge Trojan – Distribution Methods
The Revenge Trojan has been spotted in a recent attack campaign. An unknown hacker collective is behind the ongoing attacks, at the moment there is no information about their identity. The captured samples were identified as malware through one of the most common intrusion mechanisms — infected documents. The virus installation code is made part of macros that are embedded in the payload documents, they can be of any one of the popular types: text documents, spreadsheets, presentations and databases. Once they are opened by the victim users a prompt will appear asking the victims to enable the content. The window will usually state that this is required in order to view correctly the files.
What’s more dangerous is that other similar tactics can be employed as well. One of the common cases is when the hackers embed the virus installation instructions in software setup files. They target applications that are popularly downloaded by end users such as system utilities, creativity suites, productivity and office apps and etc.
Both the virus files themselves and these two payload types are usually spread through methods that can infect thousands of users at once. There are several methods such as the following:
- Email SPAM Messages — The hackers can craft phishing emails that appear notifications as being sent by legitimate services. This is done by using their own design layout and text body contents. The fake email phishing messages will link the files in text links or interactive contents. Alternatively they can be directly attached to the messages.
- Malicious Web Sites — A related strategy is to create web pages that imitate legitimate services, download portals, landing pages and etc. They are hosted on similar sounding domain names and in some cases utilizing stolen or hacker-generated security certificates.
- File-Sharing Sites — Both the standalone files and infected payloads are widely available on networks like BitTorrent where both legitimate and pirate content is freely shared across Internet users.
- Browser Hijackers — Dangerous web browser plugins can be be made by the criminals that are made compatible with the most popular web browsers and uploaded to the relevant repositories. They are accompanied by fake user reviews and stolen or hacker-made developer credentials in order to confuse the victims into thinking that the extension is safe. Their descriptions will promise the addition of new features or performance optimizations.
Other tactics can additionally be used in forthcoming attacks and upcoming versions of the Revenge Trojan.
Revenge Trojan – Detailed Description
The Revenge Trojan appears to be an original creation which doesn’t use any code snippets from previous threats. At the time of writing this article there is information about the identity of the group behind the ongoing attacks. We presume that the threat is modular in nature and that various modules can be added to it.
The captured Revenge Trojan instance appears to launch a main engine which connects to a hacker-controlled server and allows the criminal operators to spy on the victims. Through this secure connection they have the ability to take over control of the affected machines, steal their data and carry out all sorts of malicious actions.
A PowerShell-based script is launched which allows all sorts of components to be added. Trojans such as this one usually all include a certain set of common behavior patterns. A list of them is the following:
- Information Retrieval — The engine can be programmed to extract sensitive information that can be used to generate an unique ID that is specfiic to each individual computer. This is done by an algorithm that takes its input parameters from data sets such as the parts list of the installed hardware components, user settings, regional preferences and other related metrics. The other dangerous mechanic used by Trojans is the exposure of personal information which is done by programming the strings to look for strings that contain directly reveal the victims. Common ones include their name, address, phone number, interests and any stored account credentials. If the Trojan interacts with the Windows Volume Manager it can also search the removable storage devices and available network shares. The obtained data sets can be used for various crimes including identity theft, blackmail and financial abuse.
- Boot Options Modification — A popular mechanism that is made part of most Trojans, possibly including future Revenge Trojan variants, is the ability to modify the boot options and configuration files that will set it to automatically start once the computer is powered on. This can also disable most manual user recovery guides as they depend on access to recovery boot menus.
- Windows Registry Changes — The Trojan module is capable of accessing the Registry records not only to create strings for itself but also to modify existing ones. If values that are used by the operating system are affected then the victim users will be unable to access certain services and may experience serious performance issues. Changes to strings used by third-party applications can lead to unexpected errors.
- Removal of Sensitive Data — The engine can be programmed to locate and delete sensitive files that can seriously disrupt the usual recovery procedure. This is done by targeting System Restore Points, Backups, Shadow Volume Copies and etc. In this case the victims will need to se a combination of a professional-grade anti-spyware utility and data recovery program.
- Additional Payloads Delivery — The Revenge Trojan can be instructed to insert other malicious threats on the compromised machines.
Future Revenge Trojan campaigns can be instructed to carry out other actions as configured by the hackers.
Remove Revenge Trojan
If your computer system got infected with the Revenge Trojan, you should have a bit of experience in removing malware. You should get rid of this Trojan as quickly as possible before it can have the chance to spread further and infect other computers. You should remove the Trojan and follow the step-by-step instructions guide provided below.
Note! Your computer system may be affected by Revenge Trojan and other threats.
Scan Your PC with SpyHunter
SpyHunter is a powerful malware removal tool designed to help users with in-depth system security analysis, detection and removal of Revenge Trojan.
Keep in mind, that SpyHunter’s scanner is only for malware detection. If SpyHunter detects malware on your PC, you will need to purchase SpyHunter’s malware removal tool to remove the malware threats. Read our SpyHunter 5 review. Click on the corresponding links to check SpyHunter’s EULA, Privacy Policy and Threat Assessment Criteria.
To remove Revenge Trojan follow these steps:
1. For Windows XP, Vista and 7.
2. For Windows 8, 8.1 and 10.
Fix registry entries created by malware and PUPs on your PC.
Use SpyHunter to scan for malware and unwanted programs
1. Install SpyHunter to scan for Revenge Trojan and remove them.
Back up your data to secure it from 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.
Follow Me:
