Severity
High
Analysis Summary
Astaroth is a stealthy, resilient banking trojan built to avoid analysis and interruption. It performs extensive anti-analysis checks and will automatically shut down if it detects common virtualization, debugging, or forensic tools including QEMU Guest Agent, HookExplorer, IDA Pro, Immunity Debugger, PE Tools, WinDbg, and Wireshark making dynamic analysis and reverse engineering far harder for researchers and automated sandboxes.
According to the Researcher, for persistence, the malware leverages the Windows Startup folder: it drops an LNK shortcut that executes an AutoIt script so the payload launches on every system reboot. That initial JavaScript inside the LNK is gated by geofencing controls, and the malware further verifies the host environment by ensuring the system locale is neither English nor set to the United States before proceeding, which narrows its target set and reduces exposure in unwanted regions.
When its primary command-and-control infrastructure becomes unavailable, Astaroth falls back to an ingenious and stealthy configuration update mechanism: it hosts configuration data embedded inside images on GitHub using steganography. By hiding C2 configuration inside otherwise innocuous images on a legitimate platform, the operators gain a resilient, hard-to-block backup channel that blends with normal web traffic and complicates takedown or blocking efforts.
This technique forced defenders to pursue takedowns at the platform level: McAfee reported the behavior and worked with GitHub (a Microsoft subsidiary) to remove the malicious repositories, which temporarily disrupted the campaign. Overall, Astaroth’s combination of anti-analysis shutdowns, startup persistence, geo/locale gating, and GitHub-steganography-based failover make it a sophisticated, evasive threat engineered to remain operational while minimizing detection and analysis.
Impact
- Sensitive Data Theft
- Gain Access
Indicators of Compromise
Domain Name
clafenval.medicarium.help
sprudiz.medicinatramp.click
blojannindor0.trovaodoceara.motorcycles
MD5
6b11d98a41fb1f95cbd99ccf559872f1
6b50695795ada6c00aead68d9090c739
888cc4983edd91898d01386a2f005e32
SHA-256
34207fbffcb38ed51cd469d082c0c518b696bac4eb61e5b191a141b5459669df
28515ea1ed7befb39f428f046ba034d92d44a075cc7a6f252d6faf681bdba39c
049849998f2d4dd1e629d46446699f15332daa54530a5dad5f35cc8904adea43
SHA1
bd730172327741bdb04170a56d819a8094548d98
5fcce6c94043f57c0a396ffdce4f316f5e1b67cf
88805130eb20b976b4838c33983c953d3ac9bc09
Remediation
- Remove any suspicious LNK files from the Windows Startup folders and check for AutoIt scripts or unexpected shortcuts.
- Use application allowlisting (e.g., Microsoft AppLocker or similar) to block unauthorized scripts and executables from running at startup.
- Deploy and maintain modern endpoint protection/EDR that detects AutoIt-based loaders, steganography patterns, and abnormal process behavior; enable automated containment.
- Block or monitor unusual outbound connections, especially to file-hosting/image-serving domains, and create alerts for unexpected HTTP(S) requests that retrieve images or binary blobs.
- Inspect and scan images downloaded from public repositories (GitHub, GitLab, etc.) for hidden data or anomalous metadata; add rules to flag image downloads from untrusted repos.
- Restrict use of developer tools and debugging ports on analyst/production machines and harden systems used for analysis to prevent accidental execution of malware.
- Enforce least privilege for user,s prevent standard accounts from writing to Startup folders or installing scripting runtimes (AutoIt).
- Harden remote access and credentials: rotate exposed credentials, enable MFA, and monitor for suspicious logins that could indicate C2 or operator access.
- Add network and host-based indicators to threat intel feeds (C2 domains, malicious repo names, file hashes) and block them in firewalls and URL filters.
- Conduct targeted threat hunting for machines with non-English locales performing web requests to image-hosting services or spawning AutoIt/wscript/cscript processes.
- Prepare an incident response playbook: isolate infected hosts, collect memory/artifacts (LNK, AutoIt scripts, downloaded images), and perform remediation and reimaging where necessary.
- Report and coordinate takedown or removal of malicious repos with platform providers (GitHub/GitLab) and share IOC details with peers and CERTs to accelerate disruption.
- Train users to avoid opening unexpected shortcuts/attachments and to report unusual pop-ups or startup behaviour phishing is often the delivery vector.
- Keep OS and security software up to date, and regularly audit startup locations, scheduled tasks, and unusual autoruns with automated tools.