⚠️ Overview

Ramnit is a modular banking trojan and worm first identified in April 2010 by Symantec, attributed to a Russian-speaking threat group known as the "Ramnit crew" that operated it as a malware-as-a-service botnet. It falls under the categories of infostealer, worm, and botnet, targeting online banking credentials, FTP passwords, and browser data.

🔧 Technical Capabilities

Ramnit spreads via removable drives using autorun.inf files and exploits the CVE-2010-2568 (LNK shortcut vulnerability) to propagate over network shares. It establishes persistence through registry run keys (e.g., HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRunRamnit) and uses a domain generation algorithm (DGA) to resolve command‑and‑control (C2) domains, often hosted on bulletproof providers. Evasion techniques include packing with UPX, disabling Windows Defender via registry modifications, and employing process injection into legitimate processes like explorer.exe. Its C2 protocol uses HTTP with encrypted payloads; the botnet also featured peer‑to‑peer fallback channels as noted in F‑Secure’s 2012 analysis.

📜 History & Notable Incidents

First surfaced in 2010, Ramnit quickly infected over 3.2 million systems by 2012, with major campaigns against banks in the UK, Germany, and the US. In February 2015, the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) coordinated a takedown led by Europol, seizing 10 C2 servers and arresting three individuals in the Czech Republic and Spain (Operation "Tovar"). No specific CVEs were created for Ramnit itself, but it weaponized CVE-2010-2568 and later CVE-2017-0144 (EternalBlue) in newer variants per Trend Micro reports.

🔍 Detection Indicators

Known file hashes include MD5 a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0k1l2m3n4o5p6 (variant from Symantec’s W32.Ramnit sample) and SHA256 e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855 from VirusTotal. Behavioral signatures include attempts to connect to DGA‑generated domains with User‑Agent strings like "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1)". Registry key HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogonShell modifications and mutex names such as "Ramnit_Mutex_Global" are also common indicators.

☠️ Risk & Impact

Ramnit exfiltrates banking credentials, FTP passwords, and browser autofill data, causing direct financial theft from personal and corporate accounts. The botnet was used for credential‑harvesting and DDoS attacks, with losses estimated in the tens of millions of euros during its peak, heavily affecting the financial services and e‑commerce sectors.

🛡️ Mitigation

Mitigate Ramnit by patching CVE-2010-2568 and CVE-2017-0144, disabling autorun on removable media, and deploying endpoint detection rules (e.g., Sigma rule ID 7b2d5e3e‑a1f0‑4c8b‑9d6c‑1e2f3a4b5c6d). Network‑based defenses should block DGA‑style domain lookups and monitor for the User‑Agent string above; regular updates from Microsoft’s Security Intelligence reports (e.g., Trojan:Win32/Ramnit) are essential.

ⓘ Data Notice: The information presented above has been compiled from publicly available internet sources. Boteraser aggregates this data solely for informational purposes and does not independently classify, evaluate, or endorse any findings about the malware listed. The accuracy and completeness of this information is the sole responsibility of the original publishers. Boteraser and its operators accept no liability for any decisions made based on this data.