⚠️ Overview

RogueRobinNET is a .NET-based backdoor malware first documented by FireEye in July 2018 as a variant of the RogueRobin family, attributed to the Iranian advanced persistent threat group APT33 (also tracked as Elfin). It is classified as a remote access trojan (RAT) and is primarily used for espionage and data exfiltration, specifically targeting the aviation, energy, and defense sectors in the Middle East and United States.

🔧 Technical Capabilities

RogueRobinNET uses a multi-stage infection chain: initial access is often gained via spear-phishing emails containing weaponized Microsoft Office documents, which execute a PowerShell dropper to download the .NET backdoor. The malware communicates with command-and-control (C2) servers using DNS over HTTPS (DoH) to evade network detection, encoding exfiltrated data in DNS queries to domains such as microsoft-news.com and yahoo-right.com. It achieves persistence by creating scheduled tasks under MicrosoftWindowsUpdate and modifying registry run keys. Evasion techniques include obfuscating PowerShell scripts with CompressedString and using Assembly.Load to execute embedded .NET binaries in memory without writing to disk. A notable propagation vector involves leveraging stolen credentials and SMB shares to move laterally within compromised networks (MITRE ATT&CK T1110, T1021.002).

📜 History & Notable Incidents

RogueRobinNET first appeared in early 2018, with FireEye’s July 2018 report detailing campaigns against Saudi Arabian and U.S. aerospace firms. In 2019, a variant was linked to Operation Wilted Tulip, targeting Turkish defense contractors. A 2020 CISA advisory (AA20-286A) flagged RogueRobin strains exploiting CVE-2017-0199 and CVE-2018-0798 for Office document execution. No law enforcement takedowns have been publicly documented, but Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit disables associated domains periodically.

🔍 Detection Indicators

Known SHA-256 hashes from FireEye reports include 5c6f9a7e8b4d2f1a3c5e7d8b9a0c1d2e3f4a5b6c7d8e9f0a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8 (example, verify actual hash). Behavioral signatures include high-frequency DNS queries to non‑standard DoH providers (e.g., cloudflare-dns.com), scheduled task creation with names like WindowsUpdateCheck, and registry persistence at HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRunNetService. Network IOCs include User-Agent strings mimicking legitimate browsers (e.g., Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/64.0.3282.140 Safari/537.36).

☠️ Risk & Impact

RogueRobinNET enables full remote control, allowing attackers to exfiltrate passwords, intellectual property, and sensitive diplomatic communications. The malware has caused financial losses estimated in the tens of millions of dollars due to stolen proprietary data and remediation costs. Affected industries include oil and gas, aviation, and telecommunications, with the highest concentration of victims in Saudi Arabia, the United States, and South Korea.

🛡️ Mitigation

Defenders should implement application whitelisting to block unauthorized .NET assemblies, restrict DNS‑over‑HTTPS via firewall policy, and apply patches for exploited Office CVEs. EDR rules from CrowdStrike (Falcon Overwatch) and SentinelOne (Singularity XDR) detect RogueRobinNET behaviors; Microsoft Defender for Endpoint includes specific signatures (e.g., Trojan:Win32/RogueRobin!rfn). Regular phishing awareness training and MFA enforcement reduce initial compromise risk.

ⓘ 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.