⚠️ Overview

SnowFlake Stealer is a commodity information-stealing malware first documented in December 2023 by the Cyble Research and Intelligence Labs (CRIL). It is categorized as a stealer and is written in .NET, sold on underground forums as Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) for approximately $120 per license. The threat actor behind its development is tracked as "SnowFlakeDev" and operates primarily on Russian-language Telegram channels and the Exploit[.]in forum.

🔧 Technical Capabilities

The stealer targets Chromium‑based browsers (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera) to extract saved credentials, cookies, autofill data, and browser history via direct file parsing of SQLite databases. It also harvests cryptocurrency wallets such as Exodus, Electrum, and MetaMask by scanning for wallet.dat and key files in common installation directories. The malware uses a custom C2 protocol over HTTP‑based JSON payloads, with exfiltrated data zipped and uploaded using a multipart/form‑data POST request. For persistence, SnowFlake Stealer drops a scheduled task named "SnowUpdateTask" and modifies the Registry under HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun. Evasion techniques include obfuscation with ConfuserEx, anti‑debugging checks using IsDebuggerPresent, and delaying execution to bypass sandbox timeouts. It also disables Windows Defender via powershell Set-MpPreference -DisableRealtimeMonitoring $true and uses process hollowing (MITRE T1055.012) to inject into explorer.exe.

📜 History & Notable Incidents

SnowFlake Stealer first appeared in December 2023 and was observed in a large‑scale phishing campaign in February 2024 targeting users of the Dutch ING bank, using email attachments disguised as invoice PDFs (CVE‑2024‑21412 exploited for bypassing Microsoft Defender SmartScreen). A notable incident in March 2024 involved a supply‑chain attack on a third‑party software vendor distributing fake Notepad++ installers that deployed SnowFlake alongside the legitimate application, affecting over 5,000 endpoints across healthcare and education sectors. No law enforcement actions have been publicly reported as of May 2025.

🔍 Detection Indicators

Known SHA‑256 hashes include e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855 (sample submitted to VirusTotal on 2024‑01‑12). Behavioral signatures include the creation of the mutex SnowFlakeMutex_001 and the registry key HKCUSoftwareSnowFlake_Stealer. Network IOCs comprise the C2 domain snowflake‑c2[.]xyz (resolved IP 185.143.223.15) and User‑Agent string Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) SnowFlake/1.0. The malware drops decompressed files in %TEMP%SnowFlake with names like core.dll and data.bin.

☠️ Risk & Impact

SnowFlake Stealer causes credential theft and cryptocurrency wallet compromise, leading to account takeovers and financial losses. A March 2024 analysis by ‑Trend Micro estimated that a single campaign netted attackers over 10,000 stolen credentials and 2.3 BTC (approximately $120,000 at the time) from victim wallets. The malware disproportionately targets small‑to‑medium enterprises (SMEs) in the financial services and healthcare verticals, with incident response reports from CrowdStrike noting an average dwell time of 48 hours before exfiltration.

🛡️ Mitigation

Defenders should implement application whitelisting to block execution of %TEMP%SnowFlake*.exe, enable Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) rules for process injection and LSASS credential theft, and deploy YARA rules matching the mutex and registry key IOCs. Organizations should enforce multi‑factor authentication on all financial and email accounts and schedule regular password rotation for browser‑saved credentials after a suspected compromise.

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