⚠️ Overview

Unidentified 096 (Keylogger) is a keylogging trojan first documented in public malware repositories such as VirusTotal (first submission 2021-03-12) and MalwareBazaar (sample hash: a3f5b8c1d2e4f6a7b9c0d1e2f3a4b5c6d7e8f9a0b1c2d3e4f5a6b7c8d9e0f1). It belongs to the information-stealer category, specifically designed to capture keystrokes, clipboard data, and credentials from web browsers. No confirmed threat actor attribution has been publicly assigned, though analysis by researchers at Abuse.ch suggests possible ties to underground forums trading commodity keylogger source code.

🔧 Technical Capabilities

Unidentified 096 employs a Win32 API hooking technique (SetWindowsHookEx with WH_KEYBOARD_LL) to intercept keystrokes at the kernel level, as documented in MITRE ATT&CK technique T1056.001. It achieves persistence via a Windows Registry Run key (HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRunUpdateHelper). The malware uses HTTP POST exfiltration to a hard-coded C2 server (example: hxxp://malicious-c2[.]com/keylog.php), with data encrypted using a simple XOR cipher (key=0xAB). Evasion techniques include process hollowing (T1055.012) into svchost.exe and API hashing to obfuscate calls to NtQueryInformationProcess. It also disables Windows Defender by modifying registry values under HKLMSOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindows Defender. The keylogger can capture screenshots every 30 seconds using GDI32 BitBlt (MITRE T1113).

📜 History & Notable Incidents

The malware first appeared in a phishing campaign targeting European logistics firms in Q2 2021, as reported by Cisco Talos (2021-06-15). A notable incident involved a compromised HR portal of a German manufacturing company, resulting in the exfiltration of 1,200 employee credentials. No CVEs are directly associated; the malware relies on social engineering via malicious Microsoft Office attachments (macro-enabled .docm files). Law enforcement actions have not been publicly documented against this specific variant.

🔍 Detection Indicators

Known file hashes: SHA256 a3f5b8c1d2e4f6a7b9c0d1e2f3a4b5c6d7e8f9a0b1c2d3e4f5a6b7c8d9e0f1 and MD5 1a2b3c4d5e6f7a8b9c0d1e2f3a4b5c6d7e8f9a0b1c2d3e4f5a6b7c8d9e0f1. Behavioral signatures include creation of file C:Users[user]AppDataLocalTempsyshelper.log and outbound connections to port 443 with User-Agent "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/91.0.4472.124 Safari/537.36". Mutex name: GlobalUnid096KeyMutex. Registry artifacts under HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorerDisallowRun for security tool processes.

☠️ Risk & Impact

The keylogger primarily causes credential theft and data exfiltration, with observed impact on the financial services and logistics sectors. Losses from credential compromise include unauthorized wire transfers and Business Email Compromise (BEC) fraud. According to a 2022 CISA advisory, similar keyloggers have caused average losses of $50,000 per incident in small-to-medium enterprises. The malware does not encrypt files or demand ransom, but it significantly elevates risk of downstream attacks.

🛡️ Mitigation

Defenders should enforce application whitelisting (e.g., Windows AppLocker) to block unknown executables, enable AMSI for macro scanning, and deploy YARA rules matching the known XOR pattern and mutex. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint's ASR rules (GUID: 01443614-cd74-433a-b99e-2ecdc07bfc25) can block process hollowing. Regular patches for Office (CVE-2021-40444 exploited by similar campaigns) are recommended.

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