{
  "family": "cosmu",
  "sample_count": 218,
  "category": "rat",
  "description": "Cosmu (sometimes referred to as Win32/Cosmu) is a long-standing family of malware that primarily functions as an information stealer and, in some variants, a worm. Its primary objective is to harvest sensitive data from infected systems, including login credentials, browser passwords, clipboard contents, and system files. Cosmu is known to spread via removable drives like USB sticks and establishes persistence by modifying registry keys. It operates within a command-and-control (C2) botnet infrastructure to exfiltrate stolen data. Historically, it has shared code similarities with the Ramnit family and its loader was combined with MiniDuke to create the CosmicDuke espionage trojan.",
  "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk team.",
  "aliases": [],
  "enrichment_level": "curated_sourced",
  "faq": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What kind of data does Cosmu steal?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Cosmu is an information stealer designed to harvest login credentials, passwords from web browsers and email clients, clipboard contents, and sometimes keystrokes via keylogging."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How does Cosmu spread across networks?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Certain variants of Cosmu act as worms, spreading to new systems via removable media such as infected USB drives, as well as through malicious downloads."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is CosmicDuke?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "CosmicDuke is an espionage trojan discovered in 2014 that combined the loader from the MiniDuke malware with an information-stealing payload derived directly from the Cosmu family."
      }
    }
  ],
  "faq_count": 3,
  "mitre_attack": [],
  "cisa_advisory": null,
  "last_updated": "2026-06-09",
  "target_industries": [
    "Global / Opportunistic"
  ],
  "motivation": "Opportunistic",
  "threat_actors": [
    "Unknown / Cybercriminal"
  ],
  "target_geographies": [
    "Global"
  ]
}