Himera
Overview
Executive Summary
Himera (or Himera Stealer) is a commercially available Information Stealer (Info-Stealer) sold on underground cybercrime forums. It provides threat actors with a low-cost, effective tool designed to rapidly extract sensitive data, credentials, and financial information from compromised Windows endpoints before the victim realizes they have been infected.Infection Vector and Technical Capabilities
Himera is distributed through various vectors, primarily malspam campaigns containing weaponized Office documents (macros), disguised as cracked software on torrent sites, or via malicious links in YouTube tutorial descriptions (often promising free game cheats). Upon execution, it performs a rapid, highly aggressive data harvesting operation:- Browser Data Extraction: It specifically targets Chromium and Gecko-based web browsers to extract saved passwords, autofill data, credit card numbers, and session cookies (allowing attackers to bypass MFA).
- Cryptocurrency Wallet Theft: Himera actively searches the filesystem for desktop cryptocurrency wallets (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, etc.), stealing the `wallet.dat` files and associated authentication tokens.
- System Profiling and Exfiltration: It collects extensive system details (hardware specs, installed software, IP address), grabs a desktop screenshot, and packages all stolen data into a compressed archive. This archive is then exfiltrated via HTTP POST requests or directly to a Telegram bot controlled by the attacker.
Threat Assessment
A Himera Stealer infection is a critical data breach. The malware is designed to execute quickly; by the time the initial executable is detected by standard antivirus, the data exfiltration has usually already completed. The stolen session tokens and credentials can be immediately used to access corporate networks or drain financial accounts.Incident Response and Remediation
- Global Credential Reset: The absolute highest priority is a complete password reset. ALL credentials saved in the user's browser, as well as their domain password, must be changed immediately from a *different, clean device*.
- MFA Token Revocation: Assume session cookies were stolen. Force an immediate sign-out of all active sessions for critical web applications (O365, Google Workspace, Slack, Discord) to invalidate the stolen tokens.
- Endpoint Eradication: While the primary malware executable can often be removed by EDR, the extent of the data breach necessitates a full forensic review. Re-imaging the machine is highly recommended to ensure no secondary backdoors were deployed during the infection.
Known aliases
Threat reports may refer to this family under multiple names:
MITRE ATT&CK Techniques
This family has been observed using the following ATT&CK techniques: T1555.003 T1539 T1056.001 T1048
Tactical Mitigations
Based on the techniques used by this family, consider the following defensive strategies:
- T1056.001: Implement Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) to monitor for suspicious API calls related to keystroke interception. Enforce Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to render stolen passwords useless.
Generated Detections (Boilerplate)
These YARA and Sigma rules are auto-generated based on the family name and aliases. They must be heavily tuned before deployment in a production environment.
YARA Rule
rule MALWARE_WIN_HIMERA {
meta:
description = "Detects Himera (backdoor)"
author = "SystemHelpdesk Boilerplate Generator"
date = "2026-07-06"
strings:
$s1 = "himera" ascii wide nocase
$s2 = "trojan.himera" ascii wide nocase
$s3 = "pws.himera" ascii wide nocase
$s4 = "trojanspy.himerastealer" ascii wide nocase
condition:
uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}Sigma Rule
title: Suspicious Himera Activity
id: d1a2971981766cc7fa85300a57854d35
status: experimental
description: Detects generic indicators of the himera malware family.
logsource:
category: process_creation
product: windows
detection:
selection:
Image|endswith:
- '\cmd.exe'
- '\powershell.exe'
CommandLine|contains:
- "*himera*"
- "*trojan.himera*"
- "*pws.himera*"
- "*trojanspy.himerastealer*"
condition: selection
level: mediumReferences & External Analysis
- Search "himera" on VirusTotal (External Analysis)
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I remove the Himera Backdoor from Windows?
Manual removal of Himera is highly discouraged as it may leave persistence mechanisms intact. We recommend disconnecting the device from the internet and utilizing a professional incident response service or enterprise-grade EDR software to conduct a full forensic sweep.
Is Himera a virus or a Backdoor?
Himera is classified as a Backdoor. Unlike traditional viruses that infect files, modern malware like Himera typically operates as a standalone payload designed to compromise systems, steal data, or deploy secondary stage implants.
What are the main symptoms of a Himera infection?
Symptoms of Himera can include unexpected system slowness, unauthorized outbound network traffic to unknown IP addresses, disabled security software, and suspicious background processes running from AppData or Temp directories.
Related Families (Category: backdoor)
Explore other malware families in the same category:
Protect Your Network Against Backdoors
Want to prevent Himera and similar threats from compromising your organization? Read our comprehensive defensive guide: Backdoor & RAT Protection.
Machine-readable
Get this profile as JSON: https://jordan123234-malware-families-explorer.static.hf.space/api/himera.json
Ecosystem & Interactive Environments
This profile is part of the Malware Families Catalog, a public dataset of 2,899 malware families. The catalog is also published across our ecosystem: Hugging Face, Kaggle, Zenodo, Replit, StackBlitz, CodeSandbox, and CodePen.