Hptrickbot

Overview

Trojan:Win32/Hptrickbot is a heuristic detection associated with Trickbot, one of the most prolific and dangerous banking trojans and botnets in history. Originally designed to steal financial credentials via web injects, Trickbot evolved into a highly modular, enterprise-level Initial Access Broker (IAB). It is infamous for breaching corporate networks, moving laterally, and ultimately deploying devastating ransomware like Ryuk or Conti.

Understanding Hptrickbot (Trickbot)
To an end-user, the initial infection is invisible. For a SOC analyst, a Trickbot detection is a 'Drop Everything' tier-one incident. If Trickbot is on a host, it means the attackers are actively mapping the network and preparing for domain-wide ransomware deployment.

Execution and Lateral Movement Mechanics
Trickbot typically arrives via malspam (often delivered by Emotet) containing malicious macros (`T1566.001`). Upon execution, it disables Windows Defender (`T1562.001`) and drops its main payload into `%AppData%`. Trickbot is heavily modular. It downloads modules to steal credentials from browsers (`T1552`), scrape active directory using LDAP queries (`T1087.002`), and harvest emails. Crucially, it uses the stolen credentials and tools like PsExec or WMI (`T1047`) to move laterally across the network (`T1021.002`), infecting other hosts and domain controllers.

Indicators of Compromise & Impact
The impact ranges from massive credential theft to total domain compromise and ransomware. Host-based IoCs include the presence of a scheduled task named after a random string, the execution of `svchost.exe` without command-line arguments (process hollowing), and the presence of modular DLLs in the `%AppData%` folder. Network IoCs involve DNS queries for known Trickbot C2 infrastructure and sudden, anomalous SMB traffic (lateral movement) originating from the infected host.

MITRE ATT&CK Techniques

Observed techniques used by this family, mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework:

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_HPTRICKBOT {
    meta:
        description = "Detects Hptrickbot (ransomware)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Boilerplate Generator"
        date = "2026-07-06"
    strings:
        $s1 = "hptrickbot" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}

Sigma Rule

title: Suspicious Hptrickbot Activity
id: 519df4487174d23ea0cc90d562c756d5
status: experimental
description: Detects generic indicators of the hptrickbot malware family.
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        Image|endswith:
            - '\cmd.exe'
            - '\powershell.exe'
        CommandLine|contains:
            - "*hptrickbot*"
    condition: selection
level: medium

Containment & Response Steps

Ordered checklist for responders. Adapt to your environment and engage professional support for active incidents.

1. Isolate the infected endpoint IMMEDIATELY; do not wait to analyze it, as Trickbot moves laterally very quickly.
2. Initiate a domain-wide password reset for any user who logged into the infected host, particularly domain administrators.
3. Hunt across the network for signs of lateral movement (e.g., suspicious PsExec usage or WMI execution) originating from the patient zero.
4. Verify that no ransomware payload (like Ryuk) has been staged on domain controllers or file servers.

What to Avoid

Common mistakes during response to this family that can destroy evidence, spread the infection, or worsen recovery.

1. Do not assume containing one host stops the attack; Trickbot is designed to spread, and you must assume the network is compromised until proven otherwise.
2. Avoid relying solely on traditional AV to clean Trickbot; it often leaves persistence mechanisms that require forensic removal.

References & External Analysis

• Search "hptrickbot" on VirusTotal (External Analysis)

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Families (Category: ransomware)

Explore other malware families in the same category:

• Magic
• Zapinit
• Nsanti
• Dorv
• Ryzerlo

Machine-readable

Get this profile as JSON: https://jordan123234-malware-families-explorer.static.hf.space/api/hptrickbot.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.