hacker-news · Crawled Sep 1, 2026
ValleyRAT Backdoor Hides in Signed Adware That Users Add to Antivirus Exclusions
6 IoCs 1 Actors 1 Malware
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AI Summary
The Silver Fox threat actor is distributing the ValleyRAT backdoor (also known as Winos 4.0) disguised as a signed Chinese adware application, QN Wallpaper. The malware uses DLL sideloading by planting a malicious libcef.dll alongside the legitimate QnWallpaper.exe, allowing it to execute within a trusted signed process. The backdoor disables Windows Defender, adds itself to autorun, escalates privileges if needed, and can mark its process as critical to cause a system crash if terminated. It provides full remote control, including keystroke logging, screenshot capture, and delivery of additional payloads, primarily targeting users in China and India.
AI-extracted · verify before operational use
Extracted Entities 2 found
Indicators of Compromise 6 extracted
MITRE ATT&CK TTPs 49 techniques
T1005 Data from Local System · Collection T1006 Direct Volume Access · Defense Evasion T1012 Query Registry · Discovery T1014 Rootkit · Defense Evasion T1021 Remote Services · Lateral Movement T1021.006 Windows Remote Management · Lateral Movement T1027 Obfuscated Files or Information · Defense Evasion T1036 Masquerading · Defense Evasion T1053 Scheduled Task/Job · Execution T1053.003 Cron · Execution T1053.005 Scheduled Task · Execution T1055 Process Injection · Defense Evasion T1055.005 Thread Local Storage · Defense Evasion T1055.012 Process Hollowing · Defense Evasion T1055.015 ListPlanting · Defense Evasion T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter · Execution T1059.001 PowerShell · Execution T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation · Privilege Escalation T1070.003 Clear Command History · Defense Evasion T1070.004 File Deletion · Defense Evasion T1071 Application Layer Protocol · Command And Control T1071.001 Web Protocols · Command And Control T1078 Valid Accounts · Defense Evasion T1082 System Information Discovery · Discovery T1085 T1085 T1089 T1089 T1090 Proxy · Command And Control T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer · Command And Control T1113 Screen Capture · Collection T1129 Shared Modules · Execution T1132.001 Standard Encoding · Command And Control T1133 External Remote Services · Persistence T1136 Create Account · Persistence T1176 Browser Extensions · Persistence T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application · Initial Access T1204.002 Malicious File · Execution T1213 Data from Information Repositories · Collection T1213.001 Confluence · Collection T1543.001 Launch Agent · Persistence T1548 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism · Privilege Escalation T1548.002 Bypass User Account Control · Privilege Escalation T1566 Phishing · Initial Access T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment · Initial Access T1574.002 DLL Side-Loading · Persistence T1036.005 Match Legitimate Name or Location · Defense Evasion T1059.003 Windows Command Shell · Execution T1112 Modify Registry · Defense Evasion T1134.001 Token Impersonation/Theft · Defense Evasion T1484.002 Trust Modification · Defense Evasion