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PupyRAT - A Publicly Available Remote Access Trojan

Pupy is a Remote Access Trojan that is publicly available from numerous locations including the source code repository website, GitHub. Other locations include hacking forums on both the deep and dark web.
Threat ID:
CC-1202
Category:
Spyware, Trojan
Threat Severity:
Medium
Threat Vector:
Published:
23 February 2017 12:00 AM
Report a cyber attack: call 0300 303 5222 or email [email protected]

This content has been archived

This article no longer conforms to NHS Digital's standards for cyber alerts, and may contain outdated or inaccurate information. Use of this information contained in this page is at your own risk

Summary

Pupy is a Remote Access Trojan that is publicly available from numerous locations including the source code repository website, GitHub. Other locations include hacking forums on both the deep and dark web.

Affected platforms

The following platforms are known to be affected:

Android

Windows, Linux, iOS and Android - All Versions.

Threat details

The Trojan is predominantly written in Python and can work on different platforms including Windows, Linux, iOS and Android.

A recent campaign was observed to be using modified documents to spread PupyRAT, a publicly available Remote Access Trojan (RAT). The initial method of infection is through spear-phishing emails. The emails contain macro-enabled documents that when run, execute a PowerShell command that leads to PupyRAT being installed. PupyRAT is a cross-platform Remote Access Trojan that can be installed post-exploitation and can give a malicious actor full access to the infected system.

With the project being open-source, it is possible for anyone to modify the code as they please, making traditional detections difficult. In the campaign that is utilising PupyRAT, a number of spoofed domains were created in order to trick the victim in to opening the link.

There are platform specific commands available to the Trojan. Such as with Windows, there is the ability to launch an executable in memory with support for both x86 and x64, the inclusion of powershell scripts, token manipulation and more. Android includes the ability to track the victim through GPS and has the ability to take snapshots from both the front and back camera.

For a full list of functionality, please visit the GitHub repository where the source code is available: https://github.com/n1nj4sec/pupy.

Remediation steps

Type Step
  • Never open email attachments or links from untrusted sources.
  • Make sure that malware definitions are kept up-to-date.
  • Make sure that cyber-awareness training is kept up-to-date.

Last edited: 17 February 2020 11:37 am