Adwind Virus

What is Adwind?

Adwind is trojan-type malware that has many other names including (but not limiting to) AlienSpy, Frutas, JSocket, Sockrat, Unrecom, jRAT.

Criminals proliferate this malware in various ways such as spam emails and fake Adobe Flash Player updates. We can also assume that Adwind infiltrates systems with various adware-type programs (via the so-called "bundling" method) that feed users with intrusive advertisements and gather sensitive data.

Spam email spreading Adwind trojan:

Adwind collects various data, including personal details. According to Kaspersky Lab's research, different versions of Adwind have been used against more than 440,000 private users and various commercial/non-commercial organizations (e.g., finance, shipping, software, education, and so on) between 2013 and 2016.

This trojan virus is capable of recording a wide range of information including keystrokes, saved passwords, etc., and can even record audio/video using microphones and webcams (full list of Adwind's functions). The data is transferred to a remote Command and Control server.

If a connection is unavailable or the server is not responding, the data is stored locally until the connection becomes available. As mentioned above, collected data includes many personal details that can be misused to generate revenue (e.g., criminals can use passwords to transfer money from victims' bank accounts).

In addition, cyber criminals can obtain compromising material, which can be used to blackmail victims. Therefore, the presence of the Adwind trojan can lead to financial losses and privacy issues. Fortunately, most legitimate anti-virus suites are capable of detecting and removing this malware.

Therefore, we strongly advise you to have this precautionary software installed on your computer. If you suspect that your system has been infected with Adwind, immediately perform a full system scan and eliminate all listed threats.

As mentioned above, Adwind can infiltrate the system together with potentially unwanted adware-type programs (PUPs). These programs deliver intrusive ads (coupons, banners, pop-ups, and so on) using tools that enable placement of third party graphical content on any site.

Therefore, displayed ads often conceal underlying website content, thereby significantly diminishing the browsing experience. In addition, intrusive ads often redirect to malicious websites and even execute scripts that download/install malware. Therefore, clicking them can result in high-risk computer infections. PUPs are also known to gather various information.

Although the list of collected data is typically much shorter as compared to information recorded by trojan viruses, it might still contain private details. Furthermore, PUP developers often sell collected data to third parties (potentially, cyber criminals) who generate revenue by misusing private information.

Therefore, the presence of data-tracking apps can also lead to serious privacy issues. We strongly recommend that you uninstall all adware-type applications immediately.

Although Adwind collects various information, not all trojans perform this function. Some simply open "backdoors" for other high-risk malware (typically, ransomware) to infiltrate the system. Nevertheless, trojans also have other dangerous functions. In fact, some viruses that infiltrate the system via trojans can cause even more damage than Adwind itself.

For example, ransomware might encrypt stored data and proliferate itself to other computers/servers that are connected to the same network. These chain infections can result in loss of valuable data (for example, imagine all files and backups of an engineering company being encrypted).

Adware-type apps, on the other hand, typically have no major differences. By offering "useful features", PUPs attempt to give the impression of legitimacy and trick users to install, however, rather than providing any real value for regular users, adware delivers intrusive ads and records various information. Most PUPs are designed only to help developers to generate passive revenue.

How did potentially unwanted programs install on my computer?

Criminals proliferate Adwind using spam emails, fake Adobe Flash Player updates, and the "bundling" method. Spam emails typically contain malicious attachments (e.g., JavaScript files, MS Office documents, etc.) that, once opened, execute scripts designed to download and install malware, whilst fake Flash Player updates are displayed by malicious websites.

These sites essentially state that the installed Flash Player is outdated and encourages users to download an update. Rather than downloading the update, however, users end up downloading and installing malware (in this case, Adwind trojan). "Bundling" is stealth installation of rogue executables together with regular software.

In many cases, this method is used to proliferate PUPs. Developers hide "bundled" programs within "Custom/Advanced" settings (or other sections) of the download/installation processes.

Many users rush these procedures and skip steps. In some cases, "bundled" malware is concealed and, thus, no matter how carefully you analyze the entire process, you will not be able to notice it.

How to avoid installation of malware?

To prevent these infections, be cautious when browsing the Internet and downloading/installing software. We strongly advise you to immediately delete emails received from suspicious/unrecognizable addresses and certainly NOT to open files attached to such emails.

It is also highly recommended that you keep installed applications up-to-date, however, since criminals proliferate malware via fake updaters, software should be renewed using implemented functions or tools provided by the official developer only.

In addition, carefully observe each window of the download/installation dialogs and opt-out of all additionally-included programs - if you are unable to do so, cancel the entire process. We also recommend that you download your software from official sources only, using direct download links.

Third party downloaders/installers are monetized using the "bundling" method and, thus, these tools should never be used. Having a legitimate anti-virus/anti-spyware suite installed is also paramount. The key to computer safety is caution.

Rogue behavior of Adwind trojan:

• Collecting general system and user information
• Collecting keystrokes
• Managing SMS (Android OS)
• Recording audio from the microphone
• Stealing keys for cryptocurrency wallets
• Stealing saved passwords and grabbing data from web forms
• Stealing VPN certificates
• Taking pictures and recording videos from the webcam
• Taking screenshots
• Transferring files

Update August 20, 2019 - Adwind's developers are promoting this trojan as "Malware-as-a-Service", which means that any wannabe cyber criminal can pay a subscription fee and start using this malware to generate revenue in illegal manner.

Additionally, this malware is being continually updated and its detection-evading capabilities have significantly improved (and will improve further) since its first release.

It has also been implemented with a feature that allows cyber criminals to employ infected machine's hardware to mine various cryptocurrencies (you can find more information regarding cryptomining trojans in this article).

Update May 20, 2020 - The recent outbreak of Coronavirus (Covid-19) has given cyber criminals a huge opportunity to generate revenue. They are using various methods (e.g., fake coronavirus-relating applications, fake websites, spam emails, etc.) to spread high-risk malware. Adwind is no exception.

One of the latest Coronavirus (Covid-19) email spam campaigns used to spread Adwind malware targets customers of various banks in India. As a rule, cyber criminals pretend to be bank employees and encourage recipients to open attachments that contain the list of safety measures that should be taken.

In some cases, users are asked to fill in the attachment (typically, disguised as Microsoft Excel document) by providing information necessary to mitigate the risks. One way or another, users are encouraged to open the attachment, which is a .jar file presented as a document.

Screenshot of a Coronavirus (COVID-19)-themed spam email which distributes Adwind virus:

Text presented within:

Subject: Urgent - COVID measures monitoring template

Madam/Sir,

As you may be aware, a circular dated March 16, 2020 on "COVID-19- Operational and Business Continuity Measures" was issued advising UCBs to take certain measures for ensuring business process resilience and manage the risks posed by the onset and spread of the Covid 19 pandemic. Likewise, certain regulatory measures had been announced on March 27, 2020 to mitigate the burden of debt servicing brought about by disruptions on account of COVID-19 pandemic and to ensure  the continuity of viable businesses.

2. Considering the critically of the situation, you are advised to submit the information sought in Sheet 1 of the enclosed template by EOD i.e. April 6, 2020.

3. Further, informationa s per Sheet 2 of the enclosed template may be submitted as and when effects of COVID 19 settle down and operations return to normal.

4. Kindly treat this as urgent.

Regards,
Madan Chawla
DoS, Manager
RBI, Nagpur
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How to remove malware manually?

Most trojan infections can be removed by running a full system scan with Combo Cleaner. The full manual procedure below is for cases where automatic removal failed, where you want to verify a scan caught everything, or where the threat has multiple persistence points.

Tools you'll need

Combo Cleaner Antivirus 7-days free trial

Recommended primary scanner. VB100 certified. The 7-day free trial is available.

Microsoft Defender Offline Free · built-in

Built into Windows. Boots to a clean environment to catch rootkits.

Process Explorer Free

From Microsoft Sysinternals. Better than Task Manager - shows full paths and signatures.

Autoruns Free

From Microsoft Sysinternals. Lists every place malware can persist on your system.

Microsoft Safety Scanner (MSERT) Free

Official Microsoft on-demand scanner. Always-current signatures - expires every 10 days.

Phase 1~ 5 min

Contain - limit the damage

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1

Disconnect from the network

30 secNo tool needed

Unplug your Ethernet cable and turn off Wi-Fi. If you're on a laptop, the airplane-mode key works fastest.

Why this matters

Many trojans exfiltrate data - saved browser passwords, banking sessions, screenshots - and accept remote commands. Cutting the network stops both immediately. Keep it disconnected until Phase 4.

2

Boot into Safe Mode with Networking

3 min

Safe Mode loads a minimal set of drivers and stops most malware from auto-running. "With Networking" lets you download tools - re-enable Wi-Fi only after you've booted in.

Windows 11

Open Settings → System → Recovery. Click Restart now next to Advanced startup.

Your computer will restart into the "Choose an option" menu. Click Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Settings → Restart. After the second reboot, press 5 or F5.

Windows 10

Click the Windows logo, hold Shift, click the Power icon and choose Restart. In the Choose an option screen, click Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Settings → Restart. Press F5.

Windows 8

Go to the Start Screen, type Advanced, select Settings → Advanced startup options → Restart now → Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup settings → Restart → F5.

Note: Windows 8 reached end-of-life in January 2023 - running on it puts you at much higher risk of reinfection.

Windows 7

Click Start → Shut Down → Restart → OK. As the system boots, press F8 repeatedly until the Windows Advanced Options menu appears, then choose Safe Mode with Networking.

Note: Windows 7 reached end-of-life in January 2020 - running on it puts you at much higher risk of reinfection.

Phase 2~ 15 min

Identify - find what's hiding

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3

Inspect running processes with Process Explorer

Tool: Process Explorer5 min

Download Process Explorer from Microsoft Sysinternals. Run it as Administrator. Click Options → Verify Image Signatures and View → Lower Pane View → DLLs.

Sort by "Verified Signer." Anything unsigned running from %AppData%, %LocalAppData%, %Temp%, or %ProgramData% is suspicious. Right-click → Properties to see the full image path. Right-click → "Search Online" to look up unfamiliar process names.

Why not just Task Manager

Task Manager hides full file paths, doesn't show digital signatures, and groups processes in ways that make malware easy to miss. Process Explorer is the same tool Microsoft engineers use.

4

Map every persistence point with Autoruns

Tool: Autoruns 14.x10 min

Download Autoruns. Right-click Autoruns.exe and choose Run as administrator - without elevation, Autoruns can't inspect protected registry hives.

In the menu, open Options → Hide Microsoft Entries and Options → Hide Empty Locations, then click Refresh.

Modern trojans don't just live in startup. Walk through these tabs and look for unsigned or unfamiliar entries:

• Logon - classic Run/RunOnce keys
• Scheduled Tasks - frequent hiding spot, especially tasks with PowerShell, MSHTA, or rundll32 actions
• Services - unsigned services in non-Microsoft folders
• WMI - Event Subscriptions are a stealthy persistence mechanism (MITRE T1546.003)
• Image Hijacks - Image File Execution Options "Debugger" abuse
• AppInit - DLLs loaded into every GUI process
• Browser plug-ins - unsigned add-ons across all installed browsers

Pro tip

Right-click any suspicious entry → "Jump to Image" to see the actual file. Right-click → "Search Online" opens VirusTotal for the file hash. Don't delete yet - just write down the file paths and entry names. We'll remove them after the scans.

5

Check the hosts file and DNS settings

3 minBuilt into Windows

Trojans often redirect bank, antivirus, and update domains to attacker-controlled servers by editing the hosts file or DNS settings.

Hosts file: Open Notepad as Administrator and open C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts. Legitimate entries are commented with #. Any uncommented IP-to-domain mapping is suspicious - especially redirects for microsoft.com, windowsupdate, or your bank.

DNS settings: Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run ipconfig /all. Confirm your DNS servers point to your ISP, your router, or a known public resolver (Cloudflare 1.1.1.1, Google 8.8.8.8). Then open Settings → Network & internet → [your adapter] → DNS server assignment and verify both DNS and DNS over HTTPS (DoH) settings haven't been hijacked.

Why this matters

A clean PC with hijacked DNS is still a compromised PC. You'll think you're at chase.com and you'll be at the attacker's clone.

Phase 3~ 60-90 min

Remove - three scans, one cleanup

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No single antivirus catches everything. The order below is intentional: offline scan first (catches rootkits before Windows fully loads), then on-demand scanners on the running system, then manual cleanup of anything they missed.

6

Run Microsoft Defender Offline

Tool: Built into Windows15 min

Reboot to normal Windows. Open Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Scan options. Select Microsoft Defender Antivirus (offline scan) and click Scan now. Your computer will restart into a stripped-down environment and scan before the full operating system loads.

Why this comes first

Rootkits and bootkits hide from any scanner running on the same Windows session that's already infected. A pre-boot offline scan sees the disk before the malware can hide itself.

Recommended antivirus

Combo Cleaner

VB100 certified. Includes anti-trojan, registry/persistence scanning, anti-spyware in one pass. The 7-day free trial is available.

Download Combo Cleaner

7

Run Combo Cleaner full system scan

Tool: Combo Cleaner20-40 min

Install Combo Cleaner and run a full system scan (not the quick scan). Let it complete fully, review the detected threats, and apply the recommended actions. Combo Cleaner will quarantine known trojans and registry persistence.

8

Run Microsoft Safety Scanner as a second-opinion scan

Tool: Microsoft Safety Scanner15 min

Download Microsoft Safety Scanner (MSERT.exe), Microsoft's free on-demand tool. The binary expires every 10 days, which means every download has the latest signatures. Run a full scan after Combo Cleaner to catch anything one engine alone might miss.

Why a second scan

Different scanning engines catch different threats. Running an additional Microsoft scan after Combo Cleaner is the single most underused verification step in malware removal.

9

Manually remove anything still listed in Autoruns

Tool: Autoruns10 min

Reopen Autoruns. Anything you flagged in Step 4 that's still present hasn't been caught by the automated scans. For each remaining suspicious entry: right-click → Delete in Autoruns (this removes the persistence registration), then navigate to the file path and delete the actual file. Empty the Recycle Bin.

Important

Some malware files reappear after deletion because something else on the system recreates them. If you delete a file and it returns within minutes, you have a remaining persistence point that Autoruns didn't show - usually a service or scheduled task running under SYSTEM. Re-run the scans from Steps 6-8 or proceed to a clean install (see end of guide).

Phase 4~ 15 min

Recover - restore browsers and security

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10

Reset browsers and clear notification permissions

5 min

Trojans and adware frequently hijack browsers - change the default search engine, install rogue extensions, or grant themselves notification permissions to keep displaying scam pop-ups even after the malware is gone.

• Chrome: visit chrome://settings/reset and click "Restore settings to their original defaults." Then visit chrome://settings/content/notifications and remove any unfamiliar sites.
• Edge: visit edge://settings/reset. Then check edge://settings/content/notifications.
• Firefox: open about:support and click Refresh Firefox (Firefox uses "Refresh," not "Reset"). Then check Settings → Privacy & Security → Permissions → Notifications.

Review installed extensions in each browser and remove anything you don't recognize, especially extensions you didn't install yourself.

11

Re-enable Defender, Tamper Protection, and update everything

10 min

Many trojans disable security software. Open Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Manage settings and confirm Real-time protection, Cloud-delivered protection, and Tamper Protection are all turned on. Tamper Protection prevents malware from disabling Defender silently.

Then run Windows Update (Settings → Windows Update → Check for updates) and update your browsers and applications. The infection vector that let the trojan in originally usually involves outdated software.

Phase 5~ 15 min + 7 days

Verify & secure

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12

Change passwords from a clean device

20 min⚠ Critical

If the trojan was an info-stealer (Lumma, RedLine, Vidar, and similar are extremely common), assume every password saved in your browser is compromised. Change them from a different, known-clean device - your phone is fine if it's not infected.

Recommended order:

1. Primary email first - it's the recovery hub for everything else
2. Banking and financial accounts
3. Password manager master password (if you use one)
4. Social media, shopping, and remaining accounts

Where available, enable phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (passkeys / FIDO2 hardware keys / authenticator apps) - SMS-based MFA is bypassable by sophisticated attackers.

13

Verify the clean and monitor for 7 days

5 min + 1 week monitoring

Reconnect to the network and run one final full scan with Combo Cleaner. Open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and switch to the Startup apps tab - confirm nothing suspicious has reappeared.

Over the next 7 days, watch for symptom recurrence: unexpected high CPU usage, unknown processes returning, browser redirects, or pop-ups. If anything returns, you missed a persistence point and the procedure needs to be repeated - or you may have a deeper compromise that requires a clean install.

When to clean install Windows instead

Manual removal isn't always the right answer. Reinstalling Windows from scratch is the only way to be 100% certain when:

• The malware reappears after every removal attempt
• A bootkit or UEFI rootkit was detected (this class of threat sits below the operating system and survives a normal Windows reinstall)
• A confirmed credential-theft trojan ran with administrator privileges (Lumma, RedLine, Vidar) - the system likely has multiple unknown payloads
• The PC is used for online banking, business email, or anything where partial doubt isn't acceptable

A clean install is a 30-60 minute process: Windows 11 reinstall via Settings → System → Recovery → Reset this PC → Remove everything → Cloud download. Back up documents to external storage first, scan the backup with Combo Cleaner before restoring it, and reinstall applications fresh - never restore them from a backup of the infected system.

Important: Manual removal requires advanced computer skills. If you're not confident identifying system files from malicious files, run an automated scan with Combo Cleaner and Windows Defender and stop there - that path catches the vast majority of consumer trojans without the risk of breaking Windows by deleting the wrong file.