How to remove KBOT from the operating system

What is KBOT?

KBOT is malicious software that can steal various credentials such as passwords, logins, cryptocurrency wallet data, lists of files and installed programs, banking-related and other personal information. It can cause serious problems for victims. Research shows that Kaspersky solutions detects this malware and associated components as Kpot.

If you believe that KBOT (also known as KBOT stealer) is installed on the operating system, you should remove it immediately.

KBOT infects systems through the internet, local networks and/or external devices. When a system is already infected, KBOT adds itself to the list of Startup items and the Task Scheduler. Therefore, it can run at each operating system startup and/or be launched at certain intervals.

KBOT is also capable of hiding its activity by suspending antivirus-related DLL files and injecting malicious code into various legitimate processes.

Cyber criminals behind this malware communicate with it through a C2 (Command and Control) server and use it to gather details such as computer name, operating system, list of users, installed antivirus (or other security) software, and run various commands.

This malware can receive commands that are used to delete and update files, update hosts.ini, worm.ini, injects.ini files, uninstall KBOT, load/install other malware, and perform other actions.

Therefore, cyber criminals can use this malicious software to proliferate/install other software of this kind, which could be used to steal credentials (passwords, logins), cryptocurrency wallet data, and other sensitive information.

Generally, cyber criminals use such details to generate revenue in various ways, mostly by making fraudulent purchases and transactions, selling them to third parties, and so on. Furthermore, stolen information could be used to compromise various accounts and trick other people into transferring money, installing KBOT and other malware, and so on.

In summary, people who have systems infected with this malware may suffer financial loss, problems with privacy, browsing safety, become victims of identity theft, lose important files, and experience other serious problems. Therefore, if KBOT is already installed on the operating system, remove it immediately.

More examples of malicious programs that are designed to steal sensitive information and/or spread other software of this kind include Lampion, CryptBot and Conteban. In most cases, cyber criminals attempt to infect systems with these malicious programs to misuse stolen information and generate revenue and/or infect computers with other malware (e.g., ransomware).

Therefore, programs such as KBOT can cause serious problems. Avoid installation of this rogue software.

How did KBOT infiltrate my computer?

KBOT infects systems via the internet, local networks or via infected external media (such as USB, external hard drive, etc.). Note that this is only possible if users launch a malicious file. Typically, malware/malicious files are proliferated through Trojans, spam campaigns, untrusted software download channels, software 'cracking' tools and fake software updaters.

Trojans are malicious programs that cause damage if already installed. If a system is infected with a Trojan, it becomes infected with other programs of this type. In this way, Trojans cause chain infections. Spam campaigns are used to proliferate malicious software via email attachments or web links that download malicious files.

Typically, cyber criminals send emails that contain attachments such as Microsoft Office, PDF documents, executable files (.exe), archive files such as RAR, ZIP or JavaScript files, and hope that recipients open them. When opened, the files install malware.

Various software download channels such as Peer-to-Peer networks (e.g., torrent clients, eMule), free file hosting websites, third party downloaders, freeware download pages, unofficial websites can be used to proliferate malicious programs. Cyber criminals use these download tools/channels to host malicious files.

They upload malicious files and wait until someone downloads and opens/executes them. Once opened, they install malicious software. Unofficial activation ('cracking') tools are programs that some people use to activate paid software free of charge. These can infect computers with high-risk malware - rather than bypassing activation, they install malicious software.

Unofficial software updating tools infect systems by installing malware rather than updates/fixes or by exploiting bugs/flaws of installed software that is out of date.

How to avoid installation of malware

Attachments or web links that are included in irrelevant emails should not be trusted or opened, especially if the emails are sent from unknown, suspicious addresses. Programs and files should be downloaded from official websites and via direct links.

It is not safe to use other sources including, for example, Peer-to-Peer networks (e.g., torrent clients, eMule), free file hosting pages, third party downloaders, etc. Software must be updated through tools and functions that are designed by official developers.

If installed software is not free and requires activation, do this properly. Do not use 'cracking' (unofficial activation) tools, since they are illegal and can lead to installation of malicious programs. Keep computers safe from malware by regularly scanning them with a reputable antivirus or anti-spyware suite and keep it up to date.

If you believe that your computer is already infected, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

KBOT Trojan detected as a threat in VirusTotal by a number of different virus detection engines:

Update 31 March 2020 - Criminals have recently started a new spam email campaign to spread the KBOT trojan. They send various invoice-related emails encouraging users to open a link within.

The link leads to a malicious website (containing coronavirus-related text) designed to automatically download a malicious Microsoft Word document, which injects KBOT into the system.

Example of a spam email from this campaign:

Appearance of a malicious website ("gpreceipt.xyz/index1.php") - this distributes a malicious Microsoft Word document ("gpay_Invoice.doc") attachment, which injects KBOT into the system:

Text presented within this site:

DOWNLOAD SUCCESFULL
Self-isolation if you or someone you live with has symptoms-Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Contents
Advice for everyone
Advice for people at high risk
Symptoms and what to do
Self-isolation if you or someone you live with has symptoms
More information
Self-isolation helps stop coronavirus spreading
Do not leave your home if you have symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) or live with someone who does.

This is called self-isolation.

If you are self-isolating, you must:

not leave your home for any reason, other than to exercise once a day – but stay at least 2 metres (3 steps) away from other people
not go out to buy food or collect medicine – order them by phone or online, or ask someone else to drop them off at your home
not have visitors, such as friends and family, in your home
You can use your garden, if you have one.

Information:
If you're not sure if you need to self-isolate
If you have symptoms of coronavirus (a high temperature or a new, continuous cough), use the 111 coronavirus service to find out what to do.

How long to self-isolate
If you have symptoms
If you have symptoms of coronavirus, you'll need to self-isolate for 7 days.

After 7 days:

if you do not have a high temperature, you do not need to self-isolate
if you still have a high temperature, keep self-isolating until your temperature returns to normal
You do not need to self-isolate if you just have a cough after 7 days. A cough can last for several weeks after the infection has gone.

If you live with someone who has symptoms
If you live with someone who has symptoms, you'll need to self-isolate for 14 days from the day their symptoms started. This is because it can take 14 days for symptoms to appear.

If more than 1 person at home has symptoms, self-isolate for 14 days from the day the first person started having symptoms.

If you get symptoms, self-isolate for 7 days from when your symptoms start, even if it means you're self-isolating for longer than 14 days.

If you do not get symptoms, you can stop self-isolating after 14 days.

After self-isolation
You still need to stay at home when you finish self-isolating, but you can go out for essential trips such as buying food.

Appearance of the distributed malicious Microsoft Word document ("gpay_Invoice.doc"):

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.