How to remove RokRAT from the operating system

What kind of malware is RokRAT?

RokRAT is the name of a Remote Administration Trojan (RAT). Cybercriminals use RATs to access infected computers remotely and perform malicious tasks. RATs allow them to achieve almost any objective on the infected system. Usually, RATs are used to drop additional payloads (inject other malware) or steal sensitive information.

More about RokRAT

RokRAT uses Twitter, Yandex, and Mediafire as communication channels. RokRAT can execute commands, move and remove files, kill processes, download and execute files, send files to threat actors, and capture screenshots of infected systems. Also, it can extract passwords stored in Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox browsers.

Moreover, RokRAT includes a keylogger. It can extract data typed with a keyboard (record keyboard input). Additionally, the RokRAT checks running processes to know whether it is running in a sandbox environment and is analyzed by malware analysts.

Threat actors can use RokRAT to steal various sensitive information (e.g., credit card details, login credentials, ID card information), download and upload files, and more. There is a high chance that it is also used to distribute other malware (e.g., ransomware, cryptocurrency miners, other Trojans).

RATs in general

Typically, RATs have multiple features allowing threat actors to perform different tasks. They often are capable of avoiding being detected by antivirus software. The RokRAT has been active for several years. It is known that cybercriminals constantly update this malware (add new features to it) to perform more sophisticated attacks.

More examples of RATs are Trochilus, Deed, and TigerRAT.

How did RokRAT infiltrate my computer?

One of the ways that threat actors use to distribute RokRAT is a malicious MS Office document with a Flash object embedded in it. Once opened, that document downloads an additional payload (RokRAT) from a compromised website. In this case, cybercriminals exploit a Flash vulnerability to distribute RokRAT.

It is known that threat actors use different methods (campaigns) to distribute RokRAT. For example, they directly include RokRAT in the malicious document or carry out multi-stage infections. In most cases, they use email to deliver their malware.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Remember that email is one of the most popular channels used for malware distribution. Be skeptical about opening links and attachments in irrelevant emails sent from suspicious addresses. Opening them can lead to computer infections. Use only official websites and stores to download software (or files).

Never use third-party tools to update or activate the software. Activate and update it with tools provided by the official developer. Keep the operating system and installed programs up to date. Have reputable antivirus software installed on a computer and run system scans with it regularly.

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.

Update April 27, 2023 - Cyber criminals are spreading RokRAT malware by using deceptive .LNK files. These shortcut files have icons of various documents (such as PDF, HWP) as a disguise. Once opened, the .LNK file not only downloads malware, but also opens a harmless document to hide the malicious activity.

Examples of documents opened while downloading malware (source: ahnlab.com):

Update May 3, 2023 - Although RokRAT has remained largely unchanged over the years, the methods used to deploy it have evolved. Nowadays, attackers use archives containing LNK files to initiate multi-stage infection chains. It is a common tactic used by APTs and cybercriminals who aim to bypass the blocking of macros from suspicious sources.

The baits used in RokRAT distribution are primarily focused on South Korean foreign and domestic affairs. They are mostly in the Korean language, indicating that the targets are Korean-speaking individuals.

In attacks, various multi-stage infection chains have been used to load RokRAT and deploy additional tools associated with the same actor, including another custom backdoor called GOLDBACKDOOR and malware called Amadey.

Update May 8, 2024: The recently identified shortcut files (LNK files) are discovered to be aimed at South Korean users associated with North Korea. The confirmed LNK file names include: "National Information Academy 8th Integrated Course Certificate (Final).lnk", "Gate access roster 2024.lnk", "Northeast Project (US Congressional Research Service (CRS Report).lnk", and "Facility list.lnk".

These LNK files feature a command to run PowerShell via Command Prompt and share similarities with previously discovered type. Notably, this type encompasses authentic document files, script code, and malicious PE data embedded within the LNK files.

Update February 10, 2026 - Security researchers at S2W analyzed recent ScarCruft campaigns and identified multiple distinct attack chains used to deliver RokRAT via Hangul Word Processor documents. One variant uses steganography to conceal malicious code inside images hosted on attacker-controlled Dropbox links, which are then silently downloaded and executed on victims' devices. The group was also found to have developed new custom dropper and loader malware specifically built to install RokRAT during these campaigns. (source: s2w.inc).

Update April 15, 2026 - ScarCruft, the threat group behind RokRAT, has shifted to a new distribution method. Instead of relying on shortcut (.LNK) files as seen in previous campaigns, the attackers are now embedding malicious components within Hangul Word Processor (HWP) documents.

The malware is hidden inside these documents and executed by exploiting legitimate applications already present on the victim's system. In one case, the attackers used Dropbox to host a disguised payload that ultimately delivered RokRAT. The malware continues to abuse legitimate cloud services such as pCloud and Yandex for communication with attacker-controlled servers.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

My computer is infected with RokRAT malware, should I format my storage device to get rid of it?

Malware like RokRAT can be removed without formatting. It can be achieved with antivirus software or by following the steps in our removal guide.

What are the biggest issues that malware can cause?

It depends on the features included in malware (its capabilities). Typically, victims lose money, files, or access to online accounts, have their identities stolen, and encounter other issues.

What is the purpose of RokRAT?

RokRAT can delete, move, upload, download files and execute commands. Also, it can capture screenshots, log keystrokes, and perform other actions. Typically, cybercriminals use RATs to steal sensitive information and infect computers with other malware (drop additional payloads).

How did RokRAT malware infiltrate my computer?

It is known that cybercriminals use different campaigns to trick users into infecting computers with RokRAT. They use email to deliver this malware (they send emails containing malicious attachments). Also, threat actors can use other channels for malware distribution. For example, fake installers for pirated software, deceptive websites, P2P networks, third-party downloaders, etc.

Will Combo Cleaner protect me from malware?

Yes, Combo Cleaner can detect and eliminate almost all known malware. High-end malware can hide deep in the operating system. In such cases, it is required to run a full scan to eliminate malware from infected computers.