Moonrise RAT

What kind of malware is Moonrise?

Moonrise is a remote access Trojan (RAT) written in Go programming language. It provides attackers with remote system access, allowing them to gather sensitive information (e.g., login credentials) and execute additional attacks while avoiding detection. The RAT should be eliminated from infected systems as soon as possible to avoid potential harm.

Moonrise malware

More about Moonrise

Moonrise can attempt to gain higher-level access to the infected system. If successful, it may bypass certain restrictions and interact with protected parts of the system. It also uses persistence mechanisms that enable it to run automatically after a system restart. These methods help maintain long-term access while lowering the chance of removal.

Moonrise can extract stored credentials from various web browsers, applications, and system memory. This may include usernames, passwords, authentication tokens, and other sensitive login data. In addition to credentials, it can collect documents and other valuable information from the system.

Furthermore, the RAT can start, stop, or manipulate running processes on the infected device. This allows cybercriminals to disable security tools or launch additional malicious components. It also supports remote command execution, allowing threat actors to run various commands on the infected device.

Moreover, attackers can upload additional files to the compromised device. These files may include malicious payloads. Once uploaded, the malware can execute them remotely. This capability is often used to infect computers with other malware (e.g., ransomware or cryptocurrency miners).

Additionally, Moonrise can monitor user activity using screen capture and screen streaming tools. It may also access the webcam and microphone to record audio and video. It also has a keystroke-logging feature that allows cybercriminals to capture all typed data, including passwords and messages.

Lastly, the RAT has a clipboard monitoring tool that allows attackers to capture copied information, including credentials and cryptocurrency wallet addresses.

Threat Summary:
Name	Moonrise remote access trojan
Threat Type	Remote Administration Trojan (RAT)
Detection Names	Avast (Win64:MalwareX-gen [Spy]), Combo Cleaner (Trojan.GenericKD.79410176), ESET-NOD32 (WinGo/Spy.Agent.JH Trojan), Kaspersky (UDS:Trojan-Spy.Win32.KeyLogger.gen), Microsoft (Trojan:Win32/Wacatac.B!ml), Full List (VirusTotal)
Symptoms	RATs are designed to stealthily infiltrate the victim's computer and remain silent, and thus no particular symptoms are clearly visible on an infected machine.
Possible distribution methods	Infected email attachments, malicious online advertisements, social engineering, tech support scams, software vulnerabilities, software 'cracks'.
Damage	Stolen passwords and banking information, identity theft, account hijacking, additional infections.
Malware Removal (Windows)	To eliminate possible malware infections, scan your computer with legitimate antivirus software. Our security researchers recommend using Combo Cleaner. Download Combo Cleaner To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. 7 days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by RCS LT, the parent company of PCRisk.com.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Moonrise is a dangerous RAT capable of system control and persistence. Its features allow threat actors to steal sensitive data, monitor user activity, and deploy additional malware, posing serious privacy and security risks. It cause issues like financial loss, identity theft, account hijacking, and additional infections.

More examples of RATs are DesckVB, GopherRAT, and JelusRAT.

How did Moonrise infiltrate my computer?

In most cases, systems become compromised after users execute malware on their devices. Usually, cybercriminals trick users into launching malware through malicious documents (e.g., PDF, Word, or Excel files), executables, archives, scripts, or ISO files. The infection can occur through various channels.

Threat actors often use pirated software (or cracking tools and key generators), technical support scams, malicious advertisements, and emails containing malicious files or links to distribute malware. They also use software vulnerabilities, unofficial (or compromised) sites, P2P networks, third-party downloaders, and similar channels.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Always install updates for your operating system, browsers, and applications to patch security vulnerabilities. Download software from official websites (or app stores) and avoid clicking links or opening files in emails or other messages that are irrelevant or unexpected. Avoid pirated software and cracks.

Do not interact with ads, links, buttons, or other elements on dubious websites. Also, use a reliable security tool and regularly scan your device for potential threats.

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.

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

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.

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.

Run Windows 11 in Safe Mode with Networking

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

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.

Process Explorer showing a suspicious unsigned process running from %AppData%

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.

Autoruns 14.x with Hide Microsoft Entries enabled showing the Logon and Scheduled Tasks tabs

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

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.

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

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.

Combo Cleaner full scan results showing detected threats

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.

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

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.

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

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:

Primary email first - it's the recovery hub for everything else
Banking and financial accounts
Password manager master password (if you use one)
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.

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.

Verifying malware removal in the Windows 11 Task Manager Startup apps tab

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 device is infected with Moonrise RAT, should I format my storage device to get rid of it?

Completely wiping your storage device can remove Moonrise RAT, but this is extreme and should only be done as a last resort. It is better to first run a full system scan using a trusted tool such as Combo Cleaner.

What are the biggest issues that malware can cause?

Malware can steal personal information, allow attackers to control the infected device remotely, and drop other malware. It can also delete or damage files, slow down the system, and cause a range of additional problems.

What is the purpose of Moonrise RAT?

The purpose of Moonrise RAT is to give attackers remote control over an infected device. It is designed to steal sensitive information such as passwords, authentication tokens, and personal files, monitor user activity through screen capture, keystroke logging, and webcam/microphone access, and deploy additional malware.

How did malware infiltrate my device?

Most systems are infected when users unknowingly run malware on their devices. Attackers often trick users through malicious documents, executables, scripts, or ISO files. Common distribution methods include pirated software, scam messages, malicious ads, tech support scams, software vulnerabilities, unofficial websites, and peer-to-peer networks.

Will Combo Cleaner protect me from malware?

Combo Cleaner can detect and remove most known malware. Because some advanced threats can hide deep within the system, it is recommended to run a full system scan to ensure all malware is found and removed.

How to remove Moonrise RAT from compromised systems