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IOCs

Hancitor was created in 2014 to drop other malware on infected machines. It is also known as Tordal and Chanitor. This malware is available as a service which makes it accessible tools to criminals and contributes to the popularity of this virus.

Loader
Type
Unknown
Origin
1 January, 2014
First seen
6 October, 2024
Last seen
Also known as
Tordal
Chanitor

How to analyze Hancitor with ANY.RUN

Type
Unknown
Origin
1 January, 2014
First seen
6 October, 2024
Last seen

IOCs

IP addresses
213.186.33.2
74.208.236.239
43.255.154.47
202.124.241.203
77.246.147.110
109.71.254.182
194.135.33.165
154.216.82.18
154.216.78.126
154.216.69.43
154.216.82.0
154.216.84.200
154.216.78.119
154.216.84.193
154.216.84.211
154.216.69.34
154.216.78.108
154.216.69.57
154.216.85.214
154.216.82.27
Hashes
f5fa0a0f444d33c8485450beb01dd5b338c15996fd48670e2727bf3552e6a59d
d63b932fcdc8f217809347d0f5b1bd95ffebb5441645c344c476c74ebced9d45
02258bfbe7dd5966e0fcc342277f0ce537444c62aeed9adb1b913c48b6c7f2ed
995cbbb422634d497d65e12454cd5832cf1b4422189d9ec06efa88ed56891cda
d16f1d82ace24ed81113f0ef315e96a2e4d8a28f848e33f59907078b9dd670a9
31799b95716aafede8ee3743c0a3976a4367f3e7ac946be7fab519a50b7dc067
feba398a73a373a2b7e42b6acebb32c153e0fa59495753709c32b6ca78fd03ee
5b0ef982ada2cab733e409b050c472ea4c8eb3c6950633828c1570747e81ead8
4064ac41dbf2e965456b48d605e61387fbe7ba624b6dec7d8755d8040c17f171
45844543c5cdb28d6e67f38e8efbf66a6d40d1dd376de434e2786541610b6cd5
a8ba44c9b5ca4265e1ef4fe3e737fd50a54ebff10644a5afa92935063bcc03be
d3fad6911b80be1d64eb88ba23fecbcddc2faa73017b6dbcf78578eff47552ed
468200d4d207a7cc1df245b9670fcf9e3c491dd344643cd7edcf8a82f2cde214
490f6ee013a56c01dc57fa2e9f5bc7634d5a0800f07c3a820f8eac92efcbacef
92a1511999113588ad3043f96f6a02fa9c7d53233206f3127bd59c70f7adbb49
ee3f6c3fe59b1f5925699e91f49ea5439c0daae112173a303d2c25dd36a42b35
03933955105da6f2e446768096eba81079ebea51411083a88348a1e8ea466857
aa57258f768a786edb9918b99ba6718fc5464b56ac26911482026e7f072ace16
73542285e1a49f86c5b9da8edfe86d54c5ac59569373f8b3cb9df5bdbdd01b64
d135f03b9fdc709651ac9d0264e155c5580b072577a8ff24c90183b126b5e12a
Domains
dintromparsup.com
hadrecrolof.ru
dintretonid.com
dintretrewor.com
rowrorofrat.com
hanparolhar.com
hadhecrecled.com
dintrolletone.com
direnrolpar.ru
hadsparmirat.com
chopprousite.ru
thougolograrly.ru
rofromandfor.ru
patiennerrhe.com
rhopulforopme.ru
thowerteigime.com
torssestih.ru
opulteme.com
restanumb.ru
sudepallon.com
URLs
http://euvereginumet.ru/8/forum.php
http://thowerteigime.com/8/forum.php
http://rhopulforopme.ru/8/forum.php
http://lacsitgohed.ru/ls5/forum.php
http://midatotid.ru/ls5/forum.php
http://tithaphersand.com/ls5/forum.php
http://antialkinno.com/8/forum.php
http://thistrespor.ru/8/forum.php
http://knorshand.ru/8/forum.php
http://satursed.com/8/forum.php
http://sameastar.ru/8/forum.php
http://ludiesibut.ru/8/forum.php
http://hetenoaning.ru/ls5/forum.php
http://hartofhedtret.ru/ls5/forum.php
http://hitorsletna.com/ls5/forum.php
http://tontorrombut.com/ls5/forum.php
http://tedousenebi.com/ls5/forum.php
http://ritterthimi.com/ls5/forum.php
http://vetahanrigh.com/4/forum.php
http://extilivelly.com/8/forum.php
Last Seen at

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What is Hancitor malware?

Hancitor, sometimes called Tordal and Chanitor is a loader designed to install other malware on the victim’s PC – most often it’s either Pony, Vawtrak, or DELoader. The malware has been around since 2014 and it is distributed to other users as a service by the original creators via malspam.

This malware can’t be considered dangerous since even Microsoft's built-in antivirus Windows Defender can detect it. On top of that, being distributed in malspam campaigns, in a lot of cases emails don’t even reach their targets, being intercepted by spam filters. In essence, the only people truly in danger of getting infected by Hancitor, are those who still utilize older Windows versions like Windows seven or earlier and who either don’t have or disabled their antivirus software. Curiously, despite such a limited “target audience”, Hancitor creators continue to update this malware and it is still very active to this day.

General description of the Hancitor Trojan

Creators of Hancitor provide their loader as a service to other criminals, helping to install various malware on the target PCs. The people behind Hancitor are extremely active and organized. Some researchers suspect that they work full business weeks since the surge of Hancitor attacks usually takes place on business days and falls off on the weekends, which suggests that the hackers responsible have a work structure and a schedule.

Despite that, Hancitor loader has not changed very much since 2016 and to this day relies on very simple execution and evasion techniques which makes its detection and prevention relatively easy, especially for corporate targets with adequate levels of cybersecurity.

According to the Hancitor analysis, the 2016 version of the malware had 66 functions and had the size of 20 480 bytes while the 2018 version is made up of 51 functions that amount to the size of 20 992 bytes. One of the main differences between the versions is the lack of connectivity check functionality in the 2018 iteration. As such, the older iteration of Hancitor would try to connect to Google.com during execution to check for connections whereas the never iteration fully omits this step. The newer version also makes use of the RC4 encryption and contains some updated commands.

Not unlike other malware, Hancitor Trojan uses several attack vectors to maximize the success rate. Hancitor creators have exploited uncommon API abuse and PowerShell methods among others to ensure the successful infection.

Over the last two years, over 80 variations of Hancitor were detected in the wild. Usually, a new variation would be created simply to define a new variable for a different campaign, while at other times the basic functions of the loader were completely changed and rewritten. However, such instances were rather rare, and highly rewritten samples didn’t stick around for long. Some researchers believe that in such instances the malware authors were testing different approaches and keeping track of the infection rate to determine what changes should remain and which innovations should go.

Hancitor analysis

A video recorded on the ANY.RUN malware hunting service displays the execution process for Hancitor analysis.

process graph hancitor execution

Figure 1: A visual graph of Hancitor execution processes generated by ANY.RUN

text report of the hancitor malware analysis

Figure 2: A customizable text report shown here was generated in the ANY.RUN malware hunting service

Hancitor malware execution process

Because of its main purpose, the execution of Hancitor doesn't look that impressive. Since the most common vector of attack to infect users' devices is malicious spam campaigns, Hancitor mostly gets into devices with Microsoft Office files. Once the user downloads and opens the malicious file, the malware either use the lure to trick the victim into enabling macros or uses an exploit. After that Hancitor will be either downloaded from the C2 server or dropped from an Office file. The next step is its execution during which the malware downloads the main payload, usually a trojan such as Pony, Vawtrak, or DELoader.

Distribution of Hancitor

Based on the Hancitor analysis, the trojan is usually distributed in malspam campaigns as a maldoc, malicious Microsoft Office file attachment. However, since most organizations started improving their cybersecurity measures some campaigns distributing Hancitor contain a link pointing at the website from where this loader is downloaded.

In the case of distribution using .DOC attachments, the user must first download the file and then activate macros, ignoring multiple security warnings. Malware authors use lures to trick users into doing that. Some phishing emails contain an invoice or a fake payment-related document, trying to make the user download it. In addition, attackers provide instructions to enable macros. If the user complies, malicious macros will download Hancitor or it will be dropped from the maldoc.

In some malspam campaigns, Hancitor was delivered to victims with .RTF maldocs which used an exploit to run the PowerShell command which downloaded the loader to the computer.

How to detect Hancitor using ANY.RUN?

Analysts can take a look at what modules malware uses. Choose the process by clicking on it in the process tree of the task then click on the "More info" button. In the "Advanced details of process" window switch to the "Modules" tab and take a closer look.

modules loaded by hancitor Figure 3: Modules loaded by Hancitor

Conclusion

Despite its simplicity and vulnerability to even simple countermeasures, Hancitor Trojan somehow remains to be an active malware that continues to target it is limited demographic, evidently with a good success rate the same as Zloader. The authors of Hancitor are extremely active and regularly come up with new iterations of this loader.

Researchers can take advantage of malware hunting services such as ANY.RUN to take malware samples apart and perform the in-depthHancitor analysis.

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