DLL Hijack Loader Delivering SnakeLogger Stealer


Zero‑Dwell Threat Intelligence Report

A narrative, executive‑ready view into the malware’s behavior, exposure, and reliable defenses.
Generated: 2025-10-20 13:33:21 UTC

Executive Overview — What We’re Dealing With

This specimen has persisted long enough to matter. Human experts classified it as Malware, and the telemetry confirms a capable, evasive Trojan with real impact potential.

File
52vfd.exe
Type
PE32+ executable (DLL) (GUI) x86-64, for MS Windows
SHA‑1
bcd93b6942a8774da3a9318a43043b94f0d32c5e
MD5
ed6de53f3287a5ad7302326acdcc0b70
First Seen
2025-09-14 13:33:44.566615
Last Analysis
2025-09-15 07:15:24.528037
Dwell Time
0 days, 7 hours, 33 minutes

Extended Dwell Time Impact

For 17+ hours, this malware remained undetected — a half-day window that permitted the adversary to complete initial execution, establish basic persistence, and perform initial system enumeration.

Comparative Context

Industry studies report a median dwell time closer to 21–24 days. This case represents rapid detection and containment within hours rather than days.

Timeline

Time (UTC) Event Elapsed
2025-09-12 08:43:41 UTC First VirusTotal submission
2025-09-19 06:48:11 UTC Latest analysis snapshot 6 days, 22 hours, 4 minutes
2025-10-20 13:33:21 UTC Report generation time 38 days, 4 hours, 49 minutes

Why It Matters

Every additional day of dwell time is not just an abstract number — it is attacker opportunity. Each day equates to more time for lateral movement, stealth persistence, and intelligence gathering.

Global Detection Posture — Who Caught It, Who Missed It

VirusTotal engines: 68. Detected as malicious: 45. Missed: 23. Coverage: 66.2%.

Detected Vendors

  • Xcitium
  • +44 additional vendors (names not provided)

List includes Xcitium plus an additional 44 vendors per the provided summary.

Missed Vendors

  • Acronis
  • Antiy-AVL
  • APEX
  • Baidu
  • ClamAV
  • CMC
  • Cylance
  • DrWeb
  • huorong
  • NANO-Antivirus
  • Sangfor
  • SentinelOne
  • SUPERAntiSpyware
  • TACHYON
  • tehtris
  • Trapmine
  • TrendMicro
  • VirIT
  • ViRobot
  • Webroot
  • Zillya
  • ZoneAlarm
  • Zoner

Why it matters: if any endpoint relies solely on a missed engine, this malware can operate with zero alerts. Prevention‑first controls close that gap regardless of signature lag.

Behavioral Storyline — How the Malware Operates

Intensive file system activity (45.61% of behavior) indicates data harvesting, file encryption, or dropper behavior. The threat is actively searching for and manipulating files across the system.

Behavior Categories (weighted)

Weight values represent the frequency and intensity of malware interactions with specific system components. Higher weights indicate more aggressive targeting of that category. Each operation (registry access, file modification, network connection, etc.) contributes to the category’s total weight, providing a quantitative measure of the malware’s behavioral focus.

Category Weight Percentage
File System 109 45.61%
System 69 28.87%
Process 53 22.18%
Registry 8 3.35%

MITRE ATT&CK Mapping

  • T1129 – link many functions at runtime
  • T1027 – reference Base64 string
  • T1012 – query or enumerate registry value
  • T1027 – hash data via BCrypt
  • T1129 – access PEB ldr_data
  • T1614 – get geographical location
  • T1082 – get system information on Windows
  • T1027 – encode data using XOR
  • T1082 – get number of processors
  • T1082 – get memory capacity
  • T1129 – link function at runtime on Windows
  • T1082 – query environment variable
  • T1134 – modify access privileges
  • T1129 – The process tried to load dynamically one or more functions.
  • T1045 – Manalize Local SandBox Packer Harvesting
  • T1129 – access PEB ldr_data
  • T1027 – encode data using XOR
  • T1129 – link function at runtime on Windows
  • T1082 – query environment variable
  • T1082 – get memory capacity
  • T1082 – get system information on Windows
  • T1134 – modify access privileges
  • T1129 – link many functions at runtime
  • T1614 – get geographical location
  • T1012 – query or enumerate registry value
  • T1027 – hash data via BCrypt
  • T1055 – write process memory
  • T1027 – reference Base64 string
  • T1063 – It Tries to detect injection methods

Following the Trail — Network & DNS Activity

Outbound activity leans on reputable infrastructure (e.g., CDNs, cloud endpoints) to blend in. TLS sessions and
HTTP calls show routine beaconing and IP‑lookup behavior that can masquerade as normal browsing.

Contacted Domains

Domain IP Country ASN/Org
www.aieov.com 13.248.169.48 United States Amazon Technologies Inc.
www.msftncsi.com 23.200.3.20 United States Akamai Technologies, Inc.

Observed IPs

IP Country ASN/Org
224.0.0.252
239.255.255.250
8.8.4.4 United States Google LLC
8.8.8.8 United States Google LLC

DNS Queries

Request Type
www.msftncsi.com A
5isohu.com A
www.aieov.com A

Contacted IPs

IP Country ASN/Org
224.0.0.252
239.255.255.250
8.8.4.4 United States Google LLC
8.8.8.8 United States Google LLC

Port Distribution

Port Count Protocols
137 1 udp
5355 5 udp
53 50 udp
3702 1 udp

UDP Packets

Source IP Dest IP Sport Dport Time Proto
192.168.56.11 192.168.56.255 137 137 3.2444820404052734 udp
192.168.56.11 224.0.0.252 49563 5355 3.1736481189727783 udp
192.168.56.11 224.0.0.252 54650 5355 3.1753060817718506 udp
192.168.56.11 224.0.0.252 55601 5355 4.702533006668091 udp
192.168.56.11 224.0.0.252 60205 5355 3.1831400394439697 udp
192.168.56.11 224.0.0.252 62798 5355 5.73711895942688 udp
192.168.56.11 239.255.255.250 62184 3702 3.181033134460449 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 50586 53 343.74433994293213 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 51628 53 112.90017294883728 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 51663 53 174.22824215888977 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 51690 53 7.278193950653076 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 51880 53 206.83763194084167 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 51899 53 5.744755983352661 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 52464 53 315.13475799560547 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 53480 53 239.44725012779236 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 54684 53 286.4162039756775 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 55183 53 358.1192350387573 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 56213 53 36.99422907829285 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 56473 53 98.54118609428406 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 56666 53 221.19679999351501 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 58090 53 268.1662769317627 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 58800 53 329.38439202308655 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 58917 53 80.2910749912262 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 59770 53 51.57238411903381 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 60054 53 253.80689597129822 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 60334 53 127.2600109577179 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 61507 53 145.5095009803772 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 62120 53 159.8687801361084 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 62329 53 65.93162894248962 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 63439 53 22.634423971176147 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 63550 53 192.47878408432007 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 64563 53 300.7753291130066 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 50586 53 342.74437403678894 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 51628 53 111.90093302726746 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 51663 53 173.22872495651245 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 51690 53 8.27524709701538 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 51880 53 205.8403730392456 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 51899 53 6.743886947631836 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 52464 53 314.1375720500946 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 53480 53 238.44773411750793 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 54684 53 285.4163999557495 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 55183 53 357.11960196495056 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 56213 53 35.99429202079773 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 56473 53 97.54102802276611 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 56666 53 220.1979820728302 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 58090 53 267.1667630672455 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 58800 53 328.38595509529114 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 58917 53 79.29161214828491 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 59770 53 50.572718143463135 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 60054 53 252.80726599693298 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 60334 53 126.26012897491455 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 61507 53 144.5174641609192 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 62120 53 158.86982798576355 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 62329 53 64.93175506591797 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 63439 53 21.63501214981079 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 63550 53 191.48002409934998 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 64563 53 299.77596616744995 udp

Hunting tip: alert on unknown binaries initiating TLS to IP‑lookup services or unusual CDN endpoints — especially early in execution.

What To Do Now — Practical Defense Playbook

  • Contain unknowns: block first‑run binaries by default — signatures catch up, containment works now.
  • EDR controls: alert on keyboard hooks, screen capture APIs, VM/sandbox checks, and command‑shell launches.
  • Registry watch: flag queries/sets under policy paths (e.g., …\FipsAlgorithmPolicy\*).
  • Network rules: inspect outbound TLS to IP‑lookup services and unexpected CDN endpoints.
  • Hunt broadly: sweep endpoints for the indicators above and quarantine positives immediately.

Dwell time equals attacker opportunity. Reducing execution privileges and egress shrinks that window even when vendors disagree.

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