Win64 Shellcode Runner Exporting WMI APIs to Conceal Loader Activity


Zero‑Dwell Threat Intelligence Report

A narrative, executive‑ready view into the malware’s behavior, exposure, and reliable defenses.
Generated: 2025-11-05 07:04:45 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
windows_dpapiloader_wmiclnt.bin
Type
PE32+ executable (DLL) (GUI) x86-64, for MS Windows
SHA‑1
3b994549ab4fd9024b2f0155094d7aa43b70bb8f
MD5
75a46b23825ce7aa4ca297d93450f4e2
First Seen
2025-09-14 13:33:37.902997
Last Analysis
2025-09-15 07:15:17.502310
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
2024-08-21 23:39:52 UTC First VirusTotal submission
2025-09-19 07:14:36 UTC Latest analysis snapshot 393 days, 7 hours, 34 minutes
2025-11-05 07:04:45 UTC Report generation time 440 days, 7 hours, 24 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: 73. Detected as malicious: 43. Missed: 30. Coverage: 58.9%.

Detected Vendors

  • Xcitium
  • +42 additional vendors (names not provided)

List includes Xcitium plus an additional 42 vendors per the provided summary.

Missed Vendors

  • Acronis
  • Antiy-AVL
  • APEX
  • Baidu
  • ClamAV
  • CMC
  • Cylance
  • Cynet
  • Elastic
  • google_safebrowsing
  • Gridinsoft
  • huorong
  • Jiangmin
  • Kingsoft
  • Malwarebytes
  • NANO-Antivirus
  • Sangfor
  • SentinelOne
  • SUPERAntiSpyware
  • TACHYON
  • tehtris
  • Tencent
  • Trapmine
  • VIPRE
  • VirIT
  • ViRobot
  • Webroot
  • Yandex
  • 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

Dominant system-level operations (39.39% of behavior) suggest this malware performs deep system reconnaissance, privilege escalation, or core OS manipulation. It’s actively probing system defenses and attempting to gain administrative control.

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
System 52 39.39%
Process 44 33.33%
File System 25 18.94%
Registry 11 8.33%

MITRE ATT&CK Mapping

  • T1083 – get file size
  • T1129 – parse PE header
  • T1129 – forwarded export
  • T1027 – encode data using XOR
  • T1083 – enumerate files on Windows
  • T1082 – get hostname
  • T1082 – query environment variable
  • T1027 – encrypt data using DPAPI
  • T1129 – link function at runtime on Windows
  • T1012 – query or enumerate registry value
  • T1614 – get geographical location
  • T1071 – Adversaries may communicate using application layer protocols to avoid detection/network filtering by blending in with existing traffic.
  • T1129 – The process tried to load dynamically one or more functions.
  • T1027 – encode data using XOR
  • T1083 – get file size
  • T1129 – link function at runtime on Windows
  • T1129 – parse PE header
  • T1082 – get hostname
  • T1012 – query or enumerate registry value
  • T1027 – encrypt data using DPAPI
  • T1083 – enumerate files on Windows
  • T1082 – query environment variable
  • T1614 – get geographical location
  • T1129 – forwarded export
  • T1063 – It Tries to detect injection methods
  • T1574.002 – Tries to load missing DLLs
  • T1218.011 – Runs a DLL by calling functions
  • T1497 – May sleep (evasive loops) to hinder dynamic analysis
  • T1497 – Contains medium sleeps (>= 30s)
  • T1497 – Checks if the current process is being debugged
  • T1518.001 – May try to detect the virtual machine to hinder analysis (VM artifact strings found in memory)
  • T1518.001 – AV process strings found (often used to terminate AV products)
  • T1518.001 – Checks if the current process is being debugged
  • T1082 – Queries the volume information (name, serial number etc) of a device
  • T1082 – Reads software policies

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.msftncsi.com 23.200.3.20 United States Akamai Technologies, Inc.
www.aieov.com 13.248.169.48 United States Amazon 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 14 udp
3702 1 udp

UDP Packets

Source IP Dest IP Sport Dport Time Proto
192.168.56.11 192.168.56.255 137 137 3.2421858310699463 udp
192.168.56.11 224.0.0.252 49563 5355 3.171013832092285 udp
192.168.56.11 224.0.0.252 54650 5355 3.1732258796691895 udp
192.168.56.11 224.0.0.252 55601 5355 4.134369850158691 udp
192.168.56.11 224.0.0.252 60205 5355 3.18098783493042 udp
192.168.56.11 224.0.0.252 62798 5355 5.731244802474976 udp
192.168.56.11 239.255.255.250 62184 3702 3.1789379119873047 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 51690 53 6.711922883987427 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 51899 53 5.742478847503662 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 56213 53 36.42945599555969 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 58917 53 79.78857183456421 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 59770 53 51.023337841033936 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 62329 53 65.39790678024292 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 63439 53 22.069835901260376 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 51690 53 7.710402965545654 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 51899 53 6.741897821426392 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 56213 53 35.42993879318237 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 58917 53 78.79059100151062 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 59770 53 50.03800177574158 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 62329 53 64.40552282333374 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 63439 53 21.071075916290283 udp

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

Persistence & Policy — Registry and Services

Registry and service telemetry points to policy awareness and environment reconnaissance rather than noisy persistence. Below is a compact view of the most relevant keys and handles; expand to see the full lists where available.

Registry Opened

47

Registry Set

5

Services Started

0

Services Opened

0

Registry Opened (Top 25)

Key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize\AppsUseLightTheme
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\GRE_Initialize
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\GRE_Initialize\DisableUmpdBufferSizeCheck
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\GRE_Initialize\DisableMetaFiles
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Wow64\x86\xtajit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\FipsAlgorithmPolicy
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\ExtendedLocale
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\LanguageOverlay\OverlayPackages\en-US
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\OLE
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LDAP
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\Cryptography\Configuration
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\OLE\Tracing
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\CustomLocale
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\OLEAUT
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\MUI\Settings
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost\FIDs\Unknown
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\loaddll64.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\Sorting\Versions
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\AppCertDlls
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Safer\CodeIdentifiers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\cmd.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Srp\GP\DLL
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\rundll32.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsSelfhost\FIDs
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Flighting\Build
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost\FIDs\ByFID
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Ole\FeatureDevelopmentProperties
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Option
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\AppModel\Lookaside\Packages
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsStore
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Ole
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Segment Heap
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Display
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Error Message Instrument\
\REGISTRY\A\{13f74f90-6851-9321-f45b-ae5735dffe22}\Root
\REGISTRY\A\{13f74f90-6851-9321-f45b-ae5735dffe22}\Root\InventoryApplicationFile
Show all (47 total)

Registry Set (Top 25)

Key Value
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-575823232-3065301323-1442773979-1000\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\Root\Certificates\0174E68C97DDF1E0EEEA415EA336A163D2B61AFD\Blob 5C 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 04 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 0D BE 92 DE FF 7D 36 BB 48 C4 A6 B1 15 24 95 38 0F 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 53 FE B9 19 2E D4 80 F2 09 12 4A 2C 57 D7 E8 97 7A 2E 9F 39 46 1D BF 21 4D F1 12 CB 16 02 4F A2 14 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 14 00 00 00 78 B8 30 FD 63 AC 7B 89 4A 07 3B ED F6 8A 83 9C C3 52 02 65 19 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 B5 74 AF 30 C5 C1 BA 3A 69 A7 10 02 00 82 4D D0 03 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 14 00 00 00 01 74 E6 8C 97 DD F1 E0 EE EA 41 5E A3 36 A1 63 D2 B6 1A FD 20 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 F8 05 00 00 30 82 05 F4 30 82 03 DC A0 03 02 01 02 02 09 00 E0 EA 61 4C 28 56 32 64 30 0D 06 09 2A 86 48 86 F7 0D 01 01 0B 05 00 30 81 8E 31 0B 30 09 06 03 55 04 06 13 02 49 4C 31 0F 30 0D 06 03 55 04 08 0C 06 43 65 6E 74 65 72 31 0C 30 0A 06 03 55 04 07 0C 03 4C 6F 64 31 10 30 0E 06 03 55 04 0A 0C 07 47 6F 50 72 6F 78 79 31 10 30 0E 06 03 55 04 0B 0C 07 47 6F 50 72 6F 78 79 31 1A 30 18 06 03 55 04 03 0C 11 67 6F 70 72 6F 78 79 2E 67 69 74 68 75 62 2E 69 6
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-575823232-3065301323-1442773979-1000\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\Debug\StoreLocation %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppCrash_rundll32.exe_F9X_ae1c33adc3f581ac9f7d2ceb748e0f89b995c2_0aed3a51
\REGISTRY\A\{13f74f90-6851-9321-f45b-ae5735dffe22}\Root\InventoryApplicationFile\PermissionsCheckTestKey
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\Debug
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\Debug\ExceptionRecord 05 00 00 C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 9F 4C 0D 26 FF 7F 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 0

Services Started (Top 15)

Services Opened (Top 15)

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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