According to Trend Micro, this is a custom loader for win.cobalt_strike, used by Earth Longzhi (a subgroup of APT41).
rule win_croxloader_auto { meta: author = "Felix Bilstein - yara-signator at cocacoding dot com" date = "2026-01-05" version = "1" description = "Detects win.croxloader." info = "autogenerated rule brought to you by yara-signator" tool = "yara-signator v0.6.0" signator_config = "callsandjumps;datarefs;binvalue" malpedia_reference = "https://malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de/details/win.croxloader" malpedia_rule_date = "20260105" malpedia_hash = "19b79e7cab4eaf532122e5b45a77dd8f6bb5cc79" malpedia_version = "20251219" malpedia_license = "CC BY-SA 4.0" malpedia_sharing = "TLP:WHITE" /* DISCLAIMER * The strings used in this rule have been automatically selected from the * disassembly of memory dumps and unpacked files, using YARA-Signator. * The code and documentation is published here: * https://github.com/fxb-cocacoding/yara-signator * As Malpedia is used as data source, please note that for a given * number of families, only single samples are documented. * This likely impacts the degree of generalization these rules will offer. * Take the described generation method also into consideration when you * apply the rules in your use cases and assign them confidence levels. */ strings: $sequence_0 = { 488d4e18 41b801010000 e8???????? 418bc6 4d8d4d10 4c8d3d901d0100 } // n = 6, score = 100 // 488d4e18 | je 0x21b // 41b801010000 | inc esp // e8???????? | // 418bc6 | mov eax, ebx // 4d8d4d10 | dec eax // 4c8d3d901d0100 | lea edx, [0x7e6d] $sequence_1 = { 4156 4157 488b05???????? 4d8bf8 448bf2 8bf1 4885c0 } // n = 7, score = 100 // 4156 | lea ecx, [eax + ecx*2] // 4157 | xor ebx, ebx // 488b05???????? | // 4d8bf8 | dec eax // 448bf2 | lea ecx, [esp + 0x150] // 8bf1 | dec eax // 4885c0 | mov dword ptr [esp + 0x30], ebx $sequence_2 = { 498bce ff15???????? 488bd8 eb02 33db 4c8d358d93ffff 4885db } // n = 7, score = 100 // 498bce | lea ecx, [0x11eb4] // ff15???????? | // 488bd8 | dec eax // eb02 | lea eax, [0x11b66] // 33db | dec eax // 4c8d358d93ffff | lea ecx, [0x11d8f] // 4885db | jne 0x98 $sequence_3 = { 48c7c1ffffffff ff15???????? 488bbc2480030000 488b8c2460030000 } // n = 4, score = 100 // 48c7c1ffffffff | dec esp // ff15???????? | // 488bbc2480030000 | mov edx, dword ptr [edi] // 488b8c2460030000 | dec ecx $sequence_4 = { 4c8d052aad0000 488bf9 488d1528ad0000 b904000000 e8???????? 8bd3 488bcf } // n = 7, score = 100 // 4c8d052aad0000 | lea eax, [0x1213c] // 488bf9 | dec eax // 488d1528ad0000 | cmp dword ptr [ecx], eax // b904000000 | cmp eax, 1 // e8???????? | // 8bd3 | jne 0x211 // 488bcf | dec eax $sequence_5 = { 4883ec20 448bf9 4c8d356e94ffff 4d8be1 } // n = 4, score = 100 // 4883ec20 | inc esp // 448bf9 | mov byte ptr [esp + 0x70], dh // 4c8d356e94ffff | jmp 0xbe // 4d8be1 | dec eax $sequence_6 = { 48895c2408 57 4883ec20 488d1d5f290100 488d3d58290100 eb12 488b03 } // n = 7, score = 100 // 48895c2408 | cmp edx, esi // 57 | jl 0x74 // 4883ec20 | dec ebx // 488d1d5f290100 | mov ecx, dword ptr [eax + 0x19710] // 488d3d58290100 | inc ebx // eb12 | mov dword ptr [ebp - 0x65], ebx // 488b03 | inc edx $sequence_7 = { 33db 4c8d358d93ffff 4885db 750d } // n = 4, score = 100 // 33db | dec ecx // 4c8d358d93ffff | xor edi, edx // 4885db | dec ebx // 750d | xchg dword ptr [esi + edi*8 + 0x195f0], edi $sequence_8 = { 410f42d0 6bdb21 0fb6d2 03da 48ffc0 ebd6 8bc8 } // n = 7, score = 100 // 410f42d0 | dec edx // 6bdb21 | mov eax, dword ptr [eax + ebp*8] // 0fb6d2 | inc edx // 03da | cmp byte ptr [eax + edi*8 + 0x38], bl // 48ffc0 | jge 0xbc7 // ebd6 | dec eax // 8bc8 | mov ecx, dword ptr [eax + 0x90] $sequence_9 = { 803d????????00 754c 488d0db41e0100 48890d???????? 488d05661b0100 488d0d8f1d0100 488905???????? } // n = 7, score = 100 // 803d????????00 | // 754c | dec eax // 488d0db41e0100 | lea eax, [0x166ca] // 48890d???????? | // 488d05661b0100 | dec eax // 488d0d8f1d0100 | cmp ebx, eax // 488905???????? | condition: 7 of them and filesize < 241664 }
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