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 = "2026-05-04" 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 = "20260422" malpedia_hash = "a182e35da64e6d71cb55f125c4d4225196523f14" malpedia_version = "20260504" 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 | mov eax, ebp // 41b801010000 | dec esp // e8???????? | // 418bc6 | lea eax, [0x12545] // 4d8d4d10 | dec eax // 4c8d3d901d0100 | mov ecx, ebp $sequence_1 = { 4156 4157 488b05???????? 4d8bf8 448bf2 8bf1 4885c0 } // n = 7, score = 100 // 4156 | dec eax // 4157 | lea eax, [0x8b05] // 488b05???????? | // 4d8bf8 | inc ecx // 448bf2 | mov ecx, 0x1b // 8bf1 | dec eax // 4885c0 | mov dword ptr [esp + 0x20], eax $sequence_2 = { 498bce ff15???????? 488bd8 eb02 33db 4c8d358d93ffff 4885db } // n = 7, score = 100 // 498bce | lea ecx, [0x7d2d] // ff15???????? | // 488bd8 | xor ecx, ecx // eb02 | dec esp // 33db | lea eax, [0x7d20] // 4c8d358d93ffff | dec eax // 4885db | lea edx, [0x7d21] $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 | dec esp // 488bf9 | mov ebp, edx // 488d1528ad0000 | dec ecx // b904000000 | mov eax, dword ptr [edi + edi*8 + 0x19118] // e8???????? | // 8bd3 | dec esp // 488bcf | lea eax, [esp + 0x38] $sequence_5 = { 4883ec20 448bf9 4c8d356e94ffff 4d8be1 } // n = 4, score = 100 // 4883ec20 | inc esp // 448bf9 | mov byte ptr [esp + 0x70], dh // 4c8d356e94ffff | jmp 0x1cf // 4d8be1 | dec eax $sequence_6 = { 48895c2408 57 4883ec20 488d1d5f290100 488d3d58290100 eb12 488b03 } // n = 7, score = 100 // 48895c2408 | mulsd xmm4, xmm6 // 57 | addsd xmm0, xmm4 // 4883ec20 | addsd xmm2, xmm5 // 488d1d5f290100 | dec eax // 488d3d58290100 | lea edx, [0xad28] // eb12 | mov ecx, 4 // 488b03 | mov edx, ebx $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 | lea ecx, [0x165de] // 6bdb21 | mov edx, 0xfa0 // 0fb6d2 | test eax, eax // 03da | dec eax // 48ffc0 | sub esp, 0x28 // ebd6 | dec eax // 8bc8 | test ecx, ecx $sequence_9 = { 803d????????00 754c 488d0db41e0100 48890d???????? 488d05661b0100 488d0d8f1d0100 488905???????? } // n = 7, score = 100 // 803d????????00 | // 754c | test eax, eax // 488d0db41e0100 | jle 0x101 // 48890d???????? | // 488d05661b0100 | dec eax // 488d0d8f1d0100 | sub edi, esi // 488905???????? | condition: 7 of them and filesize < 241664 }
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