Havex RAT (Malware Family)

Havex RAT

VTCollection

Havex is a remote access trojan (RAT) that was discovered in 2013 as part of a widespread espionage campaign targeting industrial control systems (ICS) used across numerous industries and attributed to a hacking group referred to as "Dragonfly" and "Energetic Bear". Havex is estimated to have impacted thousands of infrastructure sites, a majority of which were located in Europe and the United States. Within the energy sector, Havex specifically targeted energy grid operators, major electricity generation firms, petroleum pipeline operators, and industrial equipment providers. Havex also impacted organizations in the aviation, defense, pharmaceutical, and petrochemical industries.

Once installed, Havex scanned the infected system to locate any Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) or ICS devices on the network and sent the data back to command and control servers. To do so, the malware leveraged the Open Platform Communications (OPC) standard, which is a universal communication protocol used by ICS components across many industries that facilitates open connectivity and vendor equipment interoperability. Havex used the Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) to connect to OPC servers inside of an ICS network and collect information such as CLSID, server name, Program ID, OPC version, vendor information, running state, group count, and server bandwidth.

Havex was an intelligence-collection tool used for espionage and not for the disruption or destruction of industrial systems. However, the data collected by Havex would have aided efforts to design and develop attacks against specific targets or industries.

References

2022-03-24 ⋅ CISA ⋅ US-CERT
Alert (AA22-083A) Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures of Indicted State-Sponsored Russian Cyber Actors Targeting the Energy Sector
Havex RAT Triton

2021-06-24 ⋅ Gigamon ⋅ Joe Slowik
The Baffling Berserk Bear: A Decade's Activity targeting Critical Infrastructure
Havex RAT Heriplor Karagany

2020-12-21 ⋅ IronNet ⋅ Adam Hlavek, Kimberly Ortiz
Russian cyber attack campaigns and actors
WellMail elf.wellmess Agent.BTZ BlackEnergy EternalPetya Havex RAT Industroyer Ryuk Triton WellMess

2020-11-04 ⋅ Stranded on Pylos Blog ⋅ Joe Slowik
The Enigmatic Energetic Bear
EternalPetya Havex RAT

2020-01-01 ⋅ SecurityWeek ⋅ SecureWorks
IRON LIBERTY
Havex RAT Karagany

2014-06-23 ⋅ F-Secure ⋅ Daavid
Havex Hunts For ICS/SCADA Systems
Havex RAT

Yara Rules

[TLP:WHITE] win_havex_rat_auto (20260504 | Detects win.havex_rat.)

rule win_havex_rat_auto {

    meta:
        author = "Felix Bilstein - yara-signator at cocacoding dot com"
        date = "2026-05-04"
        version = "1"
        description = "Detects win.havex_rat."
        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.havex_rat"
        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 = { e8???????? 33db 895dfc b800020000 8d773c c7472003000000 895f24 }
            // n = 7, score = 100
            //   e8????????           |                     
            //   33db                 | xor                 ebx, ebx
            //   895dfc               | mov                 dword ptr [ebp - 4], ebx
            //   b800020000           | mov                 eax, 0x200
            //   8d773c               | lea                 esi, [edi + 0x3c]
            //   c7472003000000       | mov                 dword ptr [edi + 0x20], 3
            //   895f24               | mov                 dword ptr [edi + 0x24], ebx

        $sequence_1 = { 8bf0 3bf3 742f 68???????? 8d4dc0 e8???????? 8d45c0 }
            // n = 7, score = 100
            //   8bf0                 | mov                 esi, eax
            //   3bf3                 | cmp                 esi, ebx
            //   742f                 | je                  0x31
            //   68????????           |                     
            //   8d4dc0               | lea                 ecx, [ebp - 0x40]
            //   e8????????           |                     
            //   8d45c0               | lea                 eax, [ebp - 0x40]

        $sequence_2 = { 8b0c81 8bc6 e8???????? 8b45dc 0fb7444358 0fb60c07 51 }
            // n = 7, score = 100
            //   8b0c81               | mov                 ecx, dword ptr [ecx + eax*4]
            //   8bc6                 | mov                 eax, esi
            //   e8????????           |                     
            //   8b45dc               | mov                 eax, dword ptr [ebp - 0x24]
            //   0fb7444358           | movzx               eax, word ptr [ebx + eax*2 + 0x58]
            //   0fb60c07             | movzx               ecx, byte ptr [edi + eax]
            //   51                   | push                ecx

        $sequence_3 = { 2b470c 6a1c 59 99 f7f9 8b4d08 }
            // n = 6, score = 100
            //   2b470c               | sub                 eax, dword ptr [edi + 0xc]
            //   6a1c                 | push                0x1c
            //   59                   | pop                 ecx
            //   99                   | cdq                 
            //   f7f9                 | idiv                ecx
            //   8b4d08               | mov                 ecx, dword ptr [ebp + 8]

        $sequence_4 = { c745fc02000000 8b06 8b4004 57 c70406???????? e8???????? }
            // n = 6, score = 100
            //   c745fc02000000       | mov                 dword ptr [ebp - 4], 2
            //   8b06                 | mov                 eax, dword ptr [esi]
            //   8b4004               | mov                 eax, dword ptr [eax + 4]
            //   57                   | push                edi
            //   c70406????????       |                     
            //   e8????????           |                     

        $sequence_5 = { e8???????? c3 6a1c b8???????? e8???????? 8b450c 83781810 }
            // n = 7, score = 100
            //   e8????????           |                     
            //   c3                   | ret                 
            //   6a1c                 | push                0x1c
            //   b8????????           |                     
            //   e8????????           |                     
            //   8b450c               | mov                 eax, dword ptr [ebp + 0xc]
            //   83781810             | cmp                 dword ptr [eax + 0x18], 0x10

        $sequence_6 = { 8b7f04 eb03 83c704 33f6 56 50 53 }
            // n = 7, score = 100
            //   8b7f04               | mov                 edi, dword ptr [edi + 4]
            //   eb03                 | jmp                 5
            //   83c704               | add                 edi, 4
            //   33f6                 | xor                 esi, esi
            //   56                   | push                esi
            //   50                   | push                eax
            //   53                   | push                ebx

        $sequence_7 = { b801040000 8b4d64 5f 33cd 5e e8???????? }
            // n = 6, score = 100
            //   b801040000           | mov                 eax, 0x401
            //   8b4d64               | mov                 ecx, dword ptr [ebp + 0x64]
            //   5f                   | pop                 edi
            //   33cd                 | xor                 ecx, ebp
            //   5e                   | pop                 esi
            //   e8????????           |                     

        $sequence_8 = { c1e704 03fe 038f94c90000 039798c90000 8b7ddc 0fb77c7b18 897de0 }
            // n = 7, score = 100
            //   c1e704               | shl                 edi, 4
            //   03fe                 | add                 edi, esi
            //   038f94c90000         | add                 ecx, dword ptr [edi + 0xc994]
            //   039798c90000         | add                 edx, dword ptr [edi + 0xc998]
            //   8b7ddc               | mov                 edi, dword ptr [ebp - 0x24]
            //   0fb77c7b18           | movzx               edi, word ptr [ebx + edi*2 + 0x18]
            //   897de0               | mov                 dword ptr [ebp - 0x20], edi

        $sequence_9 = { 8d7304 8b55ec 33ff 85d2 7616 2bc8 3b7de8 }
            // n = 7, score = 100
            //   8d7304               | lea                 esi, [ebx + 4]
            //   8b55ec               | mov                 edx, dword ptr [ebp - 0x14]
            //   33ff                 | xor                 edi, edi
            //   85d2                 | test                edx, edx
            //   7616                 | jbe                 0x18
            //   2bc8                 | sub                 ecx, eax
            //   3b7de8               | cmp                 edi, dword ptr [ebp - 0x18]

    condition:
        7 of them and filesize < 892928
}

Download all Yara Rules

Havex RAT Propose Change

References

Yara Rules

Havex RAT