SYMBOLCOMMON_NAMEaka. SYNONYMS
win.hawkball (Back to overview)

HAWKBALL

VTCollection    

HAWKBALL is a backdoor that attackers can use to collect information from the victim, as well as to deliver payloads. HAWKBALL is capable of surveying the host, creating a named pipe to execute native Windows commands, terminating processes, creating, deleting and uploading files, searching for files, and enumerating drives.

References
2019-06-05 ⋅ FireEye ⋅ Swapnil Patil
Government Sector in Central Asia Targeted With New HAWKBALL Backdoor Delivered via Microsoft Office Vulnerabilities
HAWKBALL
Yara Rules
[TLP:WHITE] win_hawkball_auto (20260917 | Detects win.hawkball.)
rule win_hawkball_auto {

    meta:
        author = "Felix Bilstein - yara-signator at cocacoding dot com"
        date = "2026-09-17"
        version = "1"
        description = "Detects win.hawkball."
        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.hawkball"
        malpedia_rule_date = "20260916"
        malpedia_hash = "53a643781c18e08f4a50949af60172d837a0b6f6"
        malpedia_version = "20260917"
        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 = { 50 57 ffd3 b901000000 85c0 }
            // n = 5, score = 200
            //   50                   | push                eax
            //   57                   | push                edi
            //   ffd3                 | call                ebx
            //   b901000000           | mov                 ecx, 1
            //   85c0                 | test                eax, eax

        $sequence_1 = { 894dfc 897df8 ff15???????? 8bd8 83fbff 754f }
            // n = 6, score = 200
            //   894dfc               | mov                 dword ptr [ebp - 4], ecx
            //   897df8               | mov                 dword ptr [ebp - 8], edi
            //   ff15????????         |                     
            //   8bd8                 | mov                 ebx, eax
            //   83fbff               | cmp                 ebx, -1
            //   754f                 | jne                 0x51

        $sequence_2 = { 8d45ec 50 57 8d7704 }
            // n = 4, score = 200
            //   8d45ec               | lea                 eax, [ebp - 0x14]
            //   50                   | push                eax
            //   57                   | push                edi
            //   8d7704               | lea                 esi, [edi + 4]

        $sequence_3 = { 8b4d08 c600ff c7400500000000 833904 7509 }
            // n = 5, score = 200
            //   8b4d08               | mov                 ecx, dword ptr [ebp + 8]
            //   c600ff               | mov                 byte ptr [eax], 0xff
            //   c7400500000000       | mov                 dword ptr [eax + 5], 0
            //   833904               | cmp                 dword ptr [ecx], 4
            //   7509                 | jne                 0xb

        $sequence_4 = { 8be5 5d c3 6a59 }
            // n = 4, score = 200
            //   8be5                 | mov                 esp, ebp
            //   5d                   | pop                 ebp
            //   c3                   | ret                 
            //   6a59                 | push                0x59

        $sequence_5 = { 7637 90 8d442410 c744241000000000 50 8b8704020000 }
            // n = 6, score = 200
            //   7637                 | jbe                 0x39
            //   90                   | nop                 
            //   8d442410             | lea                 eax, [esp + 0x10]
            //   c744241000000000     | mov                 dword ptr [esp + 0x10], 0
            //   50                   | push                eax
            //   8b8704020000         | mov                 eax, dword ptr [edi + 0x204]

        $sequence_6 = { ffd6 50 ffd3 ff0d???????? 33c0 5f }
            // n = 6, score = 200
            //   ffd6                 | call                esi
            //   50                   | push                eax
            //   ffd3                 | call                ebx
            //   ff0d????????         |                     
            //   33c0                 | xor                 eax, eax
            //   5f                   | pop                 edi

        $sequence_7 = { 6a08 ffd3 50 ff15???????? 8b4dfc 8bd7 50 }
            // n = 7, score = 200
            //   6a08                 | push                8
            //   ffd3                 | call                ebx
            //   50                   | push                eax
            //   ff15????????         |                     
            //   8b4dfc               | mov                 ecx, dword ptr [ebp - 4]
            //   8bd7                 | mov                 edx, edi
            //   50                   | push                eax

        $sequence_8 = { 8d85f0fbffff 6808020000 50 56 }
            // n = 4, score = 200
            //   8d85f0fbffff         | lea                 eax, [ebp - 0x410]
            //   6808020000           | push                0x208
            //   50                   | push                eax
            //   56                   | push                esi

        $sequence_9 = { ff7714 ffd6 ff35???????? 6a01 ff15???????? }
            // n = 5, score = 200
            //   ff7714               | push                dword ptr [edi + 0x14]
            //   ffd6                 | call                esi
            //   ff35????????         |                     
            //   6a01                 | push                1
            //   ff15????????         |                     

    condition:
        7 of them and filesize < 229376
}
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