SYMBOLCOMMON_NAMEaka. SYNONYMS
win.metastealer (Back to overview)

MetaStealer

Actor(s): UNC5537

VTCollection    

On March 7, 2022, KELA observed a threat actor named _META_ announcing the launch of META – a new information-stealing malware, available for sale for USD125 per month or USD1000 for unlimited use. The actor claimed it has the same functionality, code, and panel as the Redline stealer, but with several improvements.

References
2025-08-28 ⋅ Defentive ⋅ Defentive Threat Research
The Phantom Threat: Inside UNC5518’s Invisible Empire of MetaStealer Operations
MetaStealer
2024-06-10 ⋅ Mandiant ⋅ Mandiant
UNC5537 Targets Snowflake Customer Instances for Data Theft and Extortion
Lumma Stealer MetaStealer Raccoon RedLine Stealer RisePro Vidar UNC5537
2023-12-28 ⋅ Russian Panda Research Blog ⋅ RussianPanda
MetaStealer Part 2, Google Cookie Refresher Madness and Stealer Drama
MetaStealer
2023-12-08 ⋅ Medium g0njxa ⋅ g0njxa
Approaching stealers devs : a brief interview with Meta
MetaStealer
2023-11-20 ⋅ Russian Panda Research Blog ⋅ RussianPanda
MetaStealer - Redline's Doppelgänger
MetaStealer RedLine Stealer
2023-05-11 ⋅ OALabs ⋅ OALabs
Metastealer | DGAs and obfuscation as malware goes meta
MetaStealer
2023-05-09 ⋅ Medium walmartglobaltech ⋅ Jason Reaves, Jonathan Mccay, Joshua Platt
MetaStealer string decryption and DGA overview
MetaStealer
2022-12-05 ⋅ Accenture ⋅ Paul Mansfield, Thomas Willkan
Popularity spikes for information stealer malware on the dark web
MetaStealer Rhadamanthys
2022-08-29 ⋅ Sekoia ⋅ Livia Tibirna, Quentin Bourgue, Threat & Detection Research Team
Traffers: a deep dive into the information stealer ecosystem
MetaStealer PrivateLoader Raccoon RedLine Stealer Vidar
2022-07-13 ⋅ KELA ⋅ KELA Cyber Intelligence Center
The Next Generation of Info Stealers
Arkei Stealer Azorult BlackGuard Eternity Stealer Ginzo Stealer Mars Stealer MetaStealer Raccoon RedLine Stealer Vidar
2022-05-20 ⋅ nccgroup ⋅ Peter Gurney
Metastealer – filling the Racoon void
MetaStealer
2022-04-06 ⋅ InfoSec Handlers Diary Blog ⋅ Brad Duncan
Windows MetaStealer Malware
MetaStealer
Yara Rules
[TLP:WHITE] win_metastealer_auto (20260917 | Detects win.metastealer.)
rule win_metastealer_auto {

    meta:
        author = "Felix Bilstein - yara-signator at cocacoding dot com"
        date = "2026-09-17"
        version = "1"
        description = "Detects win.metastealer."
        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.metastealer"
        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 = { ff75ec 56 e8???????? 83c40c 85c0 755c ffb64c020000 }
            // n = 7, score = 300
            //   ff75ec               | push                dword ptr [ebp - 0x14]
            //   56                   | push                esi
            //   e8????????           |                     
            //   83c40c               | add                 esp, 0xc
            //   85c0                 | test                eax, eax
            //   755c                 | jne                 0x5e
            //   ffb64c020000         | push                dword ptr [esi + 0x24c]

        $sequence_1 = { e9???????? 8b450c c70000000000 5e 5b 5f 8be5 }
            // n = 7, score = 300
            //   e9????????           |                     
            //   8b450c               | mov                 eax, dword ptr [ebp + 0xc]
            //   c70000000000         | mov                 dword ptr [eax], 0
            //   5e                   | pop                 esi
            //   5b                   | pop                 ebx
            //   5f                   | pop                 edi
            //   8be5                 | mov                 esp, ebp

        $sequence_2 = { ff33 e8???????? 8bf8 83c40c 85ff 7412 c64710a5 }
            // n = 7, score = 300
            //   ff33                 | push                dword ptr [ebx]
            //   e8????????           |                     
            //   8bf8                 | mov                 edi, eax
            //   83c40c               | add                 esp, 0xc
            //   85ff                 | test                edi, edi
            //   7412                 | je                  0x14
            //   c64710a5             | mov                 byte ptr [edi + 0x10], 0xa5

        $sequence_3 = { f7c300800000 0f8578000000 3b5de4 7317 c745e800000000 85c9 8b4de8 }
            // n = 7, score = 300
            //   f7c300800000         | test                ebx, 0x8000
            //   0f8578000000         | jne                 0x7e
            //   3b5de4               | cmp                 ebx, dword ptr [ebp - 0x1c]
            //   7317                 | jae                 0x19
            //   c745e800000000       | mov                 dword ptr [ebp - 0x18], 0
            //   85c9                 | test                ecx, ecx
            //   8b4de8               | mov                 ecx, dword ptr [ebp - 0x18]

        $sequence_4 = { e9???????? 3d00009942 0f8588010000 8b4318 8bca 8b731c 81e1ff0f0000 }
            // n = 7, score = 300
            //   e9????????           |                     
            //   3d00009942           | cmp                 eax, 0x42990000
            //   0f8588010000         | jne                 0x18e
            //   8b4318               | mov                 eax, dword ptr [ebx + 0x18]
            //   8bca                 | mov                 ecx, edx
            //   8b731c               | mov                 esi, dword ptr [ebx + 0x1c]
            //   81e1ff0f0000         | and                 ecx, 0xfff

        $sequence_5 = { ff730c 68???????? 8d45bc 50 e8???????? 83c428 c645fc10 }
            // n = 7, score = 300
            //   ff730c               | push                dword ptr [ebx + 0xc]
            //   68????????           |                     
            //   8d45bc               | lea                 eax, [ebp - 0x44]
            //   50                   | push                eax
            //   e8????????           |                     
            //   83c428               | add                 esp, 0x28
            //   c645fc10             | mov                 byte ptr [ebp - 4], 0x10

        $sequence_6 = { ff7320 ff731c 50 e8???????? 83c40c 5f 5e }
            // n = 7, score = 300
            //   ff7320               | push                dword ptr [ebx + 0x20]
            //   ff731c               | push                dword ptr [ebx + 0x1c]
            //   50                   | push                eax
            //   e8????????           |                     
            //   83c40c               | add                 esp, 0xc
            //   5f                   | pop                 edi
            //   5e                   | pop                 esi

        $sequence_7 = { ff15???????? 83c404 8d7e1c eb14 8b461c 8d7e1c 85c0 }
            // n = 7, score = 300
            //   ff15????????         |                     
            //   83c404               | add                 esp, 4
            //   8d7e1c               | lea                 edi, [esi + 0x1c]
            //   eb14                 | jmp                 0x16
            //   8b461c               | mov                 eax, dword ptr [esi + 0x1c]
            //   8d7e1c               | lea                 edi, [esi + 0x1c]
            //   85c0                 | test                eax, eax

        $sequence_8 = { f7d0 23f3 23d0 eb25 85ff 7f0d 7c04 }
            // n = 7, score = 300
            //   f7d0                 | not                 eax
            //   23f3                 | and                 esi, ebx
            //   23d0                 | and                 edx, eax
            //   eb25                 | jmp                 0x27
            //   85ff                 | test                edi, edi
            //   7f0d                 | jg                  0xf
            //   7c04                 | jl                  6

        $sequence_9 = { ff5108 8b472c 50 8b08 ff511c 8bc8 898d70ffffff }
            // n = 7, score = 300
            //   ff5108               | call                dword ptr [ecx + 8]
            //   8b472c               | mov                 eax, dword ptr [edi + 0x2c]
            //   50                   | push                eax
            //   8b08                 | mov                 ecx, dword ptr [eax]
            //   ff511c               | call                dword ptr [ecx + 0x1c]
            //   8bc8                 | mov                 ecx, eax
            //   898d70ffffff         | mov                 dword ptr [ebp - 0x90], ecx

    condition:
        7 of them and filesize < 26230784
}
[TLP:WHITE] win_metastealer_w0   (20230131 | MetaStealer Memory)
rule win_metastealer_w0 {
    meta:
        description = "MetaStealer Memory"
        author = "Peter Gurney"
        date = "2022-04-29"
        malpedia_reference = "https://malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de/details/win.metastealer"
        malpedia_rule_date = "20230119"
        malpedia_hash = ""
        malpedia_version = "20230131"
        malpedia_license = "CC BY-NC-SA 4.0"
        malpedia_sharing = "TLP:WHITE"
    strings:
        $str_c2_parse = {B8 56 55 55 55 F7 6D C4 8B C2 C1 E8 1F 03 C2 8B 55 C0 8D 04 40 2B 45 C4}
        $str_filename = ".xyz -newname hyper-v.exe" fullword wide
        $str_stackstring = {FF FF FF C7 85 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? C7 85 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? C7 85 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? C7 85 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? 66 0F EF}
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and
        2 of ($str_*)
}
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