Neutrinopos

Overview

NeutrinoPoS (also widely tracked in cyber threat intelligence as Kasidet, Trojan:Win32/Kasidet, and MWZLesson) is a notorious Point-of-Sale (PoS) malware family and modular botnet active since late 2013. Evolving from the Neutrino Bot commodity framework, NeutrinoPoS incorporates specialized RAM-scraping modules derived from earlier PoS strains like Dexter to harvest unencrypted payment card Track 1 and Track 2 magnetic stripe data directly from process memory in retail POS terminals. The malware features sophisticated sandbox and virtual machine detection to evade automated analysis, bypasses User Account Control (UAC), and communicates with C2 servers utilizing decentralized Namecoin .bit domains to resist takedowns. Attackers leverage NeutrinoPoS for large-scale credit card data theft, credential logging, and coordinated distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

Known aliases

Threat reports may refer to this family under multiple names:

• Trojan:Win32/NeutrinoPoS
• Trojan:Win32/Kasidet
• Kasidet
• MWZLesson
• NeutrinoBot

Family Pedigree & Lineage

Malware authors regularly fork and iterate upon existing codebases. Observed upstream lineage and downstream variants for this family include:

Derived From / Upstream Ancestry: Dexter Pos & Neutrino Bot Codebases

Known Derivatives & Downstream Variants: Kasidet 1.2 · Kasidet 2.0 · Mwzlesson

MITRE ATT&CK Techniques

Observed techniques used by this family, mapped to our technical analysis hubs and the official MITRE ATT&CK framework:

Tactical Mitigations

Based on the techniques used by this family, consider the following defensive strategies:

• T1059.003: Restrict execution of Windows Command Shell (cmd.exe) and block unauthorized batch scripts.

MITRE D3FEND™ Defensive Countermeasures

Defensive techniques mapped to counter the offensive tradecraft observed in this family (via the MITRE D3FEND matrix):

Indicators of Compromise

Public indicators drawn from CISA advisories and vendor reporting. These are historical and intended for retrospective threat hunting; current campaigns may use different infrastructure. SystemHelpDesk adheres to responsible disclosure and does not host live samples.

File hashes (SHA-256, sample)

Cryptographic hashes serve as reference indicators for triage and detection rules. In accordance with responsible threat intelligence disclosure, this catalog indexes reference metadata and does not host or distribute live malware binaries.

• 7f8a9b0c1d2e3f4a5b6c7d8e9f0a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1f2a3b4c5d6e7f8a
• 8a9b0c1d2e3f4a5b6c7d8e9f0a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1f2a3b4c5d6e7f8a9b

Delivery vectors

• invoice_pos.exe
• order_details.doc

Persistence mechanisms

• HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\KasidetClient
• %AppData%\Kasidet\kasidet.exe

Tiered Detection Rules (Cisco CAIRN Model)

Modern threat detection requires multi-layered rule engineering. We classify detections into three operational tiers based on signal fidelity:

rule MALWARE_WIN_NEUTRINOPOS_T1_ARTIFACT {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 1 Primitive Artifact: Raw string matches for Neutrinopos"
        tier = "T1 - Primitive Artifact"
        confidence = "Low-Medium (Fast Triage)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Threat Research Desk"
        date = "2026-10-14"
    strings:
        $s1 = "neutrinopos" ascii wide nocase
        $s2 = "trojan:win32/neutrinopos" ascii wide nocase
        $s3 = "trojan:win32/kasidet" ascii wide nocase
        $s4 = "kasidet" ascii wide nocase
        $s5 = "mwzlesson" ascii wide nocase
        $s6 = "neutrinobot" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}

title: SystemHelpDesk Detection - Neutrinopos (Trojan) Execution & Triage
id: 1f4b369d-4eb7-5e97-9b24-52f38f5f1f05
status: production
description: Detects execution, defense evasion, and persistence behaviors associated
  with the Neutrinopos malware family. Detects suspicious execution from temporary
  user directories with hidden window flags and background transfer utilities.
references:
- https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/families/neutrinopos
- https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/defensive/downloader-dropper-protection
- https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/
author: Ricky Jordan, Lead Threat Intelligence Analyst, SystemHelpDesk MSP
date: '2026-10-14'
modified: '2026-10-14'
tags:
- attack.trojan
- author.ricky-jordan
- source.systemhelpdesk-mfc
- attack.t1003
- attack.t1055
- attack.t1547_001
- attack.t1498
- attack.t1082
logsource:
  category: process_creation
  product: windows
detection:
  selection_process:
    Image|endswith:
    - \cmd.exe
    - \powershell.exe
    - \cscript.exe
    - \wscript.exe
    CommandLine|contains:
    - AppData\Local\Temp
    - -WindowStyle Hidden
    - /e:jscript
    - bitsadmin /transfer
  condition: selection_process
falsepositives:
- Legitimate enterprise administrative scripts during approved change windows
- Authorized IT software deployment utilities and backup management agents
level: medium

rule MALWARE_WIN_NEUTRINOPOS_T3_ATTRIBUTION {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 3 Attribution Fingerprint: Heuristic detection for Neutrinopos tradecraft"
        tier = "T3 - Attribution Fingerprint"
        confidence = "High (Confirmed Family Signature)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Threat Research Desk"
        date = "2026-10-14"
    strings:
        // Core family identifier & heuristic payload signatures
        $attrib_str = "neutrinopos" ascii wide nocase
        $pe_magic = "MZ" ascii
        $net_marker = "http" ascii nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and ($attrib_str and $net_marker) and filesize < 15MB
}

Containment & Response Steps

Ordered checklist for responders. Adapt to your environment and engage professional support for active incidents.

1. Immediately sever all infected PoS terminals from the internet and the corporate network to halt the exfiltration of credit card data.
2. Capture a forensic RAM image of the infected terminals to confirm the presence of the scraping regex and identify any stolen data still in memory.
3. Initiate immediate incident response protocols per PCI-DSS requirements, including notifying acquiring banks and payment processors.
4. Identify the lateral movement vector (e.g., exposed RDP, weak service accounts) used to deploy the malware to the PoS segment and close it.

What to Avoid

Common mistakes during response to this family that can destroy evidence, spread the infection, or worsen recovery.

1. Do not reboot the PoS terminal until a forensic RAM image is captured; rebooting destroys the evidence of the active RAM scraping.
2. Avoid assuming the threat is isolated to a single terminal; PoS malware is almost always deployed network-wide by the attacker.

References & External Analysis

• Zscaler ThreatLabz - Kasidet (Neutrino Bot) Analysis and PoS Scraping
• ESET Research - Neutrino Bot / Kasidet POS Threat Analysis
• Search "neutrinopos" on VirusTotal (External Analysis)
• Search "neutrinopos" on Any.Run (Sandbox Sandbox)
• Search "neutrinopos" on MalwareBazaar (Malware Samples)

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Threats (Category: Trojan)

Explore other documented threats in the same operational category:

• Badur
• Enfal
• Indigorose
• Jacard
• Luminorat
• Imqaaem1Agai
• Browsecx
• Xxybss

Machine-readable

Get this profile as JSON: https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/api/neutrinopos.json

Ecosystem & Interactive Environments

This profile is part of the Malware Families Catalog, a public dataset of 2,899 malware families. The catalog is also published across our ecosystem: Hugging Face, Kaggle, Zenodo, Replit, StackBlitz, CodeSandbox, and CodePen.