Kasidet

Overview

Kasidet (cataloged across threat research as Neutrino Bot, Win32/Kasidet, Trojan.Kasidet, and Backdoor:Win32/Kasidet) is a sophisticated modular Windows botnet agent, backdoor, and Point-of-Sale (POS) memory scraper that emerged in late 2013. Designed for multi-purpose cybercriminal campaigns, Kasidet incorporates aggressive anti-analysis and anti-virtual machine evasion routines to defeat sandbox analysis before establishing persistent command-and-control connectivity. Its specialized memory-scraping module searches running process memory for Track 1 and Track 2 magnetic stripe payment card structures using regular expressions. In addition to payment card theft, Kasidet provides attackers with keylogging, browser form grabbing, remote shell execution, DDoS flood attacks (HTTP, UDP, SYN), and secondary payload staging. Threat actors frequently distribute Kasidet via spear-phishing emails containing malicious Microsoft Office attachments that exploit memory corruption and equation editor vulnerabilities.

Known aliases

Threat reports may refer to this family under multiple names:

• Neutrino Bot
• Win32/Kasidet
• Trojan.Kasidet
• Backdoor:Win32/Kasidet
• NeutrinoPOS

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: Neutrino Botnet Engine

Known Derivatives & Downstream Variants: Kasidet V3.2 · Kasidet V3.9 · Neutrinopos

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:

• T1056.001: Implement Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) to monitor for suspicious API calls related to keystroke interception. Enforce Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to render stolen passwords useless.
• T1071.001: Implement web filtering and SSL/TLS inspection to detect malicious command and control (C2) traffic hiding in HTTP/HTTPS.

MITRE D3FEND™ Defensive Countermeasures

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

Exploited Vulnerabilities (CVEs)

This malware family is documented weaponizing the following common vulnerabilities and exposures:

• CVE-2017-11882 — In-depth exploitation analysis and catalog intelligence (NIST NVD ↗).
• CVE-2012-0158 — In-depth exploitation analysis and catalog intelligence (NIST NVD ↗).

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.

• 8d9e0f1a2b3c4d5e6f7a8b9c0d1e2f3a4b5c6d7e8f9a0b1c2d3e4f5a6b7c8d9e
• 3c4d5e6f7a8b9c0d1e2f3a4b5c6d7e8f9a0b1c2d3e4f5a6b7c8d9e0f1a2b3c4d

Delivery vectors

• Spear-phishing emails delivering malicious RTF and Word documents exploiting CVE-2017-11882
• Drive-by compromise via malicious web links distributing Neutrino loader stubs

Persistence mechanisms

• HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\KasidetBot
• Scheduled task configured via schtasks to relaunch the loader from %APPDATA%\Kasidet

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_KASIDET_T1_ARTIFACT {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 1 Primitive Artifact: Raw string matches for Kasidet"
        tier = "T1 - Primitive Artifact"
        confidence = "Low-Medium (Fast Triage)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Threat Research Desk"
        date = "2026-10-14"
    strings:
        $s1 = "kasidet" ascii wide nocase
        $s2 = "neutrino bot" ascii wide nocase
        $s3 = "win32/kasidet" ascii wide nocase
        $s4 = "trojan.kasidet" ascii wide nocase
        $s5 = "backdoor:win32/kasidet" ascii wide nocase
        $s6 = "neutrinopos" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}

title: SystemHelpDesk Detection - Kasidet (Pos Malware) Execution & Triage
id: 2f4177ec-5fe5-5da7-8261-0c83088f8bef
status: production
description: Detects execution, defense evasion, and persistence behaviors associated
  with the Kasidet 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/kasidet
- https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/defensive/ransomware-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.pos-malware
- author.ricky-jordan
- source.systemhelpdesk-mfc
- attack.t1056_001
- attack.t1005
- attack.t1071_001
- attack.t1547_001
- attack.t1498
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_KASIDET_T3_ATTRIBUTION {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 3 Attribution Fingerprint: Heuristic detection for Kasidet 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 = "kasidet" 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. Isolate POS terminals and infected endpoints from internal cardholder data networks immediately.
2. Terminate active Kasidet bot processes and injected host processes.
3. Remove persistence keys under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
4. Report potential payment card data exposure to card brand merchant risk programs and payment processors.

What to Avoid

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

1. Do not allow direct internet browsing or unmonitored outbound HTTP/HTTPS from dedicated POS checkout systems.
2. Avoid running Point-of-Sale systems without strict process allowlisting and network segmentation.

References & External Analysis

• McAfee ATR - Kasidet / Neutrino Bot Analysis
• Kaspersky Securelist - POS RAM Scraping Threats
• NIST National Vulnerability Database - CVE-2017-11882
• Search "kasidet" on VirusTotal (External Analysis)
• Search "kasidet" on Any.Run (Sandbox Sandbox)
• Search "kasidet" on MalwareBazaar (Malware Samples)

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Threats (Category: Pos Malware)

Explore other documented threats in the same operational category:

• Hydrapos

Machine-readable

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