Urelas

Overview

Trojan:Win32/Urelas is a specialized information stealer and credential extraction trojan engineered to harvest authentication credentials, session cookies, and stored account databases across web browsers, email clients, and online gaming and e-commerce platforms. Disguised frequently as software key generators, game modifications, or media converters distributed over peer-to-peer (P2P) file networks and forums, Urelas installs silent keyboard hooks to capture typed login details in real time. It scans local drives for SQLite credential caches and wallet configurations, compresses harvested surveillance data into encrypted archive packets, and exfiltrates them to attacker command nodes via HTTP POST beacons while occasionally downloading secondary monetization modules.

Known aliases

Threat reports may refer to this family under multiple names:

• Urelas
• Trojan:Win32/Urelas
• Trojan.Urelas
• Win32/Urelas
• Infostealer.Urelas
• Trojan.Win32.Urelas

Threat Actor Attribution

Attribution is probabilistic, not a science. Each link below states its confidence level and the evidence behind it.

• Underground Cybercrime Actors High confidence
  Basis:

Family Pedigree & Lineage

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

Known Derivatives & Downstream Variants: Urelas.A · Urelas Gaming Stealer · Urelas Browser Credential Build

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.
• T1105: Implement network intrusion detection systems (NIDS) and host-based firewalls to block unauthorized inbound or outbound file transfers.
• T1113: Monitor for frequent or unauthorized screen captures or clipboard reads. Restrict background applications from accessing desktop APIs.

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-2012-0158 — In-depth exploitation analysis and catalog intelligence (NIST NVD ↗).
• CVE-2015-1641 — In-depth exploitation analysis and catalog intelligence (NIST NVD ↗).

Command & Control (C2) and Network Profile

How this family talks to its operators. C2 traffic can often identify a family even when its code and configuration are hard to analyse. Ports and patterns are historical and change between campaigns, so use them as hunting leads rather than block-only rules.

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.

• 3d4e5f6a7b8091a2b3c4d5e6f708192a3b4c5d6e7f8091a2b3c4d5e6f708192a
• 0b1c2d3e4f5a6b7c8d9e0f1a2b3c4d5e6f7a8b9c0d1e2f3a4b5c6d7e8f9a0b1c

Delivery vectors

• p2p_pirated_software_torrents
• trojanized_game_cheat_utilities

Persistence mechanisms

• HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
• AppData directory hidden log files

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_URELAS_T1_ARTIFACT {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 1 Primitive Artifact: Raw string matches for Urelas"
        tier = "T1 - Primitive Artifact"
        confidence = "Low-Medium (Fast Triage)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Threat Research Desk"
        date = "2026-10-14"
    strings:
        $s1 = "urelas" ascii wide nocase
        $s2 = "urelas" ascii wide nocase
        $s3 = "trojan:win32/urelas" ascii wide nocase
        $s4 = "trojan.urelas" ascii wide nocase
        $s5 = "win32/urelas" ascii wide nocase
        $s6 = "infostealer.urelas" ascii wide nocase
        $s7 = "trojan.win32.urelas" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}

title: SystemHelpDesk Detection - Urelas (Infostealer) Execution & Triage
id: 9362b575-4bde-5a36-8b07-95f76b754459
status: production
description: Detects execution, defense evasion, and persistence behaviors associated
  with the Urelas malware family. Detects browser credential database harvesting,
  master key queries, and DPAPI extraction routines typical of modern infostealers.
references:
- https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/families/urelas
- https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/defensive/infostealer-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.infostealer
- author.ricky-jordan
- source.systemhelpdesk-mfc
- attack.t1555
- attack.t1056_001
- attack.t1113
- attack.t1071_001
- attack.t1547_001
logsource:
  category: process_creation
  product: windows
detection:
  selection_process:
    Image|endswith:
    - \cmd.exe
    - \powershell.exe
    - \rundll32.exe
    CommandLine|contains:
    - \Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Login Data
    - \AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
    - \AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge\User Data
    - vaultcmd.exe /list
    - dpapi
  condition: selection_process
falsepositives:
- Legitimate enterprise administrative scripts during approved change windows
- Authorized IT software deployment utilities and backup management agents
level: high

rule MALWARE_WIN_URELAS_T3_ATTRIBUTION {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 3 Attribution Fingerprint: Heuristic detection for Urelas 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 = "urelas" 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 compromised endpoints to prevent exfiltration of captured credentials to attacker C2 servers.
2. Enforce a mandatory password reset for all personal and corporate accounts accessed from the infected workstation.
3. Audit web browser password caches and invalidate active SSO session cookies.
4. Deploy endpoint detection rules preventing execution of unverified binaries from temporary user directories.

What to Avoid

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

1. Do not allow users to execute pirated software cracks or unauthorized gaming modifications on enterprise devices.
2. Avoid saving master enterprise credentials in web browser password management caches.
3. Never bypass antivirus warnings when running downloaded third-party key generator utilities.

References & External Analysis

• Microsoft Security Intelligence: Trojan:Win32/Urelas Technical Overview
• Trend Micro Security Intelligence: Infostealer.Urelas Assessment
• NIST National Vulnerability Database CVE-2015-1641
• Search "urelas" on VirusTotal (External Analysis)
• Search "urelas" on Any.Run (Sandbox Sandbox)
• Search "urelas" on MalwareBazaar (Malware Samples)

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Threats (Category: Infostealer)

Explore other documented threats in the same operational category:

• Ardamax
• Pony
• Qqpass
• Universal1337
• Lumma
• Khalesi
• Browserpwdstealer
• Wsgame

Machine-readable

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