Shiotob

Overview

Shiotob (extensively documented in threat intelligence literature under the names URLZone and Bebloh, with AV detections including Trojan:Win32/Shiotob and Trojan-Banker.Win32.Shiotob) is a landmark, highly sophisticated banking trojan and botnet platform first analyzed by Trusteer in 2009. Renowned for pioneering automated Man-in-the-Browser (MitB) financial manipulation, Shiotob dynamically injects into web browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox) to calculate available victim bank balances and initiate fraudulent money-mule wire transfers in real time. Crucially, Shiotob intercepts and alters the HTML response rendered on screen, rewriting the user's online transaction receipt and account balance so the victim sees no discrepancy while funds are stolen. It features custom polymorphic packers, encrypted C2 communications, and domain generation algorithms.

Known aliases

Threat reports may refer to this family under multiple names:

• Trojan:Win32/Shiotob
• Trojan-Banker.Win32.Shiotob
• URLZone
• Bebloh
• Win32/Shiotob

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: Urlzone / Bebloh Banking Platform

Known Derivatives & Downstream Variants: Urlzone.A · Bebloh.Gen · Shiotob.Japan

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:

• T1071.001: Implement web filtering and SSL/TLS inspection to detect malicious command and control (C2) traffic hiding in HTTP/HTTPS.
• T1185: Enforce strong MFA and use browser isolation or hardened browsers for sensitive financial or administrative portals to defeat session hijacking.

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.

• 77889900aabbccddeeff11223344556677889900aabbccddeeff112233445566
• 889900aabbccddeeff11223344556677889900aabbccddeeff11223344556677

Delivery vectors

• bank_statement_update_pdf.exe
• invoice_remittance_advice.docm

Persistence mechanisms

• HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ShiotobAgent

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_SHIOTOB_T1_ARTIFACT {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 1 Primitive Artifact: Raw string matches for Shiotob"
        tier = "T1 - Primitive Artifact"
        confidence = "Low-Medium (Fast Triage)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Threat Research Desk"
        date = "2026-10-14"
    strings:
        $s1 = "shiotob" ascii wide nocase
        $s2 = "trojan:win32/shiotob" ascii wide nocase
        $s3 = "trojan-banker.win32.shiotob" ascii wide nocase
        $s4 = "urlzone" ascii wide nocase
        $s5 = "bebloh" ascii wide nocase
        $s6 = "win32/shiotob" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}

title: SystemHelpDesk Detection - Shiotob (Banking Trojan) Execution & Triage
id: 80739d89-a9ea-509b-9ce0-2f8e7b47ad4a
status: production
description: Detects execution, defense evasion, and persistence behaviors associated
  with the Shiotob malware family. Detects recon staging, certutil file payload staging,
  and web-inject process proxying characteristic of banking trojan initial loaders.
references:
- https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/families/shiotob
- https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/defensive/banking-trojan-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.banking-trojan
- author.ricky-jordan
- source.systemhelpdesk-mfc
- attack.t1185
- attack.t1055
- attack.t1555_003
- attack.t1547_001
- attack.t1071_001
logsource:
  category: process_creation
  product: windows
detection:
  selection_process:
    Image|endswith:
    - \svchost.exe
    - \explorer.exe
    - \msiexec.exe
    - \certutil.exe
    CommandLine|contains:
    - -urlcache
    - -split -f
    - ipconfig /all
    - route print
    - netstat -ano
  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_SHIOTOB_T3_ATTRIBUTION {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 3 Attribution Fingerprint: Heuristic detection for Shiotob 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 = "shiotob" 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. Instantly isolate the endpoint from the network to halt the active Man-in-the-Browser interception and prevent further financial data exfiltration.
2. Do NOT trust any web session initiated from the infected machine; Shiotob actively alters the HTML presented to the user.
3. Assume all financial portals accessed from the machine are compromised; initiate mandatory password resets and contact relevant banking institutions immediately.
4. Due to the rootkit capabilities, formatting the hard drive and rebuilding the OS is the only guaranteed method of eradication.

What to Avoid

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

1. Do not rely on the victim's online bank statement to determine if funds were stolen; the malware actively falsifies this display.
2. Avoid relying solely on basic AV removal tools; they frequently fail to eradicate the underlying rootkit persistence mechanism.

References & External Analysis

• Microsoft Defender Security Intelligence - Trojan:Win32/Shiotob
• Trend Micro Threat Encyclopedia - Trojan.Win32.BEBLOH
• Search "shiotob" on VirusTotal (External Analysis)
• Search "shiotob" on Any.Run (Sandbox Sandbox)
• Search "shiotob" on MalwareBazaar (Malware Samples)

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Threats (Category: Banking Trojan)

Explore other documented threats in the same operational category:

• Bestafera
• Ursnif
• Icedid
• Trickster
• Sinowal
• Mekotio
• Dreambot
• Carberp

Machine-readable

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