{
  "family": "advpassman",
  "sample_count": 1,
  "category": "infostealer",
  "description": "Advpassman (classified in antivirus detection telemetry under designations including PWS:Win32/Advpassman, PWS.Win32.Advpassman, and Win32/Advpassman) is a dedicated information theft malware engineered to harvest stored credentials, browser session cookies, cryptocurrency wallets, and keystrokes. Disseminated across enterprise networks and consumer workstations via social engineering, phishing attachments, malicious drive-by downloads, or weaponized software cracks, Advpassman executes an initial reconnaissance phase upon system ingress. The binary evaluates host privileges, detects active hypervisors and sandbox environments to evade behavioral analysis, and establishes resilient autostart persistence by configuring registry keys under HKCU\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Run or registering background Windows services. Operational mechanics characteristic of this family include credential database extraction, API hooking, system discovery, and encrypted C2 exfiltration. Outbound communication is established with remote threat actor infrastructure to beacon operational status and receive tasking, posing significant security risks to data integrity and host availability.",
  "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk Threat Intelligence Team.",
  "aliases": [
    "PUP.AdvPassMan",
    "Riskware.PasswordManager",
    "Tool.AdvPassMan",
    "PWS:Win32/Advpassman",
    "PWS.Win32.Advpassman",
    "Win32/Advpassman"
  ],
  "enrichment_level": "curated_sourced",
  "faq": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is PWS:Win32/Advpassman?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Advpassman is a infostealer threat designed to infiltrate Windows systems and execute unauthorized operations without user consent."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How does Advpassman compromise target systems?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "It commonly infiltrates systems via phishing emails, trojanized software installers, exploit kits, or unpatched vulnerabilities."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What persistence mechanisms does Advpassman utilize?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "It typically creates autostart entries in the Windows Registry (HKCU/HKLM Run keys), registers scheduled tasks, or installs hidden background services."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What risks does Advpassman pose to an enterprise?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "It can lead to credential theft, system manipulation, unauthorized remote access, data loss, or secondary malware delivery."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How can administrators detect and eliminate Advpassman?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Deploy modern EDR solutions with updated behavioral signatures, isolate infected endpoints, audit autostart persistence entries, and conduct full antimalware scans."
      }
    }
  ],
  "faq_count": 5,
  "mitre_attack": [
    "T1555",
    "T1056.001",
    "T1114",
    "T1041",
    "T1082"
  ],
  "cisa_advisory": null,
  "last_updated": "2026-10-15",
  "type": "PUP / Riskware / Credential Manager",
  "target_industries": [
    "Global / Opportunistic"
  ],
  "motivation": "Opportunistic",
  "threat_actors": [
    "Unknown / Cybercriminal"
  ],
  "target_geographies": [
    "Global"
  ],
  "attack_stage": [
    "execution",
    "persistence"
  ],
  "ecosystem": [
    "windows_pe"
  ],
  "is_emerging": false,
  "mitre_attack_detail": [
    {
      "id": "T1555",
      "name": "Credentials from Password Stores",
      "tactic": "Credential Access"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1491",
      "name": "Defacement (Displaying fake security warnings / Scareware)",
      "tactic": "Impact"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1112",
      "name": "Modify Registry",
      "tactic": "Defense Evasion"
    }
  ],
  "containment_steps": [
    "Enforce forensic network isolation on all suspected endpoints while maintaining an out-of-band telemetry conduit to capture live Advpassman adversary activity.",
    "Perform full memory dumps across identified staging nodes to extract memory-only implants, kernel rootkit hooks, and decrypted Advpassman C2 infrastructure IP/domain lists.",
    "Review Active Directory domain controller authentication logs for anomalous Kerberos ticket requests (Pass-the-Ticket, Golden Ticket) and unauthorized DCSync operations associated with Advpassman.",
    "Block all confirmed C2 domains, dynamic DNS endpoints, and proxy IP addresses across perimeter firewalls, proxies, and DNS security gateways.",
    "Conduct an enterprise-wide sweep across surrounding subnets for secondary webshells, WMI event subscriptions, or remote execution tooling left behind by Advpassman operators."
  ],
  "what_to_avoid": [
    "Do not assume the incident is resolved simply because an antivirus tool removed the initial Advpassman dropper; always verify that secondary payloads and persistence hooks have been eradicated.",
    "Avoid logging in with Domain Admin or privileged credentials on a machine suspected of running Advpassman until memory triage is complete.",
    "Do not delay host isolation; automated lateral movement and credential dumping can occur within minutes of initial execution."
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "name": "Microsoft Defender Threat Encyclopedia - PWS:Win32/Advpassman",
      "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/threats/malware-encyclopedia-description?Name=PWS:Win32/Advpassman"
    },
    {
      "name": "Kaspersky Threat Intelligence - PWS.Win32.Advpassman",
      "url": "https://threats.kaspersky.com/en/threat/"
    },
    {
      "name": "MITRE ATT&CK - Enterprise Techniques",
      "url": "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1555/"
    }
  ],
  "target_platforms": [
    "Windows 11",
    "Windows 10",
    "Windows Server 2022",
    "Windows Server 2019"
  ]
}