{
  "family": "bypass",
  "sample_count": 1,
  "category": "infostealer",
  "description": "Bypass (classified in antivirus detection telemetry under designations including PWS:Win32/Bypass, PWS.Win32.Bypass, and Win32/Bypass) 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, Bypass 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": [
    "HackTool.Bypass",
    "Exploit.UACBypass",
    "Tool.Evasion",
    "Riskware.Bypass",
    "PWS:Win32/Bypass",
    "PWS.Win32.Bypass",
    "Win32/Bypass"
  ],
  "enrichment_level": "curated_sourced",
  "faq": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is PWS:Win32/Bypass?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Bypass is a infostealer threat designed to infiltrate Windows systems and execute unauthorized operations without user consent."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How does Bypass 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 Bypass 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 Bypass 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 Bypass?",
      "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": "2026-10-16",
  "type": "HackTool / Exploit (Evasion)",
  "target_industries": [
    "Healthcare",
    "Critical Infrastructure",
    "Enterprise"
  ],
  "motivation": "Financial Extortion",
  "threat_actors": [
    "Unknown / Cybercriminal"
  ],
  "target_geographies": [
    "Global"
  ],
  "attack_stage": [
    "defense_evasion",
    "impact"
  ],
  "ecosystem": [
    "windows_pe"
  ],
  "is_emerging": false,
  "mitre_attack_detail": [
    {
      "id": "T1548.002",
      "name": "Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism: Bypass User Account Control",
      "tactic": "Privilege Escalation"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1562.001",
      "name": "Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools",
      "tactic": "Defense Evasion"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1055",
      "name": "Process Injection",
      "tactic": "Defense Evasion"
    }
  ],
  "containment_steps": [
    "Immediately isolate affected host(s) from the internal network (disconnect physical Ethernet and disable Wi-Fi/Bluetooth) to prevent Bypass from spreading laterally or encrypting network-attached storage (NAS) and shared SMB volumes.",
    "Preserve volatile system memory (RAM capture) on a representative endpoint before attempting a reboot or power-down, as Bypass symmetric encryption keys or uncompiled payload components may still reside in memory.",
    "Audit process execution logs and terminate active scripting interpreters (e.g. PowerShell, CMD, WScript) or commands executing 'vssadmin.exe delete shadows' or 'wbadmin' used by Bypass to inhibit recovery.",
    "Investigate the initial compromise vector (such as exposed RDP instances, spearphishing attachments, or vulnerable edge gateways) and enforce an immediate credential reset for all compromised Active Directory accounts.",
    "Restore critical assets and databases exclusively from verified, air-gapped, or immutable offline backups once the Bypass binary and related persistence hooks are eradicated."
  ],
  "what_to_avoid": [
    "Do not restart or power cycle infected systems prematurely; doing so destroys volatile RAM encryption keys and may trigger bootloader locking logic embedded in Bypass.",
    "Avoid negotiating or paying the extortion demand without prior forensic evaluation and consultation with incident response specialists, as payment does not guarantee data recovery.",
    "Do not connect clean backup drives or external storage to the affected network until Bypass eradication is completely verified."
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "name": "Microsoft Defender Threat Encyclopedia - PWS:Win32/Bypass",
      "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/threats/malware-encyclopedia-description?Name=PWS:Win32/Bypass"
    },
    {
      "name": "Kaspersky Threat Intelligence - PWS.Win32.Bypass",
      "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"
  ]
}