{
  "family": "dnschange",
  "sample_count": 5,
  "category": "trojan",
  "description": "Trojan:Win32/Dnschange (referencing the infamous **DNSChanger** malware class) is a severe threat designed to silently hijack a victim's web traffic by altering the machine's Domain Name System (DNS) settings at the operating system or router level. By pointing the victim's DNS resolution to rogue servers controlled by the attacker, all web requests (e.g., typing `google.com` or `chase.com`) are transparently redirected to malicious sites, phishing clones, or advertising farms.<br><br><b>Understanding the DNSChanger Threat</b><br>To an end-user, a DNSChanger infection is often insidious. The internet still 'works', but they may notice excessive pop-up ads, warnings about invalid SSL certificates, or their search results being subtly altered to prioritize malicious links. For a SOC analyst, unauthorized modification of network adapter DNS settings is a critical compromise that allows the attacker a Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) position over all endpoint traffic.<br><br><b>Execution and DNS Hijacking Mechanics</b><br>Dnschange is typically distributed via drive-by downloads (`T1189`) or bundled within deceptive software installers. Upon execution with administrative privileges (`T1204.002`), the malware queries the Windows Registry or uses `netsh` commands (`T1562.001`) to modify the `NameServer` parameters of the active network adapters. It replaces the legitimate ISP or corporate DNS IPs (e.g., `8.8.8.8`) with the IPs of the attacker's rogue DNS infrastructure (`T1565.001`). Some advanced variants also attempt to access the local home router using default credentials (e.g., `admin/admin`) to change the DNS settings at the hardware level, affecting every device on the local network (`T1498.001`).<br><br><b>Indicators of Compromise & Impact</b><br>The primary impact is the silent interception of web traffic, mass ad-fraud, and credential theft via perfect phishing replicas. Host-based IoCs include EDR alerts for `netsh.exe` or `ipconfig.exe /flushdns` being executed by unexpected parent processes, or unauthorized modifications to the `HKLM\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\Tcpip\\Parameters\\Interfaces` registry keys. Network IoCs include all DNS traffic (UDP Port 53) being routed to unknown, untrusted IP addresses located in foreign jurisdictions.",
  "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk team.",
  "aliases": [],
  "enrichment_level": "expert-seo",
  "faq": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is Dnschange and what threat category does it belong to?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Dnschange is classified as a Trojan. Documented across security telemetry, it is engineered to execute unauthorized operations, establish persistent footholds on target endpoints, and facilitate malicious campaigns targeting enterprise and individual environments."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How does Dnschange establish persistence and evade defensive controls?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Dnschange typically establishes persistence through registry run keys, scheduled tasks, or service installations, while evading signature-based antivirus solutions through code obfuscation, memory injection, or anti-analysis sandbox checks."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What are the essential incident response steps for mitigating a Dnschange compromise?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Security teams responding to Dnschange should immediately isolate affected endpoints from the network, perform memory triage to capture volatile forensic artifacts, audit registry and startup persistence mechanisms, revoke exposed user credentials, and restore systems from verified, clean backups."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What secondary payloads and staging behaviors are commonly associated with Dnschange?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Dnschange frequently operates as a loader or dropper designed to establish a foothold before downloading and executing secondary high-impact malware payloads. Depending on the threat actor's objectives, these dropped modules can range from ransomware and banking injects to modular infostealers and remote management backdoors."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How can security operations teams effectively detect and hunt for Dnschange across enterprise endpoints?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Defenders should hunt for Dnschange by deploying behavioral endpoint detection and response (EDR) rules that monitor suspicious process spawning (such as cmd.exe or powershell.exe spawned from office documents or temporary directories), anomalous outbound network connections from non-browser binaries, and unauthorized modifications to Windows Run keys and scheduled task registries."
      }
    }
  ],
  "faq_count": 5,
  "mitre_attack": [
    "T1565.001",
    "T1556",
    "T1562.001",
    "T1498.001"
  ],
  "cisa_advisory": null,
  "last_updated": "2026-06-09",
  "mitre_attack_detail": [
    {
      "id": "T1565.001",
      "name": "Data Manipulation: Stored Data Manipulation (Altering DNS IP settings)",
      "tactic": "Impact"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1562.001",
      "name": "Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools (Bypassing local security controls)",
      "tactic": "Defense Evasion"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1498.001",
      "name": "Network Denial of Service: Direct Network Flood (Hijacking router configs)",
      "tactic": "Impact"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1556",
      "name": "Modify Authentication Process (Redirecting to phishing sites)",
      "tactic": "Credential Access"
    }
  ],
  "containment_steps": [
    "Open the Windows Network Connections control panel, inspect the TCP/IPv4 properties of the active adapter, and manually reset the DNS server addresses to 'Obtain DNS server address automatically' or the corporate standard.",
    "Run `ipconfig /flushdns` in an elevated command prompt to clear the poisoned local DNS cache.",
    "If the infection occurred on a home network, instruct the user to immediately change their Wi-Fi router's administrator password and verify the router's DNS settings have not been tampered with.",
    "Perform a full AV/EDR scan, as DNSChangers are often used to block the victim from reaching antivirus update servers, leaving them vulnerable to secondary payloads."
  ],
  "what_to_avoid": [
    "Do not assume a user typing a URL is actually going to that domain if DNS is hijacked; verify the resolved IP address.",
    "Avoid simply removing the malware executable; you must manually repair the TCP/IP settings, or the machine will lose internet access entirely when the rogue DNS servers are inevitably taken down by law enforcement."
  ],
  "target_industries": [
    "Global / Opportunistic"
  ],
  "motivation": "Opportunistic",
  "threat_actors": [
    "Unknown / Cybercriminal"
  ],
  "target_geographies": [
    "Global"
  ],
  "attack_stage": [
    "execution",
    "persistence"
  ],
  "ecosystem": [
    "windows_pe"
  ],
  "is_emerging": false,
  "target_platforms": [
    "Windows 11",
    "Windows 10",
    "Windows 7"
  ]
}