{ "family": "gaofenquming", "sample_count": 1, "category": "advanced_threat", "description": "

Executive Summary

\nGaofenquming is an intrusive adware family and browser hijacker predominantly targeting users in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. It is designed to aggressively monetize infected systems by hijacking web traffic, altering browser configurations, and forcing users to interact with affiliate-linked search portals and advertisements.\n\n

Infection Vector and Technical Behavior

\nGaofenquming relies heavily on software bundling, often piggybacking on the installation of regional freeware, media players, or localized software utilities downloaded from third-party aggregators.\n\nUpon successful installation, Gaofenquming executes a series of unauthorized system modifications:\n\n\n

Privacy and Security Risks

\nBeyond the severe degradation of system performance and user experience, Gaofenquming poses a significant privacy risk. It continuously tracks search queries, browsing history, and IP address data, transmitting this telemetry to remote servers for targeted advertising and data brokering.\n\n

Remediation Guidelines

\n", "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk team.", "aliases": [ "Adware.Gaofenquming", "Hijacker.Gaofenquming", "PUP.Gaofenquming" ], "enrichment_level": "expert-seo", "faq": [ { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is Gaofenquming and what threat category does it belong to?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Gaofenquming is classified as a Advanced Threat. 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 Gaofenquming establish persistence and evade defensive controls?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Gaofenquming 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 Gaofenquming compromise?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Security teams responding to Gaofenquming 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 lateral movement and credential access tactics does Adware.Gaofenquming leverage in enterprise intrusions?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Adware.Gaofenquming frequently utilizes privileged account harvesting techniques such as LSASS memory dumping, Kerberoasting, and token impersonation to escalate privileges. Once administrative credentials are acquired, it pivots across the victim network utilizing living-off-the-land binaries (LOLBins) such as WMI, PowerShell remoting, and PsExec, or abuses remote desktop protocols (RDP) to reach critical internal repositories and domain controllers." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How does Adware.Gaofenquming maintain covert communications and evade perimeter network monitoring?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Adware.Gaofenquming often relies on multi-stage command and control (C2) architectures utilizing encrypted protocols over standard web ports (HTTPS/443 or DNS tunneling) to blend in with legitimate enterprise network traffic. Many variants incorporate proxy networks, domain fronting, or cloud services (such as Microsoft Graph API, Google Drive, or Telegram) to masquerade C2 channels, bypassing traditional signature-based egress filtering." } } ], "faq_count": 5, "mitre_attack": [ "T1566.002", "T1176", "T1112" ], "cisa_advisory": null, "last_updated": "2026-10-15", "type": "Browser Hijacker", "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": "T1566.002", "name": "Phishing: Spearphishing Link (Social engineering to force the user to download the tool)", "tactic": "Initial Access" }, { "id": "T1176", "name": "Browser Extensions", "tactic": "Persistence" }, { "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 Gaofenquming adversary activity.", "Perform full memory dumps across identified staging nodes to extract memory-only implants, kernel rootkit hooks, and decrypted Gaofenquming 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 Gaofenquming.", "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 Gaofenquming operators." ], "what_to_avoid": [ "Do not assume the incident is resolved simply because an antivirus tool removed the initial Gaofenquming 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 Gaofenquming until memory triage is complete.", "Do not delay host isolation; automated lateral movement and credential dumping can occur within minutes of initial execution." ], "target_platforms": [ "Windows 11", "Windows 10", "Windows Server 2022", "Windows Server 2019" ] }