{
  "family": "meikehuayi",
  "sample_count": 1,
  "category": "ransomware",
  "description": "<h3>Executive Summary</h3>\nMeikehuayi is an aggressive Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP) and Adware application, frequently originating from Chinese software development networks. It masquerades as a legitimate system utility, media player, or browser enhancement, but its primary function is to forcefully inject advertisements, hijack browser settings, and heavily monetize the infected endpoint through affiliate traffic generation.\n\n<h3>Infection Vector and Technical Capabilities</h3>\nMeikehuayi relies almost entirely on deceptive software bundling. Users typically encounter it when downloading \"free\" software, game mods, or cracked applications from unofficial, localized web portals. The adware is installed silently in the background during the primary software's setup process.\n\nOnce installed, the software employs highly aggressive tactics:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Aggressive Browser Hijacking:</strong> The software installs persistent extensions and Browser Helper Objects (BHOs) across all installed web browsers. It forcefully modifies the default homepage, search engine, and new tab page to route traffic through localized shopping portals or affiliate search engines.</li>\n<li><strong>System Watchdogs and Rootkit Tactics:</strong> Meikehuayi is notorious for its difficult uninstallation process. It frequently installs background \"watchdog\" services that actively monitor the registry and browser settings. If a user attempts to change their homepage back to Google, the watchdog service instantly reverts the change back to the malicious portal.</li>\n<li><strong>Ad Injection and Overlay:</strong> It injects its own JavaScript into legitimate websites, overlaying pages with intrusive pop-up ads, sliding banners, and embedded video advertisements, significantly degrading system performance.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<h3>Threat Assessment</h3>\nWhile Meikehuayi is generally not classified as destructive malware (like ransomware), it poses a severe threat to system stability, user productivity, and privacy. The aggressive persistence mechanisms cause significant IT overhead, and the constant ad injection consumes massive CPU and RAM resources.\n\n<h3>Incident Response and Remediation</h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Safe Mode and Process Termination:</strong> Due to the aggressive watchdog services, it is often necessary to boot the infected machine into Windows \"Safe Mode\" to prevent the adware's defense mechanisms from launching before attempting uninstallation.</li>\n<li><strong>Targeted Anti-Malware Scan:</strong> Standard antivirus often ignores PUPs. Utilize a reputable enterprise anti-malware solution (specifically tuned for Adware removal) to scan for and remove the deeply embedded registry keys and scheduled tasks.</li>\n<li><strong>Browser Factory Reset:</strong> Following the removal of the underlying files, a full factory reset of all installed web browsers is absolutely required to purge the malicious extensions and hijacked settings.</li>\n</ul>",
  "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk team.",
  "aliases": [
    "Adware.Meikehuayi",
    "PUP.Meike",
    "Win32/Adware.Hijacker"
  ],
  "enrichment_level": "expert-seo",
  "faq": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is Meikehuayi and what threat category does it belong to?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Meikehuayi is classified as a Ransomware. 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 Meikehuayi establish persistence and evade defensive controls?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Meikehuayi 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 Meikehuayi compromise?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Security teams responding to Meikehuayi 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 cryptographic algorithms and file targeting techniques does Adware.Meikehuayi employ during execution?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Adware.Meikehuayi typically leverages hybrid cryptographic architectures combining symmetric stream or block ciphers (such as AES-256 or ChaCha20) for rapid file encryption with asymmetric algorithms (such as RSA-2048 or Curve25519) to securely protect the session keys. It aggressively targets sensitive file extensions including corporate documents, databases, virtual disks, and backups while systematically executing commands to delete Volume Shadow Copies (vssadmin delete shadows /all /quiet) and disable system recovery options."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Are decryptors available for Adware.Meikehuayi, and what is the recommended recovery procedure?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Decryption availability for Adware.Meikehuayi depends on whether security researchers or law enforcement (such as the No More Ransom initiative) have recovered the master private keys or discovered flaws in its key generation routines. Victims should never pay the extortion demand, as payment fuels criminal operations without guaranteeing file restoration. The recommended recovery procedure entails isolating infected hosts, conducting forensic disk imaging, identifying the root access vector, and restoring validated systems from immutable offline backups."
      }
    }
  ],
  "faq_count": 5,
  "mitre_attack": [
    "T1185",
    "T1176",
    "T1546.015"
  ],
  "cisa_advisory": null,
  "last_updated": "2026-10-15",
  "type": "Adware / PUP",
  "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": "T1185",
      "name": "Browser Session Hijacking (Ad injection and tracking)",
      "tactic": "Collection"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1176",
      "name": "Browser Extensions",
      "tactic": "Persistence"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1546.015",
      "name": "Event Triggered Execution: Component Object Model Hijacking",
      "tactic": "Privilege Escalation"
    }
  ],
  "containment_steps": [
    "Immediately isolate affected host(s) from the internal network (disconnect physical Ethernet and disable Wi-Fi/Bluetooth) to prevent Meikehuayi 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 Meikehuayi 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 Meikehuayi 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 Meikehuayi 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 Meikehuayi.",
    "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 Meikehuayi eradication is completely verified."
  ],
  "target_platforms": [
    "Windows 11",
    "Windows 10",
    "Windows Server 2022",
    "Windows Server 2019"
  ]
}