{
  "family": "napolar",
  "sample_count": 2,
  "category": "trojan",
  "description": "Trojan:Win32/Napolar (also widely tracked as Solarbot) is a highly sophisticated banking trojan and botnet client that gained prominence around 2013. It is designed to establish deep persistence, steal financial credentials via web-injects (`T1185`), launch Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, and function as a modular platform for downloading additional payloads. Its sophisticated evasion techniques made it highly effective against traditional antivirus solutions.<br><br><b>Understanding Napolar (Advanced Botnets)</b><br>To an end-user, a Napolar infection is entirely invisible. For a security operations center (SOC), it is a critical threat indicating a complete loss of endpoint integrity. Napolar isn't just a credential stealer; it effectively turns the compromised host into a node in a global cybercriminal infrastructure, capable of launching attacks against third parties.<br><br><b>Execution and Evasion Mechanics</b><br>Napolar was distributed via exploit kits (like Blackhole) or malspam (`T1566.001`). Its defining characteristic is its aggressive defense evasion. Upon execution, it performs deep process injection (`T1055`), often utilizing advanced API unhooking techniques to bypass user-land EDR sensors. It injects into `explorer.exe` and web browser processes (Chrome, Firefox, IE). Once hooked into the browser, it performs form-grabbing and web-injects (`T1185`) to steal banking credentials as they are typed. It communicates with a Tor-hosted C2 server or uses DGA (Domain Generation Algorithms) (`T1568.002`) to receive commands, which may include downloading massive executable files to participate in HTTP/UDP flood DDoS attacks (`T1498`).<br><br><b>Indicators of Compromise & Impact</b><br>The primary impact is the catastrophic theft of financial data and the endpoint being co-opted for DDoS operations. Host-based IoCs are subtle due to advanced injection, but memory analysis will reveal unsigned DLLs loaded into core system processes. EDR may catch anomalous API unhooking attempts. Network IoCs include the browser processes making unexpected connections to Tor exit nodes (if not configured to do so) or massive, sudden spikes in outbound UDP traffic indicative of a DDoS attack.",
  "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk team.",
  "aliases": [],
  "enrichment_level": "expert-seo",
  "faq": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is Napolar and what threat category does it belong to?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Napolar 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 Napolar establish persistence and evade defensive controls?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Napolar 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 Napolar compromise?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Security teams responding to Napolar 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 Napolar?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Napolar 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 Napolar across enterprise endpoints?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Defenders should hunt for Napolar 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": [
    "T1568.002",
    "T1185",
    "T1498",
    "T1055"
  ],
  "cisa_advisory": null,
  "last_updated": "2026-06-09",
  "mitre_attack_detail": [
    {
      "id": "T1185",
      "name": "Browser Session Hijacking (Web-injects for credential theft)",
      "tactic": "Collection"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1055",
      "name": "Process Injection (Advanced injection and API unhooking)",
      "tactic": "Defense Evasion"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1498",
      "name": "Network Denial of Service (Participating in botnet DDoS attacks)",
      "tactic": "Impact"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1568.002",
      "name": "Dynamic Resolution: Domain Generation Algorithms (DGA for C2 resilience)",
      "tactic": "Command and Control"
    }
  ],
  "containment_steps": [
    "Immediately isolate the compromised endpoint; a Napolar infection means the host is actively controlled by an advanced threat actor.",
    "Do not attempt manual cleanup; the deep API hooks require a complete forensic wipe and operating system reinstallation.",
    "Contact affected financial institutions to freeze accounts and reverse transactions, assuming all banking credentials have been compromised.",
    "Analyze DNS logs for DGA-like requests to identify other potentially infected nodes on the enterprise network."
  ],
  "what_to_avoid": [
    "Do not trust the integrity of a system after a Napolar infection; its API unhooking capabilities render local AV scans unreliable.",
    "Avoid relying solely on static IP blocking for the C2; the botnet utilizes DGA and Tor to maintain connectivity."
  ],
  "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"
  ]
}