{
  "family": "onescan",
  "sample_count": 3,
  "category": "advanced_threat",
  "description": "Rogue:Win32/Onescan is a family of Rogue Antivirus (Scareware) programs designed to extort money from users through fear and deception. It mimics the appearance and behavior of legitimate security software, performing fake system 'scans' and displaying alarming, fabricated alerts regarding critical malware infections. It then demands that the user purchase a 'full license' to remove the non-existent threats.<br><br><b>Understanding Onescan (Scareware)</b><br>To an end-user, Onescan is terrifying. It frequently locks the desktop, prevents other programs from running, and bombards the screen with flashing red warnings about critical data loss or impending system failure. For a security analyst, Onescan is a Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP) that utilizes aggressive social engineering (`T1566.002`) and system hijacking (`T1562.001`) to commit fraud.<br><br><b>Execution and Hijacking Mechanics</b><br>Onescan is typically distributed via Drive-by Compromise (`T1189`), deceptive advertisements, or bundled with free software. Upon execution, it modifies the Windows Registry (`T1112`) to ensure it runs automatically on startup (`T1547.001`). Crucially, it attempts to Impair Defenses (`T1562.001`) by terminating legitimate antivirus processes, disabling the Windows Task Manager, and sometimes modifying the `hosts` file to block access to legitimate security vendor websites, ensuring the user cannot seek outside help.<br><br><b>Indicators of Compromise & Impact</b><br>The primary impact is financial loss for the victim and severe disruption of system usability. Host-based IoCs include the presence of unexpectedly installed software with generic security names (e.g., 'Antivirus Pro 2012', 'System Defender'), anomalous Registry modifications disabling the Task Manager or Registry Editor, and EDR alerts for a process attempting to terminate known security agent services.",
  "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk team.",
  "aliases": [],
  "enrichment_level": "expert-seo",
  "faq": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is Onescan and what threat category does it belong to?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Onescan 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 Onescan establish persistence and evade defensive controls?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Onescan 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 Onescan compromise?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Security teams responding to Onescan 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 Onescan leverage in enterprise intrusions?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Onescan 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 Onescan maintain covert communications and evade perimeter network monitoring?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Onescan 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": [
    "T1547.001",
    "T1562.001",
    "T1189",
    "T1112"
  ],
  "cisa_advisory": null,
  "last_updated": "2026-06-09",
  "mitre_attack_detail": [
    {
      "id": "T1562.001",
      "name": "Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools (Killing legitimate AV)",
      "tactic": "Defense Evasion"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1112",
      "name": "Modify Registry (Disabling Task Manager)",
      "tactic": "Defense Evasion"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1547.001",
      "name": "Boot or Logon Autostart Execution",
      "tactic": "Persistence"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1189",
      "name": "Drive-by Compromise (Malvertising distribution)",
      "tactic": "Initial Access"
    }
  ],
  "containment_steps": [
    "Boot the infected system into Safe Mode with Networking to bypass the Rogue AV's auto-start mechanisms and regaining access to the desktop.",
    "Use a reputable, standalone antimalware scanner (run from a USB drive if necessary) to detect and remove the Onescan executables.",
    "Restore the Windows Registry settings, specifically re-enabling the Task Manager and Registry Editor.",
    "Check the `hosts` file (`C:\\Windows\\System32\\drivers\\etc\\hosts`) and remove any malicious entries blocking access to security vendors."
  ],
  "what_to_avoid": [
    "Do not enter any credit card information or attempt to 'purchase' the software; it will not fix the computer and the financial data will be stolen.",
    "Avoid assuming a simple uninstall will work; Rogue AVs often aggressively defend their files and registry keys."
  ],
  "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 Server 2022",
    "Windows Server 2019"
  ]
}