{
  "family": "papras",
  "sample_count": 15,
  "category": "infostealer",
  "description": "Papras (classified across cybersecurity vendors as Trojan:Win32/Papras, PWS:Win32/Papras, and Trojan-PSW.Win32.Papras) is a modular password stealer and banking trojan family targeting Windows environments. Disseminated primarily via malicious spam attachments and exploit kits, Papras executes memory-resident credential scraping routines. It extracts stored user account credentials, autofill data, session cookies, and digital certificates from popular web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer/Edge) and email clients (Outlook, Thunderbird), as well as FTP clients (FileZilla, Total Commander). Papras injects its payload into legitimate processes (such as svchost.exe or explorer.exe) to evade security hooks, encrypting exfiltrated logs via RC4 or AES before transmitting them over HTTP/HTTPS to remote command-and-control servers.",
  "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk Threat Intelligence Team.",
  "aliases": [
    "Trojan:Win32/Papras",
    "PWS:Win32/Papras",
    "Trojan-PSW.Win32.Papras",
    "Win32/Papras",
    "Papras Stealer"
  ],
  "enrichment_level": "curated_sourced",
  "faq": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is Trojan:Win32/Papras?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Papras is a modular credential stealer and trojan that harvests passwords from browsers, email clients, and FTP applications."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How does Papras evade endpoint detection?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "It injects its malicious threads into trusted system processes like svchost.exe and encrypts exfiltrated traffic."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What applications are targeted by Papras for credential harvesting?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Outlook, Thunderbird, FileZilla, and Windows Vault."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How does Papras exfiltrate stolen credentials?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "It packages credentials into encrypted payloads and transmits them via HTTP/HTTPS POST requests to remote C2 infrastructure."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What should victims do if infected by Papras?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Isolate the endpoint, terminate unauthorized process injections, purge malware files, and immediately rotate all passwords."
      }
    }
  ],
  "faq_count": 5,
  "mitre_attack": [
    "T1555.003",
    "T1555.004",
    "T1055",
    "T1547.001",
    "T1041",
    "T1071.001"
  ],
  "cisa_advisory": null,
  "last_updated": "2026-10-15",
  "mitre_attack_detail": [
    {
      "id": "T1185",
      "name": "Man-in-the-Browser",
      "tactic": "Collection"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1111",
      "name": "Two-Factor Authentication Interception",
      "tactic": "Credential Access"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1055",
      "name": "Process Injection",
      "tactic": "Defense Evasion"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1498",
      "name": "Network Denial of Service",
      "tactic": "Impact"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1105",
      "name": "Ingress Tool Transfer",
      "tactic": "Command and Control"
    }
  ],
  "containment_steps": [
    "Instantly isolate the endpoint; the attacker possesses real-time capability to intercept web traffic and manipulate banking sessions.",
    "Initiate an immediate password reset for all financial, corporate, and personal accounts accessed from the infected machine, utilizing a clean device.",
    "Capture a forensic memory image (RAM dump) to extract the decrypted C2 addresses and the specific web inject configuration files (target lists).",
    "Perform a clean OS rebuild, as banking trojans often establish deep, redundant persistence mechanisms that are difficult to fully eradicate."
  ],
  "what_to_avoid": [
    "Do not allow the user to continue accessing financial portals while 'monitoring' the threat; the MitB capability intercepts traffic before encryption.",
    "Avoid ignoring sudden spikes in outbound network traffic, as the infected machine may be actively participating in a DDoS extortion campaign."
  ],
  "target_industries": [
    "Global / Opportunistic"
  ],
  "motivation": "Opportunistic",
  "threat_actors": [
    "Unknown / Cybercriminal"
  ],
  "target_geographies": [
    "Global"
  ],
  "attack_stage": [
    "execution",
    "persistence"
  ],
  "ecosystem": [
    "windows_pe"
  ],
  "is_emerging": false,
  "sources": [
    {
      "name": "Microsoft Defender Threat Encyclopedia - Trojan:Win32/Papras",
      "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/threats/malware-encyclopedia-description?Name=Trojan:Win32/Papras"
    },
    {
      "name": "Trend Micro Security Research - PWS.Win32.Papras Overview",
      "url": "https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/threat-encyclopedia/malware/pws.win32.papras"
    },
    {
      "name": "MITRE ATT&CK - Credentials from Password Stores: Web Browsers (T1555.003)",
      "url": "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1555/003/"
    }
  ],
  "target_platforms": [
    "Windows 11",
    "Windows 10",
    "Windows Server 2022",
    "Windows Server 2019"
  ]
}