Autohit

Overview

Autohit (classified in antivirus detection telemetry under designations including Trojan:Win32/Autohit, Trojan.Win32.Autohit, and Win32/Autohit) is a multi-stage trojan engineered to disguise itself as legitimate software, execute unauthorized commands, and coordinate with external command-and-control infrastructure. Disseminated across enterprise networks and consumer workstations via social engineering, phishing attachments, malicious drive-by downloads, or weaponized software cracks, Autohit executes an initial reconnaissance phase upon system ingress. The binary evaluates host privileges, detects active hypervisors and sandbox environments to evade behavioral analysis, and establishes resilient autostart persistence by configuring registry keys under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run or registering background Windows services. Operational mechanics characteristic of this family include deceptive executable masquerading, registry run key autostart, system telemetry gathering, and remote C2 beaconing. Outbound communication is established with remote threat actor infrastructure to beacon operational status and receive tasking, posing significant security risks to data integrity and host availability.

Known aliases

Threat reports may refer to this family under multiple names:

• Trojan:Win32/Autohit
• Trojan.Win32.Autohit
• Win32/Autohit

MITRE ATT&CK Techniques

Observed techniques used by this family, mapped to our technical analysis hubs and the official MITRE ATT&CK framework:

Tactical Mitigations

Based on the techniques used by this family, consider the following defensive strategies:

• T1071.001: Implement web filtering and SSL/TLS inspection to detect malicious command and control (C2) traffic hiding in HTTP/HTTPS.

MITRE D3FEND™ Defensive Countermeasures

Defensive techniques mapped to counter the offensive tradecraft observed in this family (via the MITRE D3FEND matrix):

Tiered Detection Rules (Cisco CAIRN Model)

Modern threat detection requires multi-layered rule engineering. We classify detections into three operational tiers based on signal fidelity:

rule MALWARE_WIN_AUTOHIT_T1_ARTIFACT {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 1 Primitive Artifact: Raw string matches for Autohit"
        tier = "T1 - Primitive Artifact"
        confidence = "Low-Medium (Fast Triage)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Threat Research Desk"
        date = "2026-10-14"
    strings:
        $s1 = "autohit" ascii wide nocase
        $s2 = "trojan:win32/autohit" ascii wide nocase
        $s3 = "trojan.win32.autohit" ascii wide nocase
        $s4 = "win32/autohit" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}

title: SystemHelpDesk Detection - Autohit (Trojan) Execution & Triage
id: 9f85283f-e6d2-55b7-8818-1ec19bca0f39
status: production
description: Detects execution, defense evasion, and persistence behaviors associated
  with the Autohit malware family. Detects suspicious execution from temporary user
  directories with hidden window flags and background transfer utilities.
references:
- https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/families/autohit
- https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/defensive/downloader-dropper-protection
- https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/
author: Ricky Jordan, Lead Threat Intelligence Analyst, SystemHelpDesk MSP
date: '2026-10-14'
modified: '2026-10-14'
tags:
- attack.trojan
- author.ricky-jordan
- source.systemhelpdesk-mfc
- attack.t1059_003
- attack.t1027
- attack.t1547_001
- attack.t1071_001
- attack.t1105
logsource:
  category: process_creation
  product: windows
detection:
  selection_process:
    Image|endswith:
    - \cmd.exe
    - \powershell.exe
    - \cscript.exe
    - \wscript.exe
    CommandLine|contains:
    - AppData\Local\Temp
    - -WindowStyle Hidden
    - /e:jscript
    - bitsadmin /transfer
  condition: selection_process
falsepositives:
- Legitimate enterprise administrative scripts during approved change windows
- Authorized IT software deployment utilities and backup management agents
level: medium

rule MALWARE_WIN_AUTOHIT_T3_ATTRIBUTION {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 3 Attribution Fingerprint: Heuristic detection for Autohit tradecraft"
        tier = "T3 - Attribution Fingerprint"
        confidence = "High (Confirmed Family Signature)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Threat Research Desk"
        date = "2026-10-14"
    strings:
        // Core family identifier & heuristic payload signatures
        $attrib_str = "autohit" ascii wide nocase
        $pe_magic = "MZ" ascii
        $net_marker = "http" ascii nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and ($attrib_str and $net_marker) and filesize < 15MB
}

Containment & Response Steps

Ordered checklist for responders. Adapt to your environment and engage professional support for active incidents.

1. Isolate the endpoint from the network to halt the generation of fraudulent traffic and conserve bandwidth.
2. Use Task Manager or Process Explorer to identify and terminate the hidden, resource-intensive browser processes.
3. Run a comprehensive anti-malware scan to remove the Autohit executable and its persistence mechanisms.
4. Review proxy logs to identify the domains targeted for click fraud and the C2 servers providing the URL lists, and block them.

What to Avoid

Common mistakes during response to this family that can destroy evidence, spread the infection, or worsen recovery.

1. Do not ignore instances of users complaining about slow internet speeds, as this is a primary symptom of a background clickbot infection.
2. Avoid treating click fraud malware purely as a nuisance; the same mechanisms used to deploy Autohit could be used to deploy ransomware.

References & External Analysis

• Microsoft Defender Threat Encyclopedia - Trojan:Win32/Autohit
• Kaspersky Threat Intelligence - Trojan.Win32.Autohit
• MITRE ATT&CK - Enterprise Techniques
• Search "autohit" on VirusTotal (External Analysis)
• Search "autohit" on Any.Run (Sandbox Sandbox)
• Search "autohit" on MalwareBazaar (Malware Samples)

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Threats (Category: Trojan)

Explore other documented threats in the same operational category:

• Phonerooter
• Smartfortress
• Confucius
• Lsslogger
• Autit
• Xrat
• Redsip
• Keyboy

Machine-readable

Get this profile as JSON: https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/api/autohit.json

Ecosystem & Interactive Environments

This profile is part of the Malware Families Catalog, a public dataset of 2,899 malware families. The catalog is also published across our ecosystem: Hugging Face, Kaggle, Zenodo, Replit, StackBlitz, CodeSandbox, and CodePen.