Woool

Overview

Trojan:Win32/Woool (often associated with variants targeting 'Legend of Mir' or 'World of Warcraft') is a highly specialized Password Stealer / Keylogger designed explicitly to target players of online MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games). The objective is to steal account credentials, in-game currency, and high-value virtual items, which the attackers then sell on grey-market forums for real-world fiat currency.

Understanding Woool (Gaming Credential Stealer)
To an end-user, the infection may cause slight system sluggishness or unexpected game crashes, culminating in a hijacked gaming account. For a security analyst, while this malware targets consumers, its presence on a corporate network indicates a severe violation of acceptable use policies and represents a massive endpoint security failure, as the same keylogging techniques (`T1056.001`) that steal a WoW password will easily capture corporate VPN credentials.

Execution and Theft Mechanics
Woool is frequently distributed via malicious 'game cheat' forums, fake game patches, or bundled with pirated gaming software (`T1189`). Upon execution, it establishes persistence via the registry (`T1547.001`). The trojan operates by hooking into the Windows messaging subsystem or dropping a custom driver to monitor keystrokes globally. However, it often specifically targets the memory space (`T1003.001` - applied to game processes) of specific game executables (e.g., `wow.exe`) to scrape credentials and session tokens directly as the user logs in.

Indicators of Compromise & Impact
The impact is the total compromise of targeted gaming accounts and the potential capture of unrelated passwords if the user reuses credentials. Host-based IoCs include the presence of anomalous dropped files in the `%AppData%` or game installation directories, unexpected API hooking detected by EDR, and registry modifications. Network IoCs include outbound connections to known credential-drop servers, often hosted in regions with lax cybercrime enforcement.

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:

• T1003.001: Monitor for LSASS memory dumping or registry SAM extraction. Enable Credential Guard on Windows systems.
• T1056.001: Implement Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) to monitor for suspicious API calls related to keystroke interception. Enforce Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to render stolen passwords useless.

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_WOOOL_T1_ARTIFACT {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 1 Primitive Artifact: Raw string matches for Woool"
        tier = "T1 - Primitive Artifact"
        confidence = "Low-Medium (Fast Triage)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Threat Research Desk"
        date = "2026-10-14"
    strings:
        $s1 = "woool" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}

title: SystemHelpDesk Detection - Woool (Trojan) Execution & Triage
id: 32904cf1-21be-5310-84ba-d9acb8180a07
status: production
description: Detects execution, defense evasion, and persistence behaviors associated
  with the Woool 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/woool
- 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.t1056_001
- attack.t1547_001
- attack.t1003_001
- attack.t1189
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_WOOOL_T3_ATTRIBUTION {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 3 Attribution Fingerprint: Heuristic detection for Woool 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 = "woool" 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 to prevent the exfiltration of captured keystroke logs to the attacker's C2 server.
2. Advise the user to immediately change the passwords for their online gaming accounts, as well as any corporate or financial accounts where they reused the same password.
3. Run a comprehensive anti-malware scan to identify and remove the trojan and its associated keylogging components.
4. Enforce organizational policies restricting the downloading and execution of unapproved software, especially gaming-related applications.

What to Avoid

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

1. Do not dismiss the alert simply because it targets a game; a keylogger is a critical threat regardless of its primary target.
2. Avoid letting the user continue working on the machine until it is fully sanitized, as any typed data is compromised.

References & External Analysis

• Search "woool" on VirusTotal (External Analysis)
• Search "woool" on Any.Run (Sandbox Sandbox)
• Search "woool" on MalwareBazaar (Malware Samples)

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Threats (Category: Trojan)

Explore other documented threats in the same operational category:

• Defaulttab
• Wisbipuf
• Socstealer
• Trickbot
• Dovs
• Havex
• Ursnifdropper
• Separ

Machine-readable

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