How to remove Panda Banker

Panda Banker Trojan switches its target to Japanese institutions

Panda Banker is a Trojan horse, which has been released in 2016. It's based on the Zeus Trojan, which has been treated as one of the most hazardous infections since 2007. Following the leak of its source code,^[1] hackers started developing new strains of Zeus, and Panda Banker is one of them. It targets financial institutions in Italy, Canada, Australia, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Latin America. The 78%^[2] of institutions targeted are US and Canada banks, cryptocurrency websites, global social media providers, payroll, and tech providers. Disguised under malicious Microsoft Word attachments, Panda Banker injects a code that performs region-specific man-in-the-browser attacks and starts acquiring the most sensitive data. 

Panda and Zeus are practically identical. The only difference between the two is that Panda mainly targets banks in UK and Australia. Other traits are more or less similar. Usually, Panda Banker spreads through malicious Word documents which come attached to the spam emails and becomes activated with the Word Macros function. The researchers report that the highest risk of being infected with this virus is attributed to the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Specifically, Panda Banker virus exploits the CVE-2014-1761 and CVE-2012-0158^[3] vulnerabilities to activate itself. Also, it is not uncommon for the virus to use deceptive social engineering techniques to trick people into enabling Word Macros support themselves.

Once the virus infiltrates the computer it starts tracking the user’s data. Its initial interests are the computer owner’s username, installed antivirus and firewall software information, OS platform, computer name, local time and similar characteristics. The gathered data is then transferred to the C&C (command and control) server where a unique client is created helping to distinguish infected device from other computer bots. At this point, it is practically impossible to spot that the virus has already infiltrated the system. However, a sophisticated antivirus software, such as FortectIntego should be able to detect and remove the virus from your computer, as long as you keep it updated to its latest version.

While the infected computer owners continue using their computers as usual, the Panda Banker trojan starts inserting malicious code into the banking websites. You should be careful if you have any accounts in the Bank of Scotland, Halifax UK, Lloyds Bank, Santander Bank or TSB. Once the code is injected, the trojan is then able to collect the user’s banking credentials and, eventually, breaking into the user’s accounts. If you notice any suspicious processes running on your computer or, worse, considerable sums of money disappearing from your bank account, you should immediately scan your system with antivirus software and ensure a complete Panda Banker removal.

The activity of Panda Banking Trojan

Initially detected in 2016, Panda Banker has been delivered by three different exploits known as Angler, Nuclear, and Neutrino. According to Proofpoint researchers, these exploits were necessary for criminals to find out target users in Australia and the United Kingdom.^[4] The virus used to target banks in particular. 

In 2017, experts noticed a shift from banking institutions to holiday shoppers. To harvest banking credentials, Panda Banker injects code into region-specific banking sites, including payment sites, casinos, travel sites, video-streaming sites, retailers, and similar. In 2017, the virus hit thousands of people in the period, which included Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas. 

The injects of Zeus Panda found in 2017 were configured to steal a variety of information, including credit card number, address, phone number, DOB, SSN, and security question-related information. 

Most of the victims were tricked by a fake email attachment called resume.doc, with the subject line  “Application submitted from Gumtree Jobs by [First Last Names] for Field Sales Consultant – Status: Emailed.” This malicious email refers to a job application, which is popular in UK, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. 

The latest strain of Panda Banker, known as version 2.6.6, has been observed at the end of March 2018.^[5] According to experts, the Trojan has switched its target from Canada and the United States to Japan. It's the first time in Zeus Panda, also dubbed as PandaBot, to be targeting Japanese financial institutions. 

Although the virus itself hasn't been modified remarkably, it has no ICO overlap with the previous PandaBanker attacks, and the target moved to Japan. These two facts make it stand out from the earlier attacks. The latest attack is closely related to hillaryzell[.]xyz address, which is registered to a Petrom Vladim using an email yalapinziw@mail.ru. 

Based on the analysis initiated by Netscout, the C2 server returned 27 injects, 17 of which were embedded into Japanese banking websites. The current version is mainly distributed via Rig, Seamless, and Vokut Exploit Kits.

Banking Trojans are distributed via EK and spam email attachments

As already has been pointed out in this article, this particular version of Zeus is typically distributed via infected spam email attachments. According to experts, the Trojan takes advantage of the CVE-2014-1761 and CVE-2012-0158 vulnerabilities or renders Rig, Seamless or Vokut Exploit Kits (EK)^[6] to infect targeted PCs or servers.

Most of the victims were infected with this Trojan right after opening an infected email attachment. The most widely spread Panda payload is known as resume.doc file, which spreads attached to emails with the subject line “Application submitted from Gumtree Jobs by [First Last Names] for Field Sales Consultant – Status: Emailed.”

Alternatively, it may be disguised under Gert.exe executable file atached to spam email messages. If the potential victim executes the file, the trojan is downloaded from 78.128.92[.]31/gert.exe. 

Having in mind the activity of such and similar trojans, both home users and institutions should reconsider system's protection. One of the prerequisites when trying to stay safe from banking trojans is a reputable anti-virus program. It's important to keep it up-to-date and check if Real-Time protection feature is enabled. Besides, you should always update the OS. Outdated OS is more vulnerable to cyber attacks initiated via exploit kits.^[7] 

Tips on Panda Banker virus removal

For less experienced computer users, even the thought of having to deal with malicious, money-stealing viruses on their own is highly intimidating. Luckily, there's a multiplicity of anti-virus vendors worldwide offering advanced security tools that are not only capable of protecting the system from infections and removal of the existing ones. Most of them now has a PC's optimization feature, which is extremely useful after a cyber attack. 

Therefore, NoVirus.uk^[8] cybersecurity team stresses the importance of obtaining a reliable antivirus suite is the best option to remove Panda Banker trojan from the infected computer. We recommend such acknowledged virus-fighting utilities as FortectIntego or MalwarebytesMalwarebytes.

As this trojan runs in the system unnoticed, it is advisable to run regular scans with the obtained antivirus utility. If any trouble arises when removing the virus automatically, or the trojan tries to terminate the system scan, you can try disconnecting your computer from the network, which should diminish the virus functionalities on your computer.