How to remove Trochilus virus

Trochilus virus is a dangerous Remote Access Trojan that was used in Myanmar's political cyber-espionage campaign

Trochilus virus is a type of malware that enters the device without any signs, gains access to it, and allows hackers to execute various malicious activities remotely, all while harvesting sensitive data from the device. These type of infections are called Remote Access Trojans and are usually heavily obfuscated, which prevents the detection from many anti-virus engines. Trochilus RAT was first spotted back in 2015 and made headlines in 2016 when attackers, who later turned out to be a hacking group by the name “Group 27,” injected the malicious code into Myanmar's governmental website.^[1] The group of hackers responsible for the threat also used several other RAT tools like EvilGrab or PlugX in a sophisticated campaign against South East Asian countries. Later same year, bad actors attacked multiple organizations in Thailand using Trochilus virus as well as MoonWind malware.^[2]

Initially, Trochilus malware was spread with the help of the phishing emails that included the malicious .rar attachment. However, hackers managed to compromise Myanmar's governmental website where they inserted the malware, increasing the infection rate drastically. Because the threat does not write any data on the disk, Trochilus virus removal proves to be a difficult task for many anti-malware programs.

Once the Trochilus virus compromises the system, it establishes the connection to a remote Command & Control server that only threat actors have access to. The trojan is capable of the following:

• Read and send system information;
• Manage system files;
• Interact with Shellcode;
• Execute arbitrary commands;
• Download and upload files;
• Uninstall programs remotely.

This functionality allows Trochilus RAT to become extremely adaptive and execute any actions that are initiated by hackers. Additionally, the malware can spread laterally on the network, targeting vulnerable machines. For that reason, Trochilus virus threat is particularly dangerous.

The worst part is that the Trochilus virus does not emit any signs or symptoms and generally acts like legitimate programs. Therefore, threat detection might become particularly difficult. However, some anti-virus programs can detect and remove Trochilus virus safely.

Once you get rid of the malware, we suggest you scan your computer with FortectIntego to repair the damage done by the virus.

Beware of hacked websites and spam emails

Hackers are often using multiple propagation methods for malware to spread. Perhaps the most common distribution tactic used by cybercriminals is spam emails. From ransomware to trojans – the most malicious viruses are often enclosed within an innocent-looking, a few hundred kilobytes in size, attachment. Additionally, the malware can be downloaded from a malicious domain that users get redirected to with the help of hyperlink that is disguised inside the email or online site.

To avoid infiltration, you should be extremely wary when it comes to checking emails. What starts as a good day to check what's new in your inbox might end up with the complete corruption of your system. Therefore, experts^[3] recommend following these safety tips:

• Keep an updated security software enabled on your computer at all times;
• Patch your system and installed programs to ensure no vulnerabilities are exploited by hackers;
• Prepare some backups of your personal files;
• Never download cracks or keygens;
• When dealing with emails, make sure you know who the sender is;
• Scan all newly-obtain files with tools like Virus Total;
• Use program that can block malicious ads (not optimal).

Delete Trochilus RAT with the help of anti-malware software

As we already mentioned, Trochilus malware does not install any files into the hard disk but instead uses memory for the task. For that reason, threat's detection might be impossible for some weaker security programs.

To remove Trochilus virus from your device, you will have to employ multiple anti-virus engines and perform a full system scan in Safe Mode with Networking. The safe environment can disable most of the malware's functionality and allow the security tool to perform its job.

In case Trochilus virus removal fails using one security application, we suggest trying another one until you succeed. After the elimination, we suggest you scan the computer with FortectIntego to repair virus damage.