{ "id": "d361131e-5c43-4067-9c48-0ac2b162a50e", "created_at": "2026-04-06T00:10:59.977263Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T03:20:34.025594Z", "deleted_at": null, "sha1_hash": "ca4314af5e3be65fd3716081e5eb25c9ae40758d", "title": "TrickBot malware mistakenly warns victims that they are infected", "llm_title": "", "authors": "", "file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_size": 2115472, "plain_text": "TrickBot malware mistakenly warns victims that they are infected\r\nBy Lawrence Abrams\r\nPublished: 2020-07-11 · Archived: 2026-04-05 12:49:28 UTC\r\nThe notorious TrickBot malware mistakenly left a test module that is warning victims that they are infected and should\r\ncontact their administrator.\r\nTrickBot is a malware infection that is commonly distributed via malicious spam emails. When installed, the malware will\r\nrun quietly on a victim's machine while it downloads various modules that perform different tasks on the infected computer.\r\nThese modules allow the malware to steal a domain's Active Directory Services database, harvest browser passwords and\r\ncookies, steal OpenSSH keys, and spread laterally throughout a network.\r\nhttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/trickbot-malware-mistakenly-warns-victims-that-they-are-infected/\r\nPage 1 of 4\n\n0:00\r\nhttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/trickbot-malware-mistakenly-warns-victims-that-they-are-infected/\r\nPage 2 of 4\n\nVisit Advertiser websiteGO TO PAGE\r\nTo make matters worse, TrickBot is known to finalize their attacks by giving access to ransomware operators such as Ryuk\r\nand Conti.\r\nTrickBot devs made a mistake\r\nIn a recent release of the TrickBot malware analyzed by Advanced Intel's Vitali Kremez, the threat actors are mistakenly\r\ndistributing a test version of their password-stealing grabber.dll module.\r\nWhen loaded, this module displays a warning in the default browser stating that the program is gathering information and\r\nthat the victim should ask their system administrator.\r\nThe warning shown by TrickBot's grabber module\r\nWarning\r\nYou see this message because the program named grabber gathered some information from your browser.\r\nIf you do not know what is happening it is the time to start be worrying.\r\nPlease, ask your system administrator for details.\r\nThis warning is not an isolated case either as BleepingComputer found a user infected with TrickBot who posted about this\r\nwarning 16 days ago on Reddit.\r\n\"Firefox is warning me about a \"program named grabber.\" What is it and what should I do?,\" the Reddit user asked.\r\nGrabber.dll is TrickBot's password and cookie-stealing module that attempts to harvest saved browser credentials and\r\ncookies from Chrome, Edge, Internet Explorer, and Firefox. These stolen credentials and cookies can then be used to login\r\nto the victim's accounts.\r\nKremez was able to extract the documentation embedded in the module, which we shared below.\r\nGathers info from local installed browsers and saves it to files.\r\nDefault saving directory is ./confs (executable path subdir)\r\nBrowser selection:\r\n -a, --all[[=]flags] All known browsers (default)\r\n -F, --firefox[[=][flags],FILE] Mozilla Firefox browser (registry search)\r\n -C, --chrome[[=][flags],FILE] Google Chrome (registry search)\r\n -E, --edge[[=][flags],FILE] Microsoft Edge (supposing Windows 10 and later has only)\r\n -I, --iexplorer[[=][flags],FILE] Microsoft Internet Explorer\r\nMiscellaneous:\r\n -L, --lso[=][,]FILE Save common flash lso files (browser independent, lso managment)\r\nhttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/trickbot-malware-mistakenly-warns-victims-that-they-are-infected/\r\nPage 3 of 4\n\n-s, --silent Display only critical errors\r\n -v, --verbose Increase verbosity level\r\n -V, --version Display version information and exit\r\n -h, --help Display this help text and exit\r\nFor a detailed technical analysis of this grabber.dll module, Kremez published a blog post on the Advanced Intel site.\r\nKremez told BleepingComputer that the test module appears to be developed by the TrickBot devs as it is \"coded in the\r\nsame fashion\" as other modules.  He believes that the threat actors were testing a new version and forgot to remove it when\r\nit went live.\r\nFor those seeing this warning, Kremez advises that victims immediately disconnect their computer from the network and\r\nthen perform a scan with their installed security software.\r\nOnce your computer has been cleaned, victims should change their passwords at any site, external or internal, whose\r\ncredentials are saved in the browser or recently logged into from the browser.\r\nIf a victim is on a corporate network, other computers may have also been compromised, and a thorough investigation\r\nshould be undertaken.\r\nAutomated Pentesting Covers Only 1 of 6 Surfaces.\r\nAutomated pentesting proves the path exists. BAS proves whether your controls stop it. Most teams run one without the\r\nother.\r\nThis whitepaper maps six validation surfaces, shows where coverage ends, and provides practitioners with three diagnostic\r\nquestions for any tool evaluation.\r\nSource: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/trickbot-malware-mistakenly-warns-victims-that-they-are-infected/\r\nhttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/trickbot-malware-mistakenly-warns-victims-that-they-are-infected/\r\nPage 4 of 4", "extraction_quality": 1, "language": "EN", "sources": [ "Malpedia", "ETDA" ], "references": [ "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/trickbot-malware-mistakenly-warns-victims-that-they-are-infected/" ], "report_names": [ "trickbot-malware-mistakenly-warns-victims-that-they-are-infected" ], "threat_actors": [], "ts_created_at": 1775434259, "ts_updated_at": 1775791234, "ts_creation_date": 0, "ts_modification_date": 0, "files": { "pdf": "https://archive.orkl.eu/ca4314af5e3be65fd3716081e5eb25c9ae40758d.pdf", "text": "https://archive.orkl.eu/ca4314af5e3be65fd3716081e5eb25c9ae40758d.txt", "img": "https://archive.orkl.eu/ca4314af5e3be65fd3716081e5eb25c9ae40758d.jpg" } }