Foidan

Posted: October 9, 2013

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Ranking:	16,341
Threat Level:	8/10
Infected PCs:	101

First Seen:	October 9, 2013
Last Seen:	February 7, 2025
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Foidan is a group of Trojans that specialize in modifying your Web browser to achieve other attacks, such as redirecting you to unwanted (and potentially unsafe) Web pages or stealing information sent through the browser. Unlike less sophisticated browser-based PC threats than themselves, Foidan Trojans often show few symptoms and use advanced techniques – such as memory process injection – to hide their files and browser attacks. SpywareRemove.com malware researchers advise treating any possible Foidan infection as a potential high-level PC threat, and incorporating anti-malware software into your efforts to delete Foidan should be considered as a default optimal response.

When Good Browsers Get Bad with Unwanted Help from Foidan

Many browser-based Trojans are relatively minor security hazards that want nothing more than to show their victims advertisements or redirect them to unknown search sites. Carving a path out of this herd, Foidan represents a threat to your PC on an entirely different level, despite still being concerned with modifying your browser for the purpose of profit. Foidan variants are known for injecting their code into default Windows processes to avoid being detected, modifying vulnerable Registries so that the threat can run automatically and, last but not least, exploiting Windows Web data-transmission APIs.

These API hooks are similar to the 'man in the middle' or 'man in the browser' style attacks of the notorious Trojan Zeus banking Trojan. Like Zeus's own attacks, they allow Foidan Trojans to intercept information before your browser sends it to its intended destination. For example, Foidan could grab passwords as they're entered into a banking website and then transfer the passwords to criminals, who would then have access to your bank account. The same technique also is applicable for changing any information that's sent to your PC.

Banishing the Thief Sitting on Your Browser

Although Foidan specializes in injecting itself into Internet Explorer, other browsers also are vulnerable to these API-hooking attacks. Current variants of Foidan Trojans only have shown compatibility for Windows PCs, but similar PC threats that use equivalent attacks for other operating systems also have been observed throughout the past few years. Malware researchers also consider the potential of a Foidan infection involving multiple Trojans to be a strong probability, and recommend using extremely thorough anti-malware scans whenever you have a need to find or remove Foidan from your computer.

Foidan may be installed by other Trojans as implied above, and doesn't have any explicitly outlined infection vectors. Overall safe browsing habits, good security software and self-education about what constitutes risky Web-browsing activities should be sufficient to protect your PC from most Foidan attacks. However, once Foidan is installed, Foidan isn't guaranteed to show symptoms that would let you detect Foidan particularly easily, and Foidan's files may be concealed through a variety of methods (such as naming them after Windows components or hiding them in unusual folders).

Technical Details

File System Modifications

Tutorials: If you wish to learn how to remove malware components manually, you can read the tutorials on how to find malware, kill unwanted processes, remove malicious DLLs and delete other harmful files. Always be sure to back up your PC before making any changes.

The following files were created in the system:

%APPDATA% \fnmod_32.exe

File name: %APPDATA% \fnmod_32.exe
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file

%APPDATA% \ie_util.exe

File name: %APPDATA% \ie_util.exe
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

HKEY..\..\{Value}HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "IExplorer Util" = "%APPDATA%\ie_util.exe"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "FNModuleUpdater" = "%APPDATA%\fnmod_32.exe"