2345Explorer
Overview
Executive Summary
2345Explorer is a prominent family of Adware and Browser Hijackers originating from China. While technically functioning as a web browser based on the Chromium/Trident engines, it is heavily bundled with aggressive adware components. It is engineered to aggressively monetize an infected user's web browsing activity by intercepting web traffic, forcefully altering system configurations, and injecting highly intrusive advertisements, posing a significant threat to end-user privacy and system stability.Distribution and Technical Behavior
2345Explorer is almost exclusively distributed via deceptive software bundling. It is frequently hidden within "free" software installers, fake software updates, or bundled with peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing applications. Once executed, 2345Explorer deeply integrates with the operating system and attempts to dominate the user's web experience:- Aggressive Hijacking: It forces changes to the default browser settings across the OS, changing the default search engine, homepage, and new tab settings to `2345.com` (or related affiliate portals). It often utilizes driver-level rootkit techniques to prevent other security software or the user from reverting these changes.
- Traffic Interception and Injection: The software overlays legitimate websites with disruptive pop-ups, pop-unders, banner ads, and sponsored in-text hyperlinks.
- Telemetry and Tracking: It continuously tracks the user's browsing history, search queries, and clickstreams, transmitting this telemetry to remote servers located in China to serve highly targeted advertisements.
Risk Assessment
While 2345Explorer may not actively encrypt files, it introduces massive operational friction. Its aggressive persistence mechanisms (often utilizing kernel-mode drivers) can cause system instability (BSODs). Furthermore, the injected advertisements are frequently served by low-reputation ad networks, dramatically increasing the likelihood of "malvertising" attacks.Mitigation and Removal Strategies
- Safe Mode Boot: Because of its aggressive persistence, standard removal often fails. Boot the infected system into Windows Safe Mode to prevent the 2345Explorer drivers and services from loading.
- Endpoint Scanning: Utilize a reputable enterprise-grade anti-malware solution to perform a deep system scan, targeting the 2345Explorer executables, hidden scheduled tasks, and persistent registry keys used to maintain its hold on the OS.
- Browser Remediation: Manually inspect and remove any unknown or unauthorized extensions from all installed web browsers. Perform a complete factory reset of the browsers to clear the hijacked search settings.
Known aliases
Threat reports may refer to this family under multiple names:
MITRE ATT&CK Techniques
This family has been observed using the following ATT&CK techniques: T1566.002 T1176 T1112 T1547
Tactical Mitigations
Based on the techniques used by this family, consider the following defensive strategies:
- T1566.002: Inspect email links for known malicious domains and use link-rewriting services for time-of-click analysis.
Generated Detections (Boilerplate)
These YARA and Sigma rules are auto-generated based on the family name and aliases. They must be heavily tuned before deployment in a production environment.
YARA Rule
rule MALWARE_WIN_2345EXPLORER {
meta:
description = "Detects 2345Explorer (advanced_threat)"
author = "SystemHelpdesk Boilerplate Generator"
date = "2026-07-06"
strings:
$s1 = "2345explorer" ascii wide nocase
$s2 = "adware.2345explorer" ascii wide nocase
$s3 = "pup.2345" ascii wide nocase
$s4 = "browsermodifier:win32/2345explorer" ascii wide nocase
condition:
uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}Sigma Rule
title: Suspicious 2345Explorer Activity
id: 68889f9107edb24aed0ad80450eb3be9
status: experimental
description: Detects generic indicators of the 2345explorer malware family.
logsource:
category: process_creation
product: windows
detection:
selection:
Image|endswith:
- '\cmd.exe'
- '\powershell.exe'
CommandLine|contains:
- "*2345explorer*"
- "*adware.2345explorer*"
- "*pup.2345*"
- "*browsermodifier:win32/2345explorer*"
condition: selection
level: mediumReferences & External Analysis
- Search "2345explorer" on VirusTotal (External Analysis)
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I remove the 2345Explorer Advanced_Threat from Windows?
Manual removal of 2345Explorer is highly discouraged as it may leave persistence mechanisms intact. We recommend disconnecting the device from the internet and utilizing a professional incident response service or enterprise-grade EDR software to conduct a full forensic sweep.
Is 2345Explorer a virus or a Advanced_Threat?
2345Explorer is classified as a Advanced_Threat. Unlike traditional viruses that infect files, modern malware like 2345Explorer typically operates as a standalone payload designed to compromise systems, steal data, or deploy secondary stage implants.
What are the main symptoms of a 2345Explorer infection?
Symptoms of 2345Explorer can include unexpected system slowness, unauthorized outbound network traffic to unknown IP addresses, disabled security software, and suspicious background processes running from AppData or Temp directories.
Related Families (Category: advanced_threat)
Explore other malware families in the same category:
Protect Your Network Against Advanced_Threats
Want to prevent 2345Explorer and similar threats from compromising your organization? Read our comprehensive defensive guide: Suspect an Infection? What to do.
Machine-readable
Get this profile as JSON: https://jordanricky1604-ship-it.github.io/malware-families-catalog/api/2345explorer.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.