Dorkbot

Category: worm_banker · Aliases: ngrbot · Sample count (EMBER 2018): 86 · Enrichment: hand-curated · Updated: 2026-05-27

Overview

Dorkbot is a worm and IRC-bot family that propagates through social media links, instant messaging, and removable drives, harvesting credentials and recruiting infected machines into a botnet. Microsoft, Interpol, and partners disrupted Dorkbot infrastructure in 2015 through coordinated takedown. The family remains observed in legacy environments.

MITRE ATT&CK Techniques

This family has been observed using the following ATT&CK techniques: T1091 T1185 T1071.001

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Dorkbot?

Dorkbot is a worm and IRC-bot family that propagates through social media links, instant messaging, and removable drives, harvesting credentials and recruiting infected machines into a botnet. Microsoft, Interpol, and partners disrupted Dorkbot infrastructure in 2015 through coordinated takedown. The family remains observed in legacy environments.

How does Dorkbot spread?

Dorkbot spreads through Facebook and Skype messages with malicious links, USB drives, drive-by downloads, and exploits.

What are the signs of a Dorkbot infection?

Browser credential prompts, blocked access to security websites, IRC traffic to command-and-control servers, and antivirus detections for Dorkbot or NgrBot are common.

What should I do if I think I have Dorkbot on my system?

If you suspect this malware on your system, do not attempt manual removal. Contact SystemHelpdesk expert MSP support at 855-783-7555 for professional incident response guidance.

Need help with an active incident? If you suspect this malware on your system, do not attempt manual removal. Contact SystemHelpdesk expert MSP support at 855-783-7555 for professional incident response guidance.

Machine-readable

Get this profile as JSON: https://jordanricky1604-ship-it.github.io/malware-families-catalog/api/dorkbot.json

About this catalog

This profile is part of the Malware Families Catalog, a public dataset of 2,899 malware families extracted from the EMBER 2018 benchmark. The catalog is also published on Hugging Face and Kaggle.