Fakesmoke

Overview

Trojan:Win32/Fakesmoke is a form of **Rogue Security Software** (often called Fake AV or Scareware). It masquerades as a legitimate, high-end antivirus program, deliberately generating terrifying, fake security alerts to trick the user into paying for a 'premium' license to remove non-existent threats.

Understanding Fakesmoke
To an end-user, Fakesmoke is highly distressing. The desktop is bombarded with urgent, red-flashing pop-ups claiming the system is severely infected with zero-day trojans or that data is actively being stolen. For a security team, Fakesmoke relies entirely on social engineering and intimidation (`T1498.002` - modified context for deception) to monetize the infection directly from the victim.

Execution and Scareware Mechanics
Fakesmoke is often distributed via malvertising, drive-by downloads, or bundled with pirated software (`T1189`). Upon execution (`T1204.002`), it establishes persistence via the Registry (`T1547.001`) so it runs every time the computer boots. It immediately displays a highly professional-looking (but fake) scanning interface. It simulates a fast scan and inevitably reports dozens of severe infections. To enforce compliance, Fakesmoke actively attempts to disable legitimate Windows utilities (like Task Manager, Registry Editor, and Command Prompt) (`T1562.001`) and may block access to real security vendor websites to prevent the user from downloading actual removal tools.

Indicators of Compromise & Impact
The impact is primarily financial fraud and severe disruption of productivity. Host-based IoCs include EDR alerts for the unauthorized modification of registry keys disabling Task Manager (`HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\DisableTaskMgr`), the presence of the rogue executable in the `%AppData%` folder (often with a randomly generated, innocent-sounding name), and persistent, aggressive pop-up windows demanding credit card payment.

MITRE ATT&CK Techniques

Observed techniques used by this family, mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework:

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_FAKESMOKE {
    meta:
        description = "Detects Fakesmoke (trojan)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Boilerplate Generator"
        date = "2026-07-06"
    strings:
        $s1 = "fakesmoke" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}

Sigma Rule

title: Suspicious Fakesmoke Activity
id: 21c656c664c3a4884a5cec3d861874f9
status: experimental
description: Detects generic indicators of the fakesmoke malware family.
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        Image|endswith:
            - '\cmd.exe'
            - '\powershell.exe'
        CommandLine|contains:
            - "*fakesmoke*"
    condition: selection
level: medium

Containment & Response Steps

Ordered checklist for responders. Adapt to your environment and engage professional support for active incidents.

1. Boot the infected machine into 'Safe Mode with Networking' to prevent the Fakesmoke persistence mechanisms from launching and blocking remediation tools.
2. Use the Registry Editor to manually re-enable Task Manager and Command Prompt if they were disabled by the malware.
3. Run a full system scan using a known, trusted, enterprise-grade anti-malware solution to detect and remove the rogue executable.
4. Educate the user on the deceptive tactics of rogue security software and instruct them to contact their credit card company if they made a payment.

What to Avoid

Common mistakes during response to this family that can destroy evidence, spread the infection, or worsen recovery.

1. Do not input any personal or financial information into the payment portals presented by the software.
2. Avoid attempting to manually delete the Fakesmoke files in normal Windows mode, as the malware will actively defend itself and block deletion.

References & External Analysis

• Search "fakesmoke" on VirusTotal (External Analysis)

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Families (Category: trojan)

Explore other malware families in the same category:

• Delfidelfi
• Plead
• Cerbu
• Filerepmalware
• Inexsmar

Machine-readable

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