AI Waifu RAT — Malware Analysis Report (CyberDudeBivash) Author: CyberDudeBivash

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1) Executive overview

“AI Waifu RAT” is a family of remote-access trojans and info-stealers distributed under the guise of “AI girlfriend/waifu” chat apps, wallpaper engines, voice companions, and image generators. Campaigns typically target gamers, streamers, crypto users, and developer communities on Discord, Telegram, TikTok, and file-sharing sites. The lure promises an offline AI companion or “NSFW diffusion” add-on; the installer drops a multi-stage payload that establishes a hidden backdoor, exfiltrates credentials and session tokens, and can be instructed to deploy ransomware or cryptominers.

Key risks:

Credential theft for browsers, Discord/Telegram, Steam, Epic, crypto wallets, Git providers, and cloud dashboards.
Session hijack/MFA bypass via cookie and token theft.
Full RAT capabilities (screen capture, keylogging, webcam/mic capture, file exfil, shell).
Lateral movement into corporate environments through BYOD and creator workstations.

2) Threat anatomy (kill chain)

Initial access (lure): Shortened links, malvertising, cracked “pro” installers, or Discord CDN attachments deliver a signed-looking SFX archive or Electron wrapper.
Execution: The dropper launches a benign UI (fake chatbot) while spawning a child process (PowerShell, wscript, or a side-loaded DLL) to fetch stage-2 from a CDN, GitHub Gist, or Telegram bot API.
Persistence: Registry Run/RunOnce keys, Scheduled Tasks, Startup folder shortcuts, WMI Event Consumers, or side-loading through a companion executable in ProgramData.
Privilege escalation: UAC bypass via fodhelper, sdclt, or living-off-the-land binaries (LOLbins). Some samples abuse vulnerable drivers for kernel primitives.
Defense evasion: String obfuscation, environment and VM checks, signed-binary proxy execution (rundll32, regsvr32), and encrypted configuration blobs.
Discovery & credential access: System inventory, browser DB loot (Login Data, Cookies), Discord/Telegram token scraping, wallet file harvesting, password manager vault probing if unlocked.
C2 & exfiltration: HTTPS to Discord webhooks, Telegram bots, Pastebin/Gist, or custom panels. Data chunked, zipped, and AES/XOR-protected before upload.
Post-exploitation (optional): Ransomware staging, crypto-mining, advertising click-fraud, or resale of access.

3) Technical analysis highlights

3.1 Packagers and languages

Electron/NodeJS wrappers with embedded Node binaries.
Python/Go/Rust single-file stubs compiled with UPX or custom packers.
Side-loaded DLLs next to a legitimate signed host (e.g., “Updater.exe”).

3.2 Configuration

Encrypted JSON config containing C2 URLs, webhook tokens, target directories, and feature toggles. Often fetched on first run to keep stubs small and mutable.

3.3 Capabilities

RAT: reverse shell, command execution, file manager, screenshotter, webcam/mic capture.
Keylogging & clipboard watch with crypto-wallet address replacement.
Credential & cookie theft for Chromium/Firefox families; token scraping for Discord/Telegram/Slack; Steam/Epic session theft; Git providers; cloud consoles.
Bypass/MFA abuse: session replay with stolen cookies; refresh-token use.
Self-update & plug-ins: modular architecture pulls additional payloads (stealer → locker).

3.4 Evasion and anti-analysis

Checks for virtualization (process names, MAC OUIs, driver lists).
Time bomb and user-interaction gates (wait for mouse/keystrokes).
Encrypted strings, dynamic API resolution, and indirect syscalls.
Sleeping with high-resolution timers to defeat sandboxes.

4) MITRE ATT&CK mapping (selected)

Initial Access: T1566.002 Spearphishing link; T1189 Drive-by; T1195.002 Supply chain via trojanized installers.
Execution: T1059 Command/Scripting (PowerShell); T1204.002 Malicious file.
Persistence: T1547.001 Registry Run Keys; T1053.005 Scheduled Task; T1546.003 WMI Event Subscription.
Privilege Escalation/Defense Evasion: T1548.002 Bypass UAC; T1218 Signed Binary Proxy; T1027 Obfuscated/Encrypted files.
Credential Access: T1555 Credentials from Password Stores; T1552 Unprotected Credentials; T1056.001 Keylogging; T1539 Cookie theft.
Discovery: T1082 System Discovery; T1012 Query Registry.
Collection: T1113 Screen Capture; T1123 Audio Capture.
C2: T1071.001 Web protocols; T1102 Web Services (Discord/Telegram).
Exfiltration: T1041 Exfiltration over C2 channel.
Lateral Movement: T1021.002 SMB/Windows Admin Shares using stolen creds.
Impact (optional): T1486 Data Encrypted for Impact.

5) Indicators of compromise (use to hunt; exact values vary by campaign)

Treat these as patterns; replace with your environment-specific findings.

Filenames/paths

%AppData%\Local\waifu-ai\waifu-ai.exe
%ProgramData%\AI-Waifu\updater.exe
%AppData%\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\AICompanion.lnk
Dropped DLL next to signed host: NvCamera32.dll, version.dll

Command-line patterns

powershell.exe -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -enc <base64>
rundll32.exe <random>.dll,Start
wscript.exe //B //E:jscript <random>.js

Network

Frequent GET/POST to:
- https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/<id>/<id>/<name>
- https://discord.com/api/webhooks/<id>/<token>
- https://api.telegram.org/bot<token>/sendDocument
Staging on pastebin.com/raw/<id> or GitHub Gist raw.

Registry persistence

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\AIWaifu
HKCU\Software\Classes\ms-settings\Shell\Open\command (fodhelper UAC bypass)

6) Detection and hunting playbook

6.1 EDR/SIEM hunts (concept queries)

Discord/Telegram C2 from user endpoints
- Proxy/Netflow: host contains "discordapp.com" or "api.telegram.org" AND user_agent in ("PowerShell/*","python-requests/*")
Encoded PowerShell
- Windows logs: Event ID 4104 where ScriptBlockText matches "-enc " OR "FromBase64String"
Suspicious persistence
- Sysmon Event ID 13 (Registry) for Run/RunOnce creating values matching *waifu*|*companion*|*ai*
Browser DB access
- Sysmon Event ID 10 (ProcessAccess) on lsass.exe or Chrome Login Data file from non-browser process.

6.2 YARA (high-level example — tune for your environment)

rule AI_Waifu_RAT_Generic
{
  meta:
    author = "CyberDudeBivash"
    purpose = "Generic signature for waifu-themed RAT droppers"
  strings:
    $s1 = "DiscordWebhook" nocase
    $s2 = "api.telegram.org/bot" nocase
    $s3 = "waifu" nocase
    $s4 = "AICompanion" nocase
  condition:
    2 of ($s1,$s2,$s3,$s4)
}

6.3 Email/SaaS defenses

Enforce DMARC/SPF/DKIM; block look-alike domains.
Sandbox attachments; disallow executables/ISO/IMG from consumer mail.
Integrate PhishRadar AI for linguistic and intent analysis of AI-crafted lures.

7) Containment and eradication

Isolate host at switch/VPN immediately.
Collect forensics: volatile memory, prefetch, ShimCache, browser databases, and startup locations.
Kill and quarantine: terminate RAT processes; hash- and path-based blocklists in EDR.
Revoke tokens/sessions: log out all web sessions, rotate OAuth tokens, invalidate cookies.
Credential resets: per-user and service accounts; enforce MFA reset.
Sweep environment: hunt for the same persistence and C2 across the fleet.
Reimage where needed: particularly if DLL side-loads or driver tampering observed.
Report and learn: update blocklists, enrich detections, campaign-level IOCs in SIEM.

8) Prevention hardening checklist

Application control (allow-listing) for scripting engines and LOLbins.
Disable PowerShell v2; enforce Constrained Language Mode where feasible.
Browser-side hardening: disallow password storage; use hardware-backed WebAuthn.
Block exfil destinations at egress: Discord, Telegram, Pastebin from corporate networks.
Enforce least privilege; protect developer and creator endpoints specially.
Continuous education: highlight “AI companion” and “NSFW-model” as high-risk lures.

9) Business impact and sectors at risk

Creators and gaming orgs: account takeovers, monetization theft, reputational harm.
Enterprises with BYOD: bridge into corporate SSO via session tokens.
Crypto/fintech: wallet drain, exchange account takeover.
Software teams: source code and token exfiltration → supply chain risk.

10) CyberDudeBivash ecosystem response

Threat Analyser App: correlates Discord/Telegram C2, suspicious PowerShell, and persistence events; maps to MITRE ATT&CK for analyst triage.
SessionShield: detects anomalous session reuse and token replay; breaks cookie-based hijacking loops.
PhishRadar AI: pre-delivery detection of AI-crafted lures behind these campaigns.
ThreatWire Newsletter: daily TTP updates, fresh IOCs, and campaign fingerprints.

11) Recommended affiliate defense stack

CrowdStrike Falcon — EDR with behavioral detection and ransomware prevention.
Bitdefender Total Security — endpoint hardening and web protection for creator endpoints.
Cloudflare WAF — block exfil/API abuse and stage-2 fetches.
NordVPN — secure remote IR tunnels and admin access.
1Password + YubiKey — hardened credentials and phishing-resistant MFA.

(Replace with your preferred vendors if you already have equivalents; align tools to the controls above.)

12) Executive takeaway

AI Waifu RAT blends modern social-engineering with modular post-exploitation. It thrives on curiosity, cracked “pro” apps, and permissive endpoints. Organizations should assume at least a subset of users will click and must build layered controls that detect, contain, and eradicate quickly.

CyberDudeBivash recommends prioritizing:

Pre-delivery phishing detection and SaaS hygiene.
Behavioral EDR plus strict egress controls.
Rapid token/session revocation playbooks.
Continuous hunting mapped to ATT&CK.

Partner with CyberDudeBivash to convert intelligence into action across your fleet.

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