Ticked Off: Upatre Malware’s Simple Anti-analysis Trick to Defeat Sandboxes
Summary: Unit 42 reports that the Upatre downloader, which typically spreads through phishing emails and downloads the Dyre banking Trojan to steal credentials, added an anti-analysis check that calls the Windows API GetTickCount and compares the returned value to 0xAFE74, or about 12 minutes. If the system has been running less than that, Upatre exits without acting, since sandbox startup usually takes around 6 minutes at most, and Palo Alto Networks said it detected a surge of new samples showing this behavior.
What you should know: A sandbox that finishes its startup in about 6 minutes will fall under the 12-minute threshold and record Upatre as benign, so a clean sandbox verdict on this downloader may only mean the malware chose not to run.
Read the original at Unit 42 Palo Alto Networks ↗
- Topics
- Zero-Days & Exploits
- Related
- New Sign Drop Exploit Can Abuse Windows Defender to Bypass Security Protections Cyber Risks · Nov 13, 2026New Sign Drop Zero-Day Exploit Turns Windows CLFS Security Feature Into SYSTEM Access Cyber Risks · Nov 12, 2026November Patch Tuesday: An Overflowing Cornucopia of CVEs Cyber Risks · Nov 10, 2026