How to remove Brontok trojan

What is Brontok trojan

Also known by the name of Rontokbro, Brontok is a banking worm that sweeps through the system in search of valuable information. The virus entrenches deep inside of your system and waits until some banking information is entered by users during the session. It can access any segment of your system and surveil whatever you do. The gathered information may therefore be sold or even used to scam you eventually. Usually, default Windows Defender detects the virus and reports Worm:Win32/Brontok was found. Unfortunately, the capacity of Windows Antivirus is not enough to avert Brontok penetrating the system. the worm prevents victims from updating certain security software, visiting antimalware websites, and modifying Windows Explorer folder options. It is also possible users will not be able to use some Windows features like Task Manager, Registry Editor, or Command Prompt. These tools can be used to terminate Brontok’s activity, which is why it blocks access to them. All of these changes complicate the deletion of the Brontok worm significantly. If you do not have the necessary knowledge to do it, it is better to entrust this challenge to instructions written by professionals. You can find them in our tutorial as well to get rid of the devasting virus and secure yourself against similar threats in the future. Get to know how Brontok could infect your system in the section below.

Trojan:Win32/Brontok

Brontok trojan

How Brontok trojan infected your computer

The Win32/Brontok worm was researched to be distributed as an attachment inside of e-mail spam letters. There are different messages sent by the virus developers. Some set up e-mail messages with no subject line and zero body content having only the attached file like “kangen.exe”. By doing so, users are met with a bit of a riddle becoming curious to open the file, which will lead to installing the virus. Others may put some catchy lines and content related to politics or advertising campaigns to raise the interest in opening the attached files as well. It is common to see these attachments disguised as some photos with .ZIP extensions. Both options have worked well enough to infect a variety of inexperienced users. After downloading and opening such files, it is more likely you will be infected with a virus-like Win32/Brontok. To ensure there is no other window for similar malware in the future, it is important to be more careful and equip yourself with solid anti-malware software. You can find more information about it in our guide below.

1. Download Brontok Removal Tool
2. Use Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool to remove Brontok
3. Use Autoruns to remove Brontok
4. Files, folders and registry keys of Brontok
5. Other aliases of Brontok
6. How to protect from threats, like Brontok

Remove Brontok manually

Manual removal of Brontok by inexperienced users may become a difficult task because it does not create entries in Add/Remove Programs under Control Panel, does not install browser extensions, and uses random file names. However, there are pre-installed instruments in the Windows system, that allow you to detect and remove malware without using third-party applications. One of them is Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool. It comes with Windows Update in Windows 11, 10, 8. 8.1. For older operating system you can download it here: 64-bit version | 32-bit version.

Remove Brontok using Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

1. Type mrt in the search box near Start Menu.
2. Run mrt clicking on found item.
3. Click Next button.
4. Choose one of the scan modes Quick scan, Full scan, Customize scan (Full scan recommended).
5. Click Next button.
6. Click on View detailed results of the scan link to view the scan details.
7. Click Finish button.

Remove Brontok using Autoruns

Brontok often sets up to run at Windows startup as an Autorun entry or Scheduled task.

1. Download Autoruns using this link.
2. Extract the archive and run Autoruns.exe file.
3. In Options menu make sure there are checkboxes near Hide Empty Locations, Hide Microsoft Entries, and Hide Windows Entries.
4. Search for suspicious entries with weird names or running from locations like: C:\{username}\AppData\Roaming.
5. Right-click on suspicious entry and choose Delete. This will prevent the threat to run at startup.
6. Switch to Scheduled Tasks tab and do the same.
7. To remove files themselves, click on suspicious entries and choose Jump to Entry…. Remove files or registry keys found.

Remove files, folder and registry keys of Brontok

Brontok files and folders


bronstab.exe
smss.exe
services.exe
lsass.exe
inetinfo.exe


Brontok registry keys


KEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
{randomname} = "%AppDataLocal%\{randomname}\{randomname}"
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Shell = explorer.exe %Windows%\eksplorasi.pif
Shell = explorer.exe


Aliases of Brontok

How to protect from threats, like Brontok, in future

Standard Windows protection or any decent third-party antivirus (Norton, Avast, Kaspersky) should be able to detect and remove Brontok. However, if you got infected with Brontok with existing and updated security software, you may consider changing it. To feel safe and protect your PC from Brontok on all levels (browser, e-mail attachments, Word or Excel scripts, file system) we recommend a leading provider of internet security solutions – BitDefender. Its solutions both for home and business users proved to be one of the most advanced and effective. Choose and get your BitDefender protection via the button below: