Malware uses a number of tricks to hide its process, RunPE is one of the common examples of the same. The technique basically involves starting a known, and trusted process may be Explorer.exe in a suspended state. Then it replaces its code with the malware’s own code. And finally, starts it up. Running tools like the Process Explorer may not always be successful in detecting the malicious process. Phrozen RunPE Detector is a free software which has been specially designed to detect and defeat some suspicious processes like these.
RunPE Detector for Windows
- What it is
Putting in simple words, Phrozen RunPE Detector can be used to detect Fileless malware, RATs, Trojans, Backdoors Crypters, Packers & memory resident malware on Windows computers. It basically scans the headers of your processes in memory and then compares them to their disk images. The trick might sound too simple to believe, but it does work. If a process has been exploited by RunPE, then there should be a difference, and you would see an alert.
- How it works
RunPE Detector detects and defeats hacking attacks that use the RunPE techniques to infect your system in either of the following ways:
- Firewall bypass: This technique bypasses or disables your firewall or application firewall rules.
- Malware packer or crypter: This technique is used to unpack or decrypt the malware in memory and to place it into a genuine process without writing it to the disc, where it can be discovered and blocked.
- What it Does
Phrozen RunPE Detector scans the PE headers for every process and then compares the PE headers in memory to the PE headers in the process image path. According to the developers, this is a very simple and efficient method. There are many commercial antivirus programs available, which have the capability to perform this kind of scan, but Phrozen’s RunPE Detector is a standalone tool for performing such scans manually. This security program has been tested against numerous commonly-used types of malware, and the detection rates have been highly accurate.
- Can it be used to remove malware?
This program provides the users with the option to remove whatever malware it detects. Even though it is advisable not to rely on it completely. If you do find a problem, using a full-strength antivirus engine to investigate, would be a good idea. It could be very useful in detecting memory-resident malware like Fileless malware.
- What it does not do
RunPE Detector easily identifies the hijacked processes by scanning all the application files in the system and then compares their PE headers to a running process to detect the point of infection. But it does not identify the host locations when the malicious code is loaded with a malware packer or crypter. This is one reason why the Phrozen developers have recommended using a commercial antivirus solution to remove the malware.
Final Verdict
Because the RunPE technique is so commonly used with RATs, Trojans, Backdoors Crypters, and Packers using RunPE Detector is a smart approach to ensure that your system is free of the most destructive types of malware.
RunPE is still a common attack type, and as Phrozen RunPE Detector is one compact, portable and no-strings free solution. So, we would recommend you grab a copy of this security toolkit.
Phrozen RunPE Detector detects RunPE-compromised processes only if they’re 32-bit. It is compatible with 64-bit systems, but it cannot run scans currently, apparently 64-bit scanning is going to come in soon.