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Sphinx is a ZeuS-derived Windows banking trojan that emerged on underground markets in 2015 and was later observed in criminal spam campaigns, including COVID-19-themed email operations in 2020. Written in C++ and marketed as a new ZeuS variant, it retained substantial banking-fraud functionality associated with the ZeuS ecosystem while adding operator-focused features intended to support stealth, remote fraud operations, and resilient command-and-control.
Sphinx was designed to steal banking and other sensitive data through webinjects, form grabbing, cookie theft, FTP and POP3 credential theft, certificate theft, and keylogging. It also supported transparent page redirection through webfakes, enabling phishing-style interception without visibly changing the victim’s browsing context. Remote access features included reverse SOCKS proxying and hidden VNC-style access, allowing operators to conduct transactions from the victim host. Its webinject format was advertised as compatible with ZeuS, SpyEye, and Citadel-style injects, underscoring its lineage within the banking-trojan crimeware ecosystem.
The malware was described as operating through Tor infrastructure and using encrypted HTTP communications with per-botnet keys. It was marketed as resistant to sinkholing, blacklisting, and common tracking approaches. On installation, Sphinx copied itself into the user profile area, deleted the original installer, and was intended to function with minimal privileges, including on systems with User Account Control enabled and even under restricted user contexts. It also used an internal process whitelist for communications in an apparent effort to evade firewall restrictions.
Sphinx is associated with financially motivated cybercrime and banking fraud activity rather than espionage. It has been listed among globally active PC banking trojans in reporting on the Russian-speaking cybercrime ecosystem, and phishing or spam email distribution has been identified as a primary infection vector for banking trojans in that milieu. In 2020, Sphinx was specifically observed in COVID-themed spam campaigns. Separately, a distinct ransomware operation has been referred to as Sphinx ransomware; that is a different malware lineage from the ZeuS-based banking trojan.
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16 distinct techniques documented for this family, organized by ATT&CK tactic.
Features: Malware: Formgrabber and Webinjects for latest Internet Explorer, Mozilla. Firefox and Tor Browser with cookie grabber and transparent page redirect(Webfakes). Backconnect SOCKS, VNC. Socks 4/4a/5 with UDP and IPv6 support. FTP, POP3 grabber. Certificate grabber. Keylogger.
Features: Malware: Formgrabber and Webinjects for latest Internet Explorer, Mozilla. Firefox and Tor Browser with cookie grabber
Features: Malware: Formgrabber and Webinjects for latest Internet Explorer, Mozilla. Firefox and Tor Browser with cookie grabber and transparent page redirect(Webfakes). Backconnect SOCKS, VNC. Socks 4/4a/5 with UDP and IPv6 support. FTP, POP3 grabber. Certificate grabber. Keylogger.
Features: Malware: Formgrabber and Webinjects for latest Internet Explorer, Mozilla. Firefox and Tor Browser with cookie grabber
The session takes place via HTTP-protocol, all data sent by a bot and received from the server is encrypted with a unique key for each botnet.
Backconnect SOCKS: Use your victims as a SOCKS proxy. Port-forwarding is not required due use of Reverse connection.
6 indicators attributed across vendor reports, sandbox runs, and researcher write-ups. Full values are available in Mallory.
IPs, domains, and DNS infrastructure linked to this family.
File hashes (MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256) from samples and reports.
Other indicator types observed in public reporting.
5 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
Banking trojan based on Zeus source code, spread via COVID-themed emails and malicious documents that drop VBS scripts and additional payloads.
Named as the ransomware from which Anubis emerged as a spinoff.
PC banking trojan listed among malware actively used to attack companies.
A Zeus-based banking trojan sold as a crimeware kit that operates through the Tor network and includes form grabbing, webinjects, webfakes, keylogging, certificate theft, FTP/POP3 grabbing, reverse SOCKS/VNC backconnect, encrypted HTTP C2, and a PHP web panel for botnet management.
Match every observed IP, domain, and hash against your live telemetry.
Named campaigns wielding this family, with evidence pinned to each claim.
CVEs this family uses for access and lateral movement.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Every documented technique, ranked by evidence weight.
Reddit, Mastodon, and CTI community discussion around this family.