How to remove Emotet trojan

What is Emotet trojan

Also known as Geodo, Emotet is labeled as a banking trojan that was detected to infiltrate Windows systems. It was first researched by cyber experts in 2014 as a virus designed to steal sensitive information from users. The time development went on, Emotet experienced a couple of feature changes. For instance, apart from running surveillance over the data, it acquired the feature of injecting additional malware and other banking trojans to infected machines. Emotet forces its victims to undergo massive privacy issues and deterioration in system performance. Because such malware has to run a lot of non-native processes and send collected data to external servers, it is forced to eat a lot of system resources as well. This is why your PC performance can be affected so much leading to freezes, lags, and various other problems making normal usage simply impossible. Emotet has done a lot of attacks which made the Department of Homeland Security write it on the list of the most damaging and costly malware for governments, organizations, and individuals ever existed. The biggest advantage of such malware lies in its ability to allow crooks to run different operations upon successful installation. This means swindlers can easily spy on users’ activity and steal any personal data they like ranging from passwords to IP addresses, credentials, and other sorts of potentially valuable information. As we mentioned above, trojans can also act as a gateway for ransom- or spyware to enter the system. Although Emotet is notoriously deemed as a Windows trojan, some of its versions may end up on Mac as well. The virus is well-educated to evade protection layers and come through the shields of many anti-malware programs. In sum, Emotet is a high-risk virus that can be hazardous and lead to various problems including monetary loss, privacy leaks, and other scary things. This is why it is important to remove it as soon as possible and establish secure protection to not let something similar happen again.

Emotet trojan malicious document

Emotet trojan malicious e-mail

How Emotet virus infected your computer

Over the course of Emotet’s existence, the virus has used a number of different ways to infiltrate systems. Its main goal has been centered towards business networks wielding an ocean of sensitive data that frauds can profit from. In the majority of cases, cybercriminals sent macro-enabled document files (e.g. Word, Excel, PDF) or malicious links to private or corporate e-mails and continue doing the same up to these days. The channeled letters may have familiar e-mail addresses so as to look trustworthy and more legitimate. Trojan developers may also use files or subject lines named as invoices, pending shipment from a delivery company, and other fake headings meant to entice you into opening files. After stepping over the line and initiating the received files completely (after enabling “Edit Mode” in Word files), malware developers will be able to send executable commands from their servers to run whatever they want. Put differently, they will have full control of the system. If there are some other devices located within the same network, the Emotet virus will infect them as well. As mentioned, Emotet is a banking trojan, which is why it will use any opportunity to find and gather sensitive data. If you are a regular user, it is easier to draw your focus and prevent Emotet from infecting your PC. It is way harder to control all employees and branch departments when running a firm or corporation, which makes their network more susceptible to trojan attacks. For this reason, it is worth having top-tier protection installed to combat threats like Emotet trojan before it cracks open the gate.

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

Remove Emotet manually

Manual removal of Emotet 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 Emotet 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 Emotet using Autoruns

Emotet 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 Emotet

Emotet files and folders


C:\WINDOWS\12345678.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSWOW64\SERVERNV.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSWOW64\NUMB3R2ANDL3373RS.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\1A2B.TMP
PlayingonaHash.exe
certapp.exe
CleanToast.exe
CciAllow.exe
RulerRuler.exe
connectmrm.exe


Emotet registry keys


HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\[Dropped_Filename]\Type: 0x00000010
HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\[Dropped_Filename]\Start: 0x00000002
HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\[Dropped_Filename]\ErrorControl: 0x00000000
HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\[Dropped_Filename]\ImagePath: %windir%\System32|SysWOW64\[Dropped_Filename].exe
HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\[Dropped_Filename]\DisplayName: [Dropped_Filename] HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\[Dropped_Filename]\ObjectName: LocalSystem
HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\[Dropped_Filename]\Description:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES\1A345B7
HKLM\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES\12C4567D


Aliases of Emotet

How to protect from threats, like Emotet, in future

Standard Windows protection or any decent third-party antivirus (Norton, Avast, Kaspersky) should be able to detect and remove Emotet. However, if you got infected with Emotet with existing and updated security software, you may consider changing it. To feel safe and protect your PC from Emotet 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: