ThreatLabz

This report provides a technical analysis of the Pikabot malware, detailing its injector and core module anti-analysis checks (exception handlers, PEB flags, debugger checks, rdtsc, hardware-breakpoint/trap-flag detection), payload decryption (PNG resource XOR + AES-CBC), process injection and protection, persistence via Run keys and PowerShell stored in HKCU, encrypted C2 configuration and traffic (Base64/AES with embedded keys and IVs), supported remote tasks (cmd, shellcode, dll, exe, data collection), and network registration behavior; it also notes campaign identifiers and similarities to Qakbot.