New ZBot Removal Tool Available for Free

Romanian security vendor BitDefender has released a free stand-alone tool, capable of removing all ZBot variants detected by company's antivirus products.

ZBot is a notorious family of computer trojans with advanced information stealing capabilities, which also function as botnet clients.

The ZBot malware is generated by a crimeware toolkit called ZeuS, which is sold by its creators to other cybercriminals on the underground market.

Because of this, there are numerous ZBot variants in circulation and many active ZBot-based botnets at any given time.

This trojan has proven particularly good at stealing online banking credentials, which makes it one of the preferred tools for fraudsters.

However, its features extend well beyond the ability to steal logins. The ZeuS toolkit supports third-party plugins, which add new functionality, like injecting rogue code in Web forms or establishing tunnels between the attacker's and the victim's computers.

These advanced capabilities have been used to defeat anti-fraud security mechanisms and steal millions of dollars during the past two years from the accounts of small business and government agencies.

"As part of its ongoing efforts to inform, educate and help users worldwide in their fight against e-threats, BitDefender has created a ZBot Removal Tool.

"The removal tool checks users’ computers, detects and eliminates most of the ZBot variants spotted in the wild," the antivirus vendor announces.

However, while this free signature-based removal tool can be used to clean already existent ZBot infections, it should definitely not be viewed as a protection mechanism against this complex threat.

ZBot pushers constantly put out new variants with the specific purpose of bypassing A V detection and infecting new systems.

There have been numerous cases where the trojan flew under the radar of even the most capable antivirus solutions on the market.

According to the ZeuS Tracker project, which monitors ZBot activity, the average binary detection rate for this malware at the moment is 47.22%.

The BitDefender ZBot Removal Tool can be downloaded from here.