MALWARE FAMILY

DNSMessenger

Internal ID: win.dnsmessenger

aliases

Last seen:Mar 17, 2026

Intelligence Profile

DNSMessenger makes use of DNS TXT record queries and responses to create a bidirectional Command and Control (C2) channel. This allows the attacker to use DNS communications to submit new commands to be run on infected machines and return the results of the command execution to the attacker.

Threat Analysis

DNSMessenger is a malware family tracked by threat intelligence researchers and catalogued in the Malpedia dataset. It represents a distinct malicious software lineage with identifiable code characteristics, behaviors, and victimology.

External References

→http://wraithhacker.com/2017/10/11/more-info-on-evolved-dnsmessenger/

→https://blog.apnic.net/2022/03/31/how-to-detect-and-prevent-common-data-exfiltration-attacks/

→https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2017/03/dnsmessenger.html

→https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2017/10/dnsmessenger-sec-campaign.html

→https://cert.ssi.gouv.fr/uploads/20220427_NP_TLPWHITE_ANSSI_FIN7.pdf

→https://summit.fireeye.com/content/dam/fireeye-www/summit/cds-2018/presentations/cds18-technical-s05-att&cking-fin7.pdf

Quick Facts

TypeMalware Family

Aliases1

Also Known As

win.dnsmessenger

Research Links

MITRE ATT&CK VirusTotal Google (news) Twitter/X search

Data sourced from Malpedia, Ransomware.live, RansomLook, and CTIWATCH OSINT collection. Actor attribution is based on available intelligence and may be incomplete.

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