MALWARE FAMILY

Houdini

Internal ID: win.houdini

aliases

Last seen:Mar 17, 2026

Intelligence Profile

Houdini is a VBS-based RAT dating back to 2013. Past in the days, it used to be wrapped in an .exe but started being spamvertized or downloaded by other malware directly as .vbs in 2018. In 2019, WSHRAT appeared, a Javascript-based version of Houdini, recoded by the name of Kognito.

Threat Analysis

Houdini 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://blog.morphisec.com/hworm-houdini-aka-njrat

→http://blogs.360.cn/post/analysis-of-apt-c-37.html

→https://about.fb.com/news/2021/04/taking-action-against-hackers-in-palestine/

→https://blog.morphisec.com/ahk-rat-loader-leveraged-in-unique-delivery-campaigns

→https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2021/09/operation-layover-how-we-tracked-attack.html

→https://blogs.360.cn/post/APT-C-44.html

→https://cofense.com/houdini-worm-transformed-new-phishing-attack/

→https://cybersecurity.att.com/blogs/labs-research/alien-labs-2019-analysis-of-threat-groups-molerats-and-apt-c-37

→https://github.com/jeFF0Falltrades/IoCs/blob/master/Broadbased/wsh_rat.md

→https://isc.sans.edu/forums/diary/Houdini+is+Back+Delivered+Through+a+JavaScript+Dropper/28746/

Quick Facts

TypeMalware Family

Aliases1

Also Known As

win.houdini

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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