How to remove the Sonbokli Trojan from the operating system

What is Sonbokli?

Sonbokli is a Trojan-type malicious program. It is primarily designed to steal various sensitive/personal information. Sonbokli infections endanger device integrity and user safety. Therefore, this malware must be eliminated from the system immediately. The Sonbokli Trojan has been observed being proliferated via spam campaigns disguised as payment invoices.

Sonbokli malware overview

The Sonbokli Trojan has anti-detection capabilities - it can disable anti-viruses and firewalls on systems, thereby obfuscating its presence and allowing stealthy operation. Additionally, this malicious program has certain "backdoor" features and can potentially expose the system to other threats.

Therefore, Sonbokli might cause chain infections - download/install of additional malware (e.g. ransomware, cryptominers, etc.). The main function of Sonbokli is to steal information. It has keylogging capabilities - this program can record key strokes, compromising the safety of all typed information.

Keylogging is typically used to steal login credentials (i.e., usernames and passwords) of various accounts such as email, social networking, social media, data storage, e-commerce (online store), financial/banking, and so on.

For example, hijacked communication accounts can be misused to ask contacts/friends for loans or to send infectious files to them under the guise of the genuine owner. Should any sensitive or compromising content be obtained by the cyber criminals from any data storage accounts, it might be used for blackmail/ransom purposes.

Bank accounts and credit card details might be misused to make fraudulent monetary transactions, online purchases, etc. To summarize, Sonbokli Trojan can cause financial loss, serious privacy issues and result in identity theft.

If it is suspected or known that Sonbokli (or other malware) has already infected the system, you are strongly advised to use anti-virus software to remove it without delay.

Trojan-type malware in general

Malware classified as Trojans can have dangerous capabilities, which can lead to a number of severe problems.

For example, some types have keylogging features (e.g. 404 Keylogger, Aria-body etc.), whilst others specifically target banking information (e.g. Lucifer, Guildma etc.), exfiltrate stored data (e.g. Sorano Stealer, GrandSteal etc.), cause chain infections (e.g. Buer Loader, Smoke Loader, etc.), enable remote access and control over an infected device (e.g. Hupigon, Luminosity, etc.), and so on.

Regardless of how these malicious programs operate, their purpose is the same: to generate revenue for the cyber criminals behind them. Malware infections are deemed highly dangerous, as they pose significant threats to devices and users.

How did Sonbokli infiltrate my computer?

The Sonbokli Trojan has been observed being distributed through infectious files disguised as payment invoices attached to scam emails. These deceptive messages are usually disguised as "official", "important", "priority", etc. They are sent by the thousand, during large scale operations called "spam campaigns".

Infectious files can be in various formats (e.g. Microsoft Office and PDF documents, archive and executable files, JavaScript, etc.). When these files are executed, run or otherwise, the infection process is triggered (i.e., download/installation of malware), however, malware is also proliferated via untrusted download channels, illegal activation tools ("cracks") and bogus updates.

Malicious content is often downloaded unintentionally from dubious sources such as unofficial and free file-hosting sites, Peer-to-Peer sharing networks (BitTorrent, eMule, Gnutella, etc.) and other third party downloaders.

Rather than activating licensed products, illegal activation tools ("cracks") can download/install malicious programs. Fake updaters infect systems by abusing flaws of outdated products and/or simply by installing malware rather than the promised updates.

How to avoid installation of malware

To avoid infecting the system through deceptive/scam emails, do not open suspicious or irrelevant messages. It is especially important not to open any attachments or links present in dubious mail, as this can trigger download/installation of malicious programs.

Additionally, all downloads should be performed only from official and verified download sources. Activate and update products with tools/functions provided by legitimate developers. Illegal activation ("cracking") tools and third party updaters should not be used, as they often spread malware.

To protect device and user safety, it is crucial to have reputable anti-virus/anti-spyware installed and updated.

Furthermore, this software must be used to run regular systems scans and to remove detected threats and issues. If you believe that your computer is already infected, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Screenshot of the scam emails used to distribute Sonbokli Trojan:

Text presented in this email:

Dear Sir,

Pls give me the invoice for PO HT-WZ-1188-DM-2020
This just due for payment.
 
------------------------------------
تحيّاتي   / Best Regards
MA CHUANG/马闯
供应商管理主管/Supplier Management Supervisor
伊拉克国家公司供应链  / Supply Chain，Anton DMCC
ANTON 安東        安东石油技术（集团）有限公司
Anton Oilfield Services(Group)Ltd.
M: +86 18629035223（China）
E:  machuang@antonoil.com 

Screenshot of Sonbokli Trojan process in Windows Task Manager ("jiiooihp"):

How to remove malware manually?

Most trojan infections can be removed by running a full system scan with Combo Cleaner. The full manual procedure below is for cases where automatic removal failed, where you want to verify a scan caught everything, or where the threat has multiple persistence points.

Tools you'll need

Combo Cleaner Antivirus 7-days free trial

Recommended primary scanner. VB100 certified. The 7-day free trial is available.

Microsoft Defender Offline Free · built-in

Built into Windows. Boots to a clean environment to catch rootkits.

Process Explorer Free

From Microsoft Sysinternals. Better than Task Manager - shows full paths and signatures.

Autoruns Free

From Microsoft Sysinternals. Lists every place malware can persist on your system.

Microsoft Safety Scanner (MSERT) Free

Official Microsoft on-demand scanner. Always-current signatures - expires every 10 days.

Phase 1~ 5 min

Contain - limit the damage

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1

Disconnect from the network

30 secNo tool needed

Unplug your Ethernet cable and turn off Wi-Fi. If you're on a laptop, the airplane-mode key works fastest.

Why this matters

Many trojans exfiltrate data - saved browser passwords, banking sessions, screenshots - and accept remote commands. Cutting the network stops both immediately. Keep it disconnected until Phase 4.

2

Boot into Safe Mode with Networking

3 min

Safe Mode loads a minimal set of drivers and stops most malware from auto-running. "With Networking" lets you download tools - re-enable Wi-Fi only after you've booted in.

Windows 11

Open Settings → System → Recovery. Click Restart now next to Advanced startup.

Your computer will restart into the "Choose an option" menu. Click Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Settings → Restart. After the second reboot, press 5 or F5.

Windows 10

Click the Windows logo, hold Shift, click the Power icon and choose Restart. In the Choose an option screen, click Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Settings → Restart. Press F5.

Windows 8

Go to the Start Screen, type Advanced, select Settings → Advanced startup options → Restart now → Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup settings → Restart → F5.

Note: Windows 8 reached end-of-life in January 2023 - running on it puts you at much higher risk of reinfection.

Windows 7

Click Start → Shut Down → Restart → OK. As the system boots, press F8 repeatedly until the Windows Advanced Options menu appears, then choose Safe Mode with Networking.

Note: Windows 7 reached end-of-life in January 2020 - running on it puts you at much higher risk of reinfection.

Phase 2~ 15 min

Identify - find what's hiding

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3

Inspect running processes with Process Explorer

Tool: Process Explorer5 min

Download Process Explorer from Microsoft Sysinternals. Run it as Administrator. Click Options → Verify Image Signatures and View → Lower Pane View → DLLs.

Sort by "Verified Signer." Anything unsigned running from %AppData%, %LocalAppData%, %Temp%, or %ProgramData% is suspicious. Right-click → Properties to see the full image path. Right-click → "Search Online" to look up unfamiliar process names.

Why not just Task Manager

Task Manager hides full file paths, doesn't show digital signatures, and groups processes in ways that make malware easy to miss. Process Explorer is the same tool Microsoft engineers use.

4

Map every persistence point with Autoruns

Tool: Autoruns 14.x10 min

Download Autoruns. Right-click Autoruns.exe and choose Run as administrator - without elevation, Autoruns can't inspect protected registry hives.

In the menu, open Options → Hide Microsoft Entries and Options → Hide Empty Locations, then click Refresh.

Modern trojans don't just live in startup. Walk through these tabs and look for unsigned or unfamiliar entries:

• Logon - classic Run/RunOnce keys
• Scheduled Tasks - frequent hiding spot, especially tasks with PowerShell, MSHTA, or rundll32 actions
• Services - unsigned services in non-Microsoft folders
• WMI - Event Subscriptions are a stealthy persistence mechanism (MITRE T1546.003)
• Image Hijacks - Image File Execution Options "Debugger" abuse
• AppInit - DLLs loaded into every GUI process
• Browser plug-ins - unsigned add-ons across all installed browsers

Pro tip

Right-click any suspicious entry → "Jump to Image" to see the actual file. Right-click → "Search Online" opens VirusTotal for the file hash. Don't delete yet - just write down the file paths and entry names. We'll remove them after the scans.

5

Check the hosts file and DNS settings

3 minBuilt into Windows

Trojans often redirect bank, antivirus, and update domains to attacker-controlled servers by editing the hosts file or DNS settings.

Hosts file: Open Notepad as Administrator and open C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts. Legitimate entries are commented with #. Any uncommented IP-to-domain mapping is suspicious - especially redirects for microsoft.com, windowsupdate, or your bank.

DNS settings: Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run ipconfig /all. Confirm your DNS servers point to your ISP, your router, or a known public resolver (Cloudflare 1.1.1.1, Google 8.8.8.8). Then open Settings → Network & internet → [your adapter] → DNS server assignment and verify both DNS and DNS over HTTPS (DoH) settings haven't been hijacked.

Why this matters

A clean PC with hijacked DNS is still a compromised PC. You'll think you're at chase.com and you'll be at the attacker's clone.

Phase 3~ 60-90 min

Remove - three scans, one cleanup

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No single antivirus catches everything. The order below is intentional: offline scan first (catches rootkits before Windows fully loads), then on-demand scanners on the running system, then manual cleanup of anything they missed.

6

Run Microsoft Defender Offline

Tool: Built into Windows15 min

Reboot to normal Windows. Open Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Scan options. Select Microsoft Defender Antivirus (offline scan) and click Scan now. Your computer will restart into a stripped-down environment and scan before the full operating system loads.

Why this comes first

Rootkits and bootkits hide from any scanner running on the same Windows session that's already infected. A pre-boot offline scan sees the disk before the malware can hide itself.

Recommended antivirus

Combo Cleaner

VB100 certified. Includes anti-trojan, registry/persistence scanning, anti-spyware in one pass. The 7-day free trial is available.

Download Combo Cleaner

7

Run Combo Cleaner full system scan

Tool: Combo Cleaner20-40 min

Install Combo Cleaner and run a full system scan (not the quick scan). Let it complete fully, review the detected threats, and apply the recommended actions. Combo Cleaner will quarantine known trojans and registry persistence.

8

Run Microsoft Safety Scanner as a second-opinion scan

Tool: Microsoft Safety Scanner15 min

Download Microsoft Safety Scanner (MSERT.exe), Microsoft's free on-demand tool. The binary expires every 10 days, which means every download has the latest signatures. Run a full scan after Combo Cleaner to catch anything one engine alone might miss.

Why a second scan

Different scanning engines catch different threats. Running an additional Microsoft scan after Combo Cleaner is the single most underused verification step in malware removal.

9

Manually remove anything still listed in Autoruns

Tool: Autoruns10 min

Reopen Autoruns. Anything you flagged in Step 4 that's still present hasn't been caught by the automated scans. For each remaining suspicious entry: right-click → Delete in Autoruns (this removes the persistence registration), then navigate to the file path and delete the actual file. Empty the Recycle Bin.

Important

Some malware files reappear after deletion because something else on the system recreates them. If you delete a file and it returns within minutes, you have a remaining persistence point that Autoruns didn't show - usually a service or scheduled task running under SYSTEM. Re-run the scans from Steps 6-8 or proceed to a clean install (see end of guide).

Phase 4~ 15 min

Recover - restore browsers and security

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10

Reset browsers and clear notification permissions

5 min

Trojans and adware frequently hijack browsers - change the default search engine, install rogue extensions, or grant themselves notification permissions to keep displaying scam pop-ups even after the malware is gone.

• Chrome: visit chrome://settings/reset and click "Restore settings to their original defaults." Then visit chrome://settings/content/notifications and remove any unfamiliar sites.
• Edge: visit edge://settings/reset. Then check edge://settings/content/notifications.
• Firefox: open about:support and click Refresh Firefox (Firefox uses "Refresh," not "Reset"). Then check Settings → Privacy & Security → Permissions → Notifications.

Review installed extensions in each browser and remove anything you don't recognize, especially extensions you didn't install yourself.

11

Re-enable Defender, Tamper Protection, and update everything

10 min

Many trojans disable security software. Open Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Manage settings and confirm Real-time protection, Cloud-delivered protection, and Tamper Protection are all turned on. Tamper Protection prevents malware from disabling Defender silently.

Then run Windows Update (Settings → Windows Update → Check for updates) and update your browsers and applications. The infection vector that let the trojan in originally usually involves outdated software.

Phase 5~ 15 min + 7 days

Verify & secure

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12

Change passwords from a clean device

20 min⚠ Critical

If the trojan was an info-stealer (Lumma, RedLine, Vidar, and similar are extremely common), assume every password saved in your browser is compromised. Change them from a different, known-clean device - your phone is fine if it's not infected.

Recommended order:

1. Primary email first - it's the recovery hub for everything else
2. Banking and financial accounts
3. Password manager master password (if you use one)
4. Social media, shopping, and remaining accounts

Where available, enable phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (passkeys / FIDO2 hardware keys / authenticator apps) - SMS-based MFA is bypassable by sophisticated attackers.

13

Verify the clean and monitor for 7 days

5 min + 1 week monitoring

Reconnect to the network and run one final full scan with Combo Cleaner. Open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and switch to the Startup apps tab - confirm nothing suspicious has reappeared.

Over the next 7 days, watch for symptom recurrence: unexpected high CPU usage, unknown processes returning, browser redirects, or pop-ups. If anything returns, you missed a persistence point and the procedure needs to be repeated - or you may have a deeper compromise that requires a clean install.

When to clean install Windows instead

Manual removal isn't always the right answer. Reinstalling Windows from scratch is the only way to be 100% certain when:

• The malware reappears after every removal attempt
• A bootkit or UEFI rootkit was detected (this class of threat sits below the operating system and survives a normal Windows reinstall)
• A confirmed credential-theft trojan ran with administrator privileges (Lumma, RedLine, Vidar) - the system likely has multiple unknown payloads
• The PC is used for online banking, business email, or anything where partial doubt isn't acceptable

A clean install is a 30-60 minute process: Windows 11 reinstall via Settings → System → Recovery → Reset this PC → Remove everything → Cloud download. Back up documents to external storage first, scan the backup with Combo Cleaner before restoring it, and reinstall applications fresh - never restore them from a backup of the infected system.

Important: Manual removal requires advanced computer skills. If you're not confident identifying system files from malicious files, run an automated scan with Combo Cleaner and Windows Defender and stop there - that path catches the vast majority of consumer trojans without the risk of breaking Windows by deleting the wrong file.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

My computer is infected with Sonbokli malware, should I format my storage device to get rid of it?

No, Sonbokli's removal does not necessitate formatting.

What are the biggest issues that Sonbokli malware can cause?

Sonbokli is a multifunctional piece of malicious software. The threats posed by such a program depend on its abilities and the cyber criminals' aims.

This trojan has extensive information-stealing capabilities and can infect devices with additional malware (e.g., trojans, ransomware, cryptominers, etc.). Generally, infections of this type can lead to diminished system performance or failure, severe privacy issues, data loss, hardware damage, financial losses, and identity theft.

What is the purpose of Sonbokli malware?

Most malicious programs are employed to generate revenue. However, cyber criminals can also use this software for their own amusement or to disrupt processes (e.g., websites, services, companies, organizations, etc.). Malware attacks may be motivated by personal grudges or political/geopolitical reasons.

How did Sonbokli malware infiltrate my computer?

Malware is primarily proliferated through drive-by downloads, spam emails and messages, dubious download channels (e.g., unofficial and freeware sites, P2P sharing networks, etc.), online scams, illegal program activation tools ("cracks"), and fake updates. Furthermore, some malicious programs can self-spread via local networks and removable storage devices (e.g., external hard drives, USB flash drives, etc.).

Will Combo Cleaner protect me from malware?

Yes, Combo Cleaner is capable of detecting and eliminating practically all known malware infections. Note that performing a full system scan is essential - since high-end malicious software typically hides deep within systems.