Analysis of aswArPot.sys: malicious verdict, risk score 88/100. 8 YARA matches, 11/75 multi-engine detections. SHA256 4b5229b3250c8c08. Kernel imports, IOCTL codes, MITRE ATT&CK, and code-signing details.
DriverShield analyzed the Windows kernel driver aswArPot.sys and assigned a verdict of Malicious with a composite risk score of 88/100, indicating malicious indicators (80-100 band).
| Verdict | Malicious (88/100) |
| YARA matches | 8 |
| Multi-engine detections | 11 / 75 |
| File size | 208024 bytes |
| Code-signing signer | DigiCert Timestamp 2021 |
| Analyzed | 2026-09-06 |
| SHA256 | 4b5229b3250c8c08b98cb710d6c056144271de099a57ae09f5d2097fc41bd4f1 |
| SHA1 | 5d6b9e80e12bfc595d4d26f6afb099b3cb471dd4 |
| MD5 | a179c4093d05a3e1ee73f6ff07f994aa |
Version resource data embedded in the aswArPot.sys PE header, as extracted by the analysis engine.
| File description | Avast Anti Rootkit |
|---|---|
| Product | Avast Antivirus |
| Company | AVAST Software |
| Original filename | aswArPot.sys |
| Internal name | aswArPot |
| File version | 21.1.187.0 |
| Copyright | Copyright (c) 2021 AVAST Software |
Each component is scored 0-100 and then weighted into the composite. See the analysis methodology for the exact formula.
| Component | Sub-score |
|---|---|
| Multi-engine consensus | 0 / 100 |
| YARA signature matches | 100 / 100 |
| Dangerous kernel imports | 100 / 100 |
| IOCTL dispatch surface | 84 / 100 |
| Known-vulnerable corpus | 100 / 100 |
| Code-signing state | 0 / 100 |
| Packing and entropy | 0 / 100 |
| Dynamic behaviour | 0 / 100 |
| CVE cross-reference | 0 / 100 |
Kernel-mode APIs resolved from the Import Address Table of aswArPot.sys, ranked by exploitation relevance.
| API | Risk | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| MmMapIoSpace | critical | Highly dangerous - potential for arbitrary code execution, memory corruption, or process termination |
| ZwMapViewOfSection | critical | Highly dangerous - potential for arbitrary code execution, memory corruption, or process termination |
| ZwTerminateProcess | critical | Highly dangerous - potential for arbitrary code execution, memory corruption, or process termination |
| MmMapLockedPagesSpecifyCache | critical | Highly dangerous - potential for arbitrary code execution, memory corruption, or process termination |
| KeAttachProcess | high | Potentially dangerous - could be used for privilege escalation or security bypass |
| PsLookupProcessByProcessId | high | Potentially dangerous - could be used for privilege escalation or security bypass |
| PsSetCreateProcessNotifyRoutine | high | Potentially dangerous - could be used for privilege escalation or security bypass |
| ZwOpenProcess | high | Potentially dangerous - could be used for privilege escalation or security bypass |
| WRITE_PORT_UCHAR | high | Potentially dangerous - could be used for privilege escalation or security bypass |
| MmGetSystemRoutineAddress | high | Potentially dangerous - could be used for privilege escalation or security bypass |
| READ_PORT_UCHAR | high | Potentially dangerous - could be used for privilege escalation or security bypass |
| CmRegisterCallback | medium | Moderate risk - system modification capability |
| ZwDeleteFile | medium | Moderate risk - system modification capability |
| KeBugCheckEx | medium | Moderate risk - system modification capability |
| PsSetLoadImageNotifyRoutine | medium | Moderate risk - system modification capability |
| ObReferenceObjectByHandle | medium | Moderate risk - system modification capability |
| ZwCreateKey | medium | Moderate risk - system modification capability |
| ZwQuerySystemInformation | medium | Moderate risk - system modification capability |
| IoGetDeviceObjectPointer | medium | Moderate risk - system modification capability |
| PsSetCreateThreadNotifyRoutine | medium | Moderate risk - system modification capability |
| ZwSetValueKey | medium | Moderate risk - system modification capability |
| ZwSetInformationFile | medium | Moderate risk - system modification capability |
| MmUnmapIoSpace | medium | Moderate risk - system modification capability |
| ObOpenObjectByPointer | medium | Moderate risk - system modification capability |
| ZwWriteFile | medium | Moderate risk - system modification capability |
| IoCreateDeviceSecure | low | Standard kernel API - generally benign |
| IoBuildDeviceIoControlRequest | low | Standard kernel API - generally benign |
| ZwQueryValueKey | low | Standard kernel API - generally benign |
Showing the 28 highest-relevance imports of 45 resolved.
Control codes reachable through the driver dispatch routine. Codes tied to published exploit code are flagged, since they are the primary Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) entry points.
| Code | Severity | Transfer | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0x0080840F | high | METHOD_NEITHER | FILE_DEVICE_CUSTOM Function #259 |
| 0x0022B88B | high | METHOD_NEITHER | FILE_DEVICE_UNKNOWN Function #3618 |
| 0x00808D8B | high | METHOD_NEITHER | FILE_DEVICE_CUSTOM Function #866 |
| 0x0022011B | high | METHOD_NEITHER | FILE_DEVICE_UNKNOWN Function #70 |
| 0x00223423 | high | METHOD_NEITHER | FILE_DEVICE_UNKNOWN Function #3336 |
| 0x00343D07 | high | METHOD_NEITHER | FILE_DEVICE_DISK Function #3905 |
| 0x002200F0 | medium | METHOD_BUFFERED | FILE_DEVICE_UNKNOWN Function #60 |
| 0x0080EC81 | medium | METHOD_IN_DIRECT | FILE_DEVICE_CUSTOM Function #2848 |
| 0x0080808D | medium | METHOD_IN_DIRECT | FILE_DEVICE_CUSTOM Function #35 |
| 0x00802494 | medium | METHOD_BUFFERED | FILE_DEVICE_CUSTOM Function #2341 |
| 0x0034EFE8 | medium | METHOD_BUFFERED | FILE_DEVICE_DISK Function #3066 |
| 0x0080C481 | medium | METHOD_IN_DIRECT | FILE_DEVICE_CUSTOM Function #288 |
| 0x008024A4 | medium | METHOD_BUFFERED | FILE_DEVICE_CUSTOM Function #2345 |
| 0x00802484 | medium | METHOD_BUFFERED | FILE_DEVICE_CUSTOM Function #2337 |
| 0x0080248C | medium | METHOD_BUFFERED | FILE_DEVICE_CUSTOM Function #2339 |
| 0x0080FB81 | medium | METHOD_IN_DIRECT | FILE_DEVICE_CUSTOM Function #3808 |
| 0x002225C0 | medium | METHOD_BUFFERED | FILE_DEVICE_UNKNOWN Function #2416 |
| 0x00809E8D | medium | METHOD_IN_DIRECT | FILE_DEVICE_CUSTOM Function #1955 |
| 0x0080249C | medium | METHOD_BUFFERED | FILE_DEVICE_CUSTOM Function #2343 |
| 0x0080A315 | medium | METHOD_IN_DIRECT | FILE_DEVICE_CUSTOM Function #2245 |
| 0x0080D315 | medium | METHOD_IN_DIRECT | FILE_DEVICE_CUSTOM Function #1221 |
| 0x00800715 | medium | METHOD_IN_DIRECT | FILE_DEVICE_CUSTOM Function #453 |
| 0x008024B4 | medium | METHOD_BUFFERED | FILE_DEVICE_CUSTOM Function #2349 |
| 0x0022E8C1 | medium | METHOD_IN_DIRECT | FILE_DEVICE_UNKNOWN Function #2608 |
Showing 24 of 28 extracted control codes.
Section layout and Shannon entropy. High entropy in a code section is a packing or encryption indicator.
| Section | Virtual size | Raw size | Entropy | Flags |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| .text | 0x228C2 | 0x22A00 | 6.38 | CODE, EXEC, READ |
| .rdata | 0x3BA4 | 0x3C00 | 5.71 | IDATA, READ |
| .data | 0x25AD0 | 0x0A00 | 2.83 | IDATA, READ, WRITE |
| .pdata | 0x1218 | 0x1400 | 5.04 | IDATA, READ |
| PAGE | 0x1C4B | 0x1E00 | 6.11 | CODE, EXEC, READ |
| INIT | 0x13DC | 0x1400 | 5.34 | CODE, EXEC, READ, DISCARD |
| .rsrc | 0x0398 | 0x0400 | 3.02 | IDATA, READ, DISCARD |
| .reloc | 0x01A0 | 0x0200 | 4.96 | IDATA, READ, DISCARD |
| Control Flow Guard | Enabled |
|---|---|
| ASLR | Enabled |
| DEP | Enabled |
| Integrity check | Not enforced |
| Mitigation score | 100 / 100 |
| Rule | Severity | Detects |
|---|---|---|
| PUA_VULN_Driver_Avastsoftware_Aswarpot_Avastantivirus_4B52 | medium | Detects vulnerable driver mentioned in known-vulnerable driver corpus project using VersionInfo values from the PE header - aswArPot.sys. Investigate matches in context: expected filenames or standard... |
| BYOVD_MemRW | critical | Phys memory mapping + device creation |
| BYOVD_ProcKill | critical | Process termination EDR killer |
| SUSP_PhysMem | high | Physical memory mapping |
| SUSP_Callbacks | medium | Kernel callback registration |
| SUSP_PortIO | medium | Direct port I/O |
| MAL_EDRKiller | critical | Generic EDR killer pattern |
| MAL_DSEBypass | critical | DSE bypass attempt |
Techniques this driver could enable if loaded by an adversary.
| ID | Technique | Tactic |
|---|---|---|
| T1003 | OS Credential Dumping | Credential Access |
| T1003.001 | OS Credential Dumping: LSASS Memory | Credential Access |
| T1006 | Direct Volume Access | Defense Evasion |
| T1014 | Rootkit | Defense Evasion |
| T1055.001 | Process Injection: DLL Injection | Defense Evasion |
| T1055.012 | Process Hollowing | Defense Evasion |
| T1068 | Exploitation for Privilege Escalation | Privilege Escalation |
| T1071 | Application Layer Protocol | Command and Control |
| T1112 | Modify Registry | Defense Evasion |
| T1211 | Exploitation for Defense Evasion | Defense Evasion |
| T1489 | Service Stop | Impact |
| T1542.001 | Pre-OS Boot: System Firmware | Persistence |
| T1543.003 | Windows Service | Persistence |
| T1547.001 | Registry Run Keys | Persistence |
| T1553.002 | Subvert Trust Controls: Code Signing | Defense Evasion |
| T1562.001 | Disable/Modify Tools | Defense Evasion |
| T1562.006 | Indicator Blocking | Defense Evasion |
| T1564.001 | Hidden Files and Directories | Defense Evasion |
| T1569.002 | Service Execution | Execution |
| T1601 | Modify System Image | Defense Evasion |
| T1652 | Device Driver Discovery | Discovery |
| Signer | DigiCert Timestamp 2021 |
|---|---|
| Signer organisation | DigiCert, Inc. |
| Issuer | DigiCert SHA2 Assured ID Timestamping CA |
| Serial | D424AE0BE3A88FF604021CE1400F0DD |
| Valid from | 2021-01-01 00:00 UTC |
| Valid until | 2031-01-06 00:00 UTC |
| Signature validity | Verified |
Engine angr, status static_approximation, 0 paths explored at a maximum depth of 0. Vulnerability classes reached: 0. Exploitable paths: 0.
Corpus match: this hash is present in the known-vulnerable driver corpus DriverShield cross-references during analysis, which is why the score carries a full weighting on that component.
Based on DriverShield static and dynamic analysis, aswArPot.sys is flagged as malicious and should be treated as dangerous. Its composite risk score is 88/100 (verdict: malicious). Always validate findings independently before acting.
aswArPot.sys has a DriverShield composite risk score of 88/100, placing it in the malicious verdict band. SHA256: 4b5229b3250c8c08b98cb710d6c056144271de099a57ae09f5d2097fc41bd4f1.
aswArPot.sys is a Windows kernel-mode driver (.sys) analyzed by DriverShield for vulnerabilities, BYOVD abuse potential, and malware indicators. It is code-signed by DigiCert Timestamp 2021.
Related: Other drivers signed by DigiCert Timestamp 2021 · What an IOCTL dispatch code is · How YARA matching feeds the score · BYOVD research index · full driver database · CVE library · code signing atlas