Shifting the sands of RansomHub’s EDRKillShifter

ESET researchers have a look again on the vital modifications within the ransomware ecosystem in 2024 and deal with the newly emerged and at the moment dominating ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) gang, RansomHub. We share beforehand unpublished insights into RansomHub’s affiliate construction and uncover clear connections between this newly emerged large and well-established gangs Play, Medusa, and BianLian.

We additionally emphasize the rising risk of EDR killers, unmasking EDRKillShifter, a customized EDR killer developed and maintained by RansomHub. We’ve noticed a rise in ransomware associates utilizing code derived from publicly out there proofs of idea, whereas the set of drivers being abused is basically fastened.

Lastly, based mostly on our observations following the law-enforcement-led Operation Cronos and the demise of the notorious BlackCat gang, we provide our insights into find out how to help on this intensive combat towards ransomware.

Key factors of this blogpost:

• We found clear hyperlinks between the RansomHub, Play, Medusa, and BianLian ransomware gangs.
• We achieved this by following the path of tooling that RansomHub gives its associates.
• We doc further findings about EDRKillShifter, correlating our observations with RansomHub’s public exercise.
• We provide insights into the rising risk of EDR killers, their anatomy, and their position within the ransomware world.

Overview

The combat towards ransomware reached two milestones in 2024: LockBit and BlackCat, previously the highest two gangs, dropped out of the image. And for the primary time since 2022, recorded ransomware funds dropped, particularly by a gorgeous 35% regardless of reverse expectations in the course of the 12 months. Then again, the recorded variety of victims posted on devoted leak websites (DLSs) elevated by roughly 15%.

An enormous a part of this improve is because of RansomHub, a brand new RaaS gang that emerged across the time of Operation Cronos. On this blogpost, we glance in depth at RansomHub and reveal how we leveraged to our benefit the way in which associates use RansomHub’s tooling, permitting us to attract connections between RansomHub and its rivals, together with well-established ones like Play, Medusa, and BianLian.

All through this blogpost, we confer with entities forming the ransomware-as-a-service mannequin as follows:

• Operators, who develop the ransomware payload, preserve the DLS, and supply companies to associates, often for a month-to-month charge and a proportion of the ransom fee (usually 5–20%).
• Associates, who lease ransomware companies from operators, and deploy the encryptors to victims’ networks and generally additionally follow knowledge exfiltration.

The rise of RansomHub

RansomHub introduced its first sufferer on its DLS (see Determine 1) on February 10^th, 2024, 10 days earlier than the general public announcement of Operation Cronos. Whereas the gang’s rise was sluggish, it was additionally constant, and when – in April 2024 – RansomHub achieved probably the most sufferer postings of all lively ransomware teams (disregarding LockBit posting fakes), it was clear that this was a gang to maintain an in depth eye on. Since then, RansomHub has dominated the ransomware scene.

To additional reveal how harmful RansomHub is, let’s evaluate it to LockBit. Determine 2 exhibits the every day cumulative sum (on the y-axis) of recent victims posted on the DLS of LockBit vs. RansomHub, ranging from RansomHub’s look in February 2024.

As you possibly can clearly see, whereas RansomHub began asserting victims extra slowly, almost 9 months later the gang was capable of accumulate extra victims because it began than LockBit, and that pattern continues to this present day. Contemplating that each BlackCat and LockBit suffered large blows proper across the time RansomHub emerged, we will confidently assume that many expert associates migrated to RansomHub; Notchy, the BlackCat affiliate who stole greater than 4 TB of knowledge from Change Healthcare, is only one publicly recognized instance.

Determine 3 exhibits the ransom notice that RansomHub associates go away on their victims’ machines.

We're the RansomHub.

Your organization Servers are locked and Information has been taken to our servers. That is critical. 

Excellent news:
- your server system and knowledge shall be restored by our Decryption Software, we help trial decryption to show that your information might be decrypted;
- for now, your knowledge is secured and safely saved on our server;
- no person on the planet is conscious in regards to the knowledge leak out of your firm besides you and RansomHub group;
- we offer free trial decryption for information smaller than 1MB. If anybody claims they will decrypt our information, you possibly can ask them to attempt to decrypt a file bigger than 1MB.

FAQs:
Who we're?
- Regular Browser Hyperlinks: https://ransomxifxwc5eteopdobynonjctkxxvap77yqifu2emfbecgbqdw6qd.onion.ly/
- Tor Browser Hyperlinks: http://ransomxifxwc5eteopdobynonjctkxxvap77yqifu2emfbecgbqdw6qd.onion/

Need to go to authorities for cover?
- In search of their assistance will solely make the state of affairs worse,They are going to attempt to forestall you from negotiating with us, as a result of the negotiations will make them look incompetent,After the incident report is handed over to the federal government division, you'll be fined ,The federal government makes use of your fantastic to reward them.And you'll not get something, and besides you and your organization, the remainder of the folks will neglect what occurred!!!!!

Suppose you possibly can deal with it with out us by decrypting your servers and knowledge utilizing some IT Resolution from third-party "specialists"?
- they may solely make vital harm to your whole knowledge; each encrypted file shall be corrupted perpetually. Solely our Decryption Software will make decryption assured;  

Do not go to restoration corporations, they're primarily simply middlemen who will earn money off you and cheat you. 
- We're properly conscious of instances the place restoration corporations inform you that the ransom worth is 5 million {dollars}, however the truth is they secretly negotiate with us for 1 million {dollars}, so that they earn 4 million {dollars} from you. In case you approached us instantly with out intermediaries you'd pay 5 instances much less, that's 1 million {dollars}.

Suppose your associate IT Restoration Firm will do information restoration? 
- no they won't do restoration, solely take 3-4 weeks for nothing; in addition to your whole knowledge is on our servers and we will publish it at any time; 
  in addition to ship the information in regards to the knowledge breach out of your firm servers to your key companions and purchasers, rivals, media and youtubers, and many others. 
  These actions from our facet in direction of your organization could have irreversible destructive penalties for your online business popularity.

You do not care in any case, since you simply do not need to pay? 
- We'll make you enterprise cease perpetually through the use of all of our expertise to make your companions, purchasers, staff and whoever cooperates together with your firm change their minds by having no selection however to keep away from your organization. 
  In consequence, in midterm you'll have to shut your online business. 


So lets get straight to the purpose.

What do we provide in change in your fee:
- decryption and restoration of all of your techniques and knowledge inside 24 hours with assure;
- by no means inform anybody in regards to the knowledge breach out out of your firm;
- after knowledge decryption and system restoration, we'll delete your whole knowledge from our servers perpetually;
- present useful advising in your firm IT safety so nobody can assault your once more.```

Now, to be able to begin negotiations, you might want to do the next: 
- set up and run 'Tor Browser' from https://www.torproject.org/obtain/
- use 'Tor Browser' open http://ubfofxonwdb32wpcmgmcpfos5tdskfizdft6j54l76x3nrwu2idaigid.onion/
- enter your Consumer ID: [REDACTED]
* don't leak your ID or you'll be banned and can by no means have the ability to decrypt your information.

There shall be no dangerous information in your firm after profitable negotiations for each side. However there shall be loads of these dangerous information if case of failed negotiations, so do not take into consideration find out how to keep away from it.
Simply deal with negotiations, fee and decryption to make your whole issues solved by our specialists inside 1 day after fee acquired: servers and knowledge restored, every little thing will work good as new.

************************************************

Determine 3. RansomHub ransom notice

Recruiting part

Simply as any rising RaaS gang, RansomHub wanted to draw associates, and since there’s energy in numbers, the operators weren’t very choosy. The preliminary commercial was posted on the Russian-speaking RAMP discussion board on February 2^nd, 2024, eight days earlier than the primary victims had been posted. There are some things to notice in regards to the preliminary announcement:

• Associates can obtain ransoms with their very own pockets after which afterward pay the operator.
• Associates get to maintain 90% of the ransom.
• The encryptor is obfuscated and helps Home windows, Linux, and ESXi platforms.
• RansomHub gives numerous methods to enter its RaaS program:
  • Suggestion by an current affiliate.
  • Proof of popularity.
  • Proof of previous RaaS cooperation.
  • Paying a deposit that’s returned after first profitable fee.
• Attacking Commonwealth of Unbiased States, Cuba, North Korea, and China is prohibited.
• Most popular communication is over qTox utilizing the ID 4D598799696AD5399FABF7D40C4D1BE9F05D74CFB311047D7391AC0BF64BED47B56EEE66A528.

Ensures like receiving ransom fee on to the affiliate’s pockets and protecting a beneficiant 90% definitely sound promising, particularly within the chaos following the BlackCat and LockBit disruptions. Moreover, the entry barrier could be very low, permitting even low-skilled associates to attempt their luck.

It’s also value mentioning that RansomHub’s encryptor is just not written from scratch, however based mostly on repurposed code from Knight, a once-rival ransomware gang that bought its supply code in February 2024. The associates request the encryptor (typically referred to as a locker by RaaS operators) by means of the online panel provided by RansomHub (as is typical for RaaS gangs); the element chargeable for producing the encryptor is usually known as a builder. As a result of info such because the distinctive sufferer ID is hardcoded within the encryptor, an affiliate must request a brand new one for each sufferer. RansomHub’s builder provides an extra layer of safety to its encryptors, a 64-character password, with out which the encryptor doesn’t work. This password is exclusive for every pattern, generated by the builder, and recognized solely to the affiliate who requested the encryptor.

On June 21^st, 2024, RansomHub operators modified the affiliate guidelines in response to an alleged breach by safety researchers. In response, the operator not allowed vouching by current members as ample and strictly required a US$ 5,000 deposit for aspiring associates. This was the final noteworthy message from the RansomHub operators. Nonetheless, between the preliminary announcement and this rule change, another essential occasion occurred, which we dive into within the subsequent part.

Increasing the arsenal – EDRKillShifter

On Might 8^th, 2024, the RansomHub operators made a big replace – they launched their very own EDR killer, a particular sort of malware designed to terminate, blind, or crash the safety product put in on a vicim’s system, usually by abusing a susceptible driver.

RansomHub’s EDR killer, named EDRKillShifter by Sophos, is a customized software developed and maintained by the operator. EDRKillShifter is obtainable to RansomHub associates by means of the online panel, identical because the encryptor; it too is protected by a 64-character password. Performance-wise, it’s a typical EDR killer focusing on a big number of safety options that the RansomHub operators look forward to finding defending the networks they goal to breach. A notable distinction lies within the code safety – the password protects shellcode that acts as a center layer of the killer’s execution. With out the password, safety researchers can neither retrieve the checklist of focused course of names nor the abused susceptible driver.

Sophos most likely selected “shifter” within the identify to mirror the truth that the abused driver is just not at all times the identical – at the least two completely different susceptible drivers (abused by different recognized EDR killers too) had been noticed. We dive extra in depth into EDRKillShifter and different EDR killers within the EDR killers on the rise part.

The choice to implement a killer and supply it to associates as a part of the RaaS program is uncommon. Associates are usually on their very own to search out methods to evade safety merchandise – some reuse current instruments, whereas extra technically oriented ones modify current proofs of idea or make the most of EDR killers out there as a service on the darkish internet. Evidently, ransomware associates thought this was a good suggestion, as a result of quickly after the announcement, ESET researchers noticed a steep improve in the usage of EDRKillShifter, and never completely in RansomHub instances, as we reveal within the subsequent part.

Roughly a month after EDRKillShifter’s announcement, on June 3^rd, 2024, RansomHub operators posted one more replace, stating that they improved EDRKillShifter. ESET telemetry exhibits that some associates deployed this up to date model solely 4 days later.

Leveraging EDRKillShifter

ESET researchers took benefit of the broad recognition that EDRKillShifter gained upon its launch to broaden our analysis. We had been capable of leverage its utilization to affiliate RansomHub associates with the a number of rival gangs that in addition they work for, in addition to to retrieve clearer inner versioning of this EDR killer.

Linking associates to rival gangs

The distinction between RansomHub’s encryptor and EDRKillShifter is that there isn’t a purpose for associates to construct a brand new pattern of EDRKillShifter for each intrusion (except there’s a main replace) – which is precisely what allowed us to uncover considered one of RansomHub’s associates working for 3 rival gangs – Play, Medusa, and BianLian.

These three gangs differ considerably:

• BianLian focuses totally on extortion-only assaults, with no RaaS program providing on its DLS.
• Medusa doesn’t supply a RaaS program on its DLS both, however advertises its RaaS program on the RAMP underground discussion board.
• Play strictly denies ever operating a RaaS program on its DLS.

Discovering a hyperlink between RansomHub and Medusa is just not that stunning, as it’s common data that ransomware associates typically work for a number of operators concurrently. Nonetheless, we didn’t anticipate well-established gangs working beneath the closed RaaS mannequin (which means that they don’t actively search for new recruits and their partnerships are based mostly on long-term mutual belief) to kind alliances with RansomHub so rapidly. Different well-established gangs, along with BianLian and Play, additionally function beneath the closed RaaS mannequin – the latest BlackBasta leak provided distinctive perception into the inside workings of such teams.

One strategy to clarify Play and BianLian accessing EDRKillShifter is that they employed the identical RansomHub affiliate, which is unlikely given the closed nature of each gangs. One other, extra believable rationalization is that trusted members of Play and BianLian are collaborating with rivals, even newly emerged ones like RansomHub, after which repurposing the tooling they obtain from these rivals in their very own assaults. That is particularly attention-grabbing, since such closed gangs usually make use of a somewhat constant set of core instruments throughout their intrusions. Earlier than diving into the specifics of the found overlaps, let’s briefly introduce the modus operandi of the Play gang.

Play’s modus operandi

The Play gang posted the primary victims to its DLS on November 26^th, 2022; the gang has proven regular development since then. In April 2024, Play made it to the highest three most lively ransomware gangs on the scene and persistently remained within the prime 10 for the entire 12 months. The gang posts 25 new victims every month, on common, specializing in SMBs, hinting that the gang has at the least a number of skilled, loyal associates. Not too long ago, Play has been linked to the North Korea-aligned group Andariel.

As anticipated from a closed RaaS gang, most instances involving the Play encryptor present similarities. Sometimes, in such intrusions:

• the encryptors are saved in %PUBLICpercentMusic<6_random_alphanumeric_characters>.exe,
• SystemBC is utilized for payload supply and serves as a proxy,
• Grixba, a customized community scanner, is commonly used, and
• further tooling is commonly downloaded instantly from an IP tackle.

The rest of the assault usually employs a large arsenal of instruments, in addition to living-off-the-land strategies.

The puzzle

Let’s look in depth on the hyperlinks we found. We emphasize first crucial ones in Determine 4 after which dive into the small print of every of the intrusions. We consider with excessive confidence that each one these assaults had been carried out by the identical risk actor, working as an affiliate of the 4 ransomware gangs proven in Determine 4. We’re not monitoring this risk actor beneath a devoted identify at this level, however for comfort, we’ll confer with this risk actor as QuadSwitcher.

As you possibly can see in Determine 4, there are a complete of 5 intrusions from 4 completely different ransomware gangs interlinked by:

• two EDRKillShifter samples (SHA-1: BF84712C5314DF2AA851B8D4356EA51A9AD50257 and 77DAF77D9D2A08CC22981C004689B870F74544B5),
• the payload supply server 45.32.206[.]169 internet hosting EDRKillShifter and WKTools (a utility to discover and modify the Home windows kernel, utilized in many Play intrusions), and
• SystemBC with C&C server 45.32.210[.]151.

The next sections go into the person intrusions in additional element.

RansomHub

In July 2024, QuadSwitcher deployed the RansomHub encryptor together with EDRKillShifter (SHA-1: BF84712C5314DF2AA851B8D4356EA51A9AD50257) to a producing firm in Western Europe and an automotive firm in Central Europe.

In August, QuadSwitcher compromised a governmental establishment in North America utilizing PuTTY, and shortly after Rclone. They proceeded by putting in AnyDesk and defending it with a password by way of a PowerShell script, anydes.ps1 (a part of the Conti leaks). Making an attempt to evade the safety answer, the risk actor deployed EDRKillShifter (SHA-1: BF84712C5314DF2AA851B8D4356EA51A9AD50257) and TDSSKiller.

BianLian

On the finish of July 2024, QuadSwitcher compromised an organization within the authorized sector in North America. Throughout that intrusion, the risk actor dumped the Energetic Listing by executing

powershell “ntdsutil.exe ‘ac i ntds’ ‘ifm’ ‘create full c:temp1’ q q”,

deployed AnyDesk by way of the identical set up script from the Conti leaks, and used Superior IP Scanner to scan the community. Six days later, the attacker put in the ScreenConnect and Ammyy Admin distant monitoring and administration (RMM) instruments and deployed EDRKillShifter (SHA-1: BF84712C5314DF2AA851B8D4356EA51A9AD50257). After nearly a month of no exercise, the attacker returned and downloaded two payloads from http://45.32.206[.]169/:

• WKTools.exe, the WKTools, utility typically utilized by Play
• Killer.exe, an occasion of EDRKillShifter (SHA-1: 77DAF77D9D2A08CC22981C004689B870F74544B5)

Moreover, QuadSwitcher deployed SystemBC utilizing 45.32.210[.]151 as its C&C server, and a signature BianLian backdoor with C&C server 92.243.64[.]200:6991 from http://149.154.158[.]222:33031/win64_1.exe. The sufferer was later introduced on BianLian’s DLS.

Play

In early August 2024, QuadSwitcher compromised a producing firm in North America. They deployed SystemBC with C&C 45.32.210[.]151, EDRKillShifter (SHA-1: 77DAF77D9D2A08CC22981C004689B870F74544B5), and WKTools, downloaded from http://45.32.206[.]169/WKTools.exe. Finally, the risk actor deployed the Play encryptor.

Medusa

On the finish of August 2024, QuadSwitcher compromised a know-how firm in Western Europe, downloading PuTTY from http://130.185.75[.]198:8000/plink.exe utilizing certutil.exe, adopted through the use of Course of Explorer and EDRKillShifter (SHA-1: BF84712C5314DF2AA851B8D4356EA51A9AD50257). The risk actor additionally downloaded MeshAgent from http://79.124.58[.]130/dl/git.exe, additionally by way of certutil.exe. The sufferer was later introduced on Medusa’s DLS.

The puzzle – conclusion

Apart from the hyperlinks summarized in Determine 4, there are TTPs that almost all resemble typical Play intrusions. In three of the instances, further malware and instruments had been downloaded from a root folder of a server accessed by way of an IP tackle utilizing HTTP and QuadSwitcher additionally used SystemBC, commodity malware closely utilized by the Play gang. These hyperlinks lead us to consider QuadSwitcher is said to Play the closest.

Moreover, QuadSwitcher has entry to at the least two EDRKillShifter samples, compiled two months aside, signaling the risk actor had prolonged entry to RansomHub’s tooling.

Reconstructing EDRKillShifter growth timeline

In September 2024, ESET researchers documented a case the place CosmicBeetle, an immature ransomware risk actor utilizing its personal signature encryptor, ScRansom, and the leaked LockBit 3.0 builder, grew to become an affiliate of RansomHub. Word that CosmicBeetle is just not a gang, however a person distributing and creating numerous ransomware. Following the publication of our findings, we noticed CosmicBeetle additional make the most of EDRKillShifter throughout:

• a RansomHub assault towards a hospitality firm in South America in August 2024,
• a faux LockBit assault towards an automotive firm in Central Europe in August 2024,
• a faux LockBit assault towards a producing firm in East Asia in September 2024, and
• an assault with no encryptor deployed towards an unknown firm within the Center East in January 2025.

Different immature ransomware associates had been noticed utilizing EDRKillShifter earlier than deploying their customized encryptors (typically created just by utilizing the leaked LockBit 3.0 builder) as properly. This exhibits one weak point of RansomHub – in its greed to develop as rapidly as attainable, it wasn’t very choosy about its associates. In consequence, it was, by its personal admission, breached by safety researchers in June 2024. Moreover, immature associates have a tendency to depart considerably extra trails, which enabled us to study extra about each them and RansomHub.

Within the blogpost about CosmicBeetle, we talked about EDRKillShifter being deployed from an uncommon path C:UsersAdministratorMusic1.0.8.zip. Within the following months, a number of different immature associates left comparable trails that enabled us to partially reconstruct EDRKillShifter’s versioning, demonstrated in Desk 1. The VERSIONINFO column refers to EDRKillShifter’s model as listed in its VERSIONINFO useful resource, whereas the Deployment path refers back to the model talked about within the path found by ESET telemetry.

Desk 1. EDRKillShifter versioning

Following July 2024, there was solely a single very generic replace from the RansomHub operator posted on RAMP, correlating with our not seeing new variations of EDRKillShifter within the wild. Reconstructing the event timeline of EDRKillShifter additionally allowed us to identify these growth practices:

• The InternalName property of the model information useful resource being both Config.exe or Loader.exe.
• The OriginalName property of the model information useful resource at all times being Loader.exe.
• The deployment filename various, mostly being Killer.exe, Magic.exe, or Loader.exe.
• The identify of the argument accepting the 64-character-long password being named both cross or key.

EDR killers on the rise

EDRKillShifter rapidly gained recognition amongst ransomware associates, and as we simply demonstrated, they don’t use it completely in RansomHub intrusions. Nonetheless, it isn’t the one EDR killer on the market; the truth is, ESET researchers have noticed a rise within the number of EDR killers utilized by ransomware associates.

An EDR killer is malware designed to run in a compromised community, to blind, corrupt, crash, or terminate safety options defending the endpoints. The plain aim is to permit easy execution of the ransomware encryptor. Whereas extra immature ransomware associates settle with scripts that merely attempt to terminate an inventory of processes, extra subtle ones transcend that and use the method referred to as Convey Your Personal Susceptible Driver (BYOVD).

EDR killers are an efficient and more and more in style addition to ransomware associates’ arsenals. Throughout an intrusion, the aim of the affiliate is to acquire admin or area admin privileges. Ransomware operators have a tendency to not do main updates of their encryptors too typically as a result of danger of introducing a flaw that might trigger points, in the end damaging their popularity. In consequence, safety distributors detect the encryptors fairly properly, which the associates react to through the use of EDR killers to “eliminate” the safety answer simply earlier than executing the encryptor.

Anatomy of an EDR killer

Superior EDR killers encompass two components – a person mode element chargeable for orchestration (which we’ll confer with because the killer code) and a reputable, however susceptible, driver. The execution is usually very simple – the killer code installs the susceptible driver, usually embedded in its knowledge or assets, iterates over an inventory of course of names, and points a command to the susceptible driver, leading to triggering the vulnerability and killing the method from kernel mode.

Few drivers, many killers

Sophos documented of their blogpost how completely different builds of EDRKillShifter abuse completely different susceptible drivers. One of many abused drivers, rentdrv2.sys, can also be part of BadRentdrv2, a publicly out there EDR killer. The second, TFSysMon from ThreatFire System Monitor, can also be part of TFSysMon-Killer, one other publicly out there PoC. The latter is a part of a much bigger assortment of 4 EDR killer PoCs written in Rust, which we have now noticed risk actors reimplement in C++ with out altering a single line of code.

Whereas the Residing Off The Land Drivers venture offers over 1700 susceptible drivers, making them a profitable goal for cybercriminals, solely a handful of those drivers are abused by EDR killers – if there’s examined code abusing a vulnerability in considered one of these drivers, it’s a lot simpler to reuse it with out having to design the code from scratch. Moreover, it permits the EDR killer builders to deal with the killer code and its stealthiness.

Grey zone of EDR killers

Authentic instruments are abused by ransomware associates to work as EDR killers, too. Such instruments, just like the GMER rootkit detector and PC Hunter, by their nature require entry to kernel mode and have to carefully examine the internals of the working system. Sadly, in addition they supply a strong performance that may be abused when within the arms of malicious risk actors.

Including EDR killers to RaaS choices

RaaS packages typically don’t present associates solely with encryptors – further instruments and playbooks could also be a part of the bundle. As an example, LockBit provided Stealbit, a customized knowledge exfiltration software, to its associates, and the Conti leaks and Dispossessor leak disclosed that playbooks, scripts, and know-how are additionally a part of the ransomware gangs’ arsenal.

Including an EDR killer to a RaaS providing appears logical, and RansomHub is just not the one gang doing that. In October 2024, ESET researchers documented that the rising ransomware gang Embargo carried out its personal EDR killer as properly, referred to as MS4Killer, by modifying a publicly out there PoC. On the time of writing: whereas the group listed solely 14 victims on its DLS, it had already invested time and assets into creating its personal EDR killer.

It stays to be seen whether or not EDR killers discover their place in additional gangs’ choices. Nonetheless, this blogpost has additionally demonstrated that researchers could leverage their utilization to cluster associates and uncover new relationships between rival gangs.

Defeating EDR killers

Defending towards EDR killers is difficult. Risk actors want admin privileges to deploy an EDR killer, so ideally, their presence needs to be detected and mitigated earlier than they attain that time.

Whereas stopping the killer code from executing is the very best method, code obfuscation could make this unreliable. Nonetheless, specializing in susceptible drivers offers further protection choices. ESET considers drivers exploited by EDR killers doubtlessly unsafe. Due to this fact, customers, particularly in company environments, ought to be certain that the detection of doubtless unsafe functions is enabled. This will forestall the set up of susceptible drivers.

Though not widespread, subtle risk actors could exploit a susceptible driver already current on a compromised machine as a substitute of counting on BYOVD. To counter this, having correct patch administration in place is an efficient and important protection technique.

Conclusion

The ransomware ecosystem suffered vital blows in 2024. Regardless of the general variety of recorded assaults rising, it shouldn’t overshadow the constructive impact of efficiently disrupting or eliminating two ransomware gangs that had been dominating the scene for years.

We are able to speculate about how a lot the results of legislation enforcement actions decreased ransomware funds, or how the rising consciousness and initiatives just like the Counter Ransomware Initiative are serving to ransomware victims perceive that paying the ransom will not be one of the best ways ahead.

What is evident, sadly, is {that a} new subtle ransomware group, RansomHub, emerged, used the suitable techniques to draw associates (lots of whom we consider transitioned from BlackCat and LockBit) in a brief interval, and was rapidly capable of climb to the highest of the ladder. Within the foreseeable future, RansomHub will certainly attempt to stay among the many most lively RaaS gangs.

Regulation-enforcement-led disruptions of RaaS operators have proved efficient, sowing mistrust within the RaaS ecosystem. Sadly, 2024 confirmed that associates are capable of regroup pretty rapidly. In spite of everything, they’ve sturdy monetary incentives to deploy encryptors to and exfiltrate delicate knowledge from their targets. Though tougher to perform than disruptions, eliminating probably the most lively associates from the image can also be efficient as a result of it will probably forestall new RaaS operators from gaining energy as rapidly as RansomHub did. We consider that specializing in the associates, particularly by monitoring down their hyperlinks between numerous gangs – as demonstrated on this blogpost between RansomHub, Play, Medusa, and BianLian – will in the end result in identification of the associates and their elimination from the sport.

For any inquiries about our analysis printed on WeLiveSecurity, please contact us at threatintel@eset.com. 

ESET Analysis gives non-public APT intelligence reviews and knowledge feeds. For any inquiries about this service, go to the ESET Risk Intelligence web page.

IoCs

A complete checklist of indicators of compromise and samples might be present in our GitHub repository.

Recordsdata

SHA-1	Filename	Detection	Description
97E13515263002809505DC913B04B49AEB78B067	amd64.exe	WinGo/Kryptik.CV	RansomHub encryptor.
BF84712C5314DF2AA851B8D4356EA51A9AD50257	Loader.exe	Win64/Agent.DVP	EDRKillShifter.
87D0F168F049BEFE455D5B702852FFB7852E7DF6	amd64.exe	WinGo/Kryptik.CV	RansomHub encryptor.
2E89CF3267C8724002C3C89BE90874A22812EFC6	Magic.exe	Win64/Agent.DVP	EDRKillShifter.
3B035DA6C69F9B05868FFE55D7A267D098C6F290	TDSSKiller.exe	Win32/RiskWare.TDSSKiller.A	TDSSKiller.
5ECAFF68D36EC10337428267D05CD3CB632C0444	svchost.exe	WinGo/HackTool.Agent.EY	Rclone.
DCF711141D6033DF4C9149930B0E1078C3B6D156	anydes.ps1	PowerShell/Agent.AEK	Script that deploys and password protects AnyDesk.
E38082AE727AEAEF4F241A1920150FDF6F149106	netscan.exe	Win64/NetTool.DelicatePerfectNetscan.A	SoftPerfect Community Scanner.
046583DEB4B418A6F1D8DED8BED9886B7088F338	conhost.dll	Win64/Coroxy.J	SystemBC.
3B4AEDAFA9930C19EA889723861BF95253B0ED80	win64_1.exe	Win64/Agent.RA	BianLian backdoor.
460D7CB14FCED78C701E7668C168CF07BCE94BA1	WKTools.exe	Win32/WKTools.A	WKTools.
5AF059C44D6AC8EF92AA458C5ED77F68510F92CD	pfw.exe	Win64/Agent.RA	BianLian backdoor.
67D17CA90880B448D5C3B40F69CEC04D3649F170	1721894530.sys	Win64/RentDrv.A	Susceptible driver utilized by EDRKillShifter.
77DAF77D9D2A08CC22981C004689B870F74544B5	Killer.exe	Win64/Agent.DVP	EDRKillShifter.
180D770C4A55C62C09AAD1FC3412132D87AF5CF6	1.dll	Win64/Coroxy.Ok	SystemBC.
DD6FA8A7C1B3E009F5F17176252DE5ACABD0FB86	d.exe	Win32/Filecoder.PLAY.B	Play encryptor.
FDA5AAC0C0DB36D173B88EC9DED8D5EF1727B3E2	GT_NET.exe	MSIL/Spy.Grixba.A	Grixba.

Community

MITRE ATT&CK strategies

This desk was constructed utilizing model 16 of the MITRE ATT&CK framework.