Cisco Talos analyzed the highest 14 ransomware teams between 2023 and 2024 to reveal their assault chain and spotlight fascinating Ways,Strategies and Protocols. The safety firm additionally uncovered probably the most leveraged vulnerabilities being triggered by ransomware actors.
Ransomware assault chain: What Cisco Talos researchers discovered
Ransomware actors almost all use the identical assault chain.
The first step for ransomware actors
Step one for the menace actor consists of having access to the focused entity. To attain that purpose, ransomware actors use totally different methods — one of the crucial widespread methods is to social engineer their targets by sending emails containing malicious information or hyperlinks that may run malware on the focused system. The malware will then permit the attacker to deploy extra instruments and malware to succeed in their objectives. Multifactor authentication may be bypassed presently utilizing varied methods, both due to poor MFA implementation or due to proudly owning legitimate credentials already.
Talos additionally reported that an rising variety of ransomware associates scan internet-facing techniques for vulnerabilities or misconfigurations that would permit them to compromise the system. Unpatched or legacy software program is a very excessive danger.
Step two for ransomware actors
The second step is to achieve persistence in case the preliminary vector of compromise will get found; that persistence on techniques is often achieved by modifying Home windows registry keys or enabling autostart execution of the malicious code upon system boot. Native, area and/or cloud accounts may additionally be created for persistence.
Step three for ransomware actors
Within the third step, the menace actor scans the community setting to get a greater understanding of the interior components of the infrastructure. Information of worth that can be utilized for ransom is recognized at this step. To efficiently entry all components of the community, attackers typically use instruments to raise their privileges to administrator stage, along with utilizing instruments that permit community scanning. Well-liked instruments for these duties are Residing Off the Land binaries AKA LOLbins, as a result of they’re executable information native to the working system and fewer susceptible to boost alerts.
Step 4 for ransomware actors
The attacker is able to gather and steal delicate knowledge, which they typically compress with utilities (resembling 7-Zip or WinRAR) earlier than exfiltrating the info to attacker-controlled servers through the use of Distant Monitoring and Administration instruments or extra customized ones, resembling StealBit or Exabyte for instance, created by LockBit and BlackByte ransomware teams.
Doable step 5 for ransomware actors
If the purpose is knowledge theft or extortion, the operation is over. If the purpose is to encrypt knowledge, the attacker wants to check the ransomware within the setting — that’s, checking the supply mechanisms and the communications between the ransomware and the C2 server — earlier than launching it to encrypt the community and notify the sufferer they’ve been breached and must pay the ransom.
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Three most abused vulnerabilities
Cisco Talos reported that three vulnerabilities on public-facing functions are generally exploited by ransomware menace actors.
CVE-2020-1472 AKA Zerologon exploits a flaw within the Netlogon Distant Protocol that enables attackers to bypass authentication and alter laptop passwords inside a website controller’s Energetic Listing. This exploit is broadly utilized by ransomware actors as a result of it allows them to achieve entry to a community with out authentication.
CVE-2018-13379, a Fortinet FortiOS SSL VPN vulnerability, allows path traversal that enables an attacker to entry system information by sending specifically crafted HTTP packets. VPN session tokens may be accessed this manner, which can be utilized to achieve unauthenticated entry to the community.
CVE-2023-0669, a GoAnywhere MFT vulnerability, permits attackers to execute arbitrary code on a focused server that makes use of the GoAnywhere Managed File Switch software program. That is the latest vulnerability listed by Cisco Talos in its report.
All these vulnerabilities permit ransomware actors to get preliminary entry and manipulate techniques to run extra malicious payloads, set up persistence or facilitate lateral actions inside compromised networks.
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Notable TTPs of 14 ransomware teams
Cisco Talos noticed the TTPs utilized by 14 of probably the most prevalent ransomware teams primarily based on their quantity of assault, influence to clients and atypical conduct.
One of many key findings concerning the TTPs signifies lots of the most outstanding teams prioritize establishing preliminary compromise and evading defenses of their assault chains.
Ransomware menace actors typically obfuscate their malicious code by packing and compressing it and modify the techniques registry to disable safety alerts on the endpoint or server. They may additionally block sure restoration choices for the customers.
The Cisco Talos researchers highlighted that probably the most prevalent credential entry method is the dumping of the LSASS reminiscence contents to extract plaintext passwords, hashed passwords or authentication tokens saved in reminiscence.
One other pattern in C2 actions is the usage of commercially obtainable instruments resembling RMM functions. These functions are typically trusted by the setting and permit the attacker to mix in with the company community site visitors.
How you can mitigate the ransomware menace
For starters, it’s necessary to use patches and updates to all techniques and software program; this fixed upkeep is critical to cut back the danger of being compromised by an exploit.
Strict password insurance policies and MFA have to be carried out. Complicated and distinctive passwords have to be set for each consumer and MFA enforced, so an attacker possessing legitimate credentials continues to be not capable of entry the focused community.
Finest practices to harden all techniques and environments must be utilized. Pointless companies and options must be disabled to cut back the assault floor. Additionally, publicity to the web have to be diminished by limiting the variety of public-facing companies as a lot as attainable.
Networks must be segmented utilizing VLANs or related applied sciences. Delicate knowledge and techniques have to be remoted from different networks to forestall lateral actions from an attacker.
Endpoints have to be monitored by a Safety Data and Occasion Administration system, and Endpoint Detection and Response or Prolonged Detection and Response instruments must be deployed.
Disclosure: I work for Pattern Micro, however the views expressed on this article are mine.