Security Experts:

Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Cyberwarfare

Ransomware Module Found in Shamoon 2.0

The Shamoon 2.0 malware used recently in attacks aimed at the Middle East has a fully functional ransomware module that can encrypt files on the infected device, Kaspersky Lab said on Monday.

The Shamoon 2.0 malware used recently in attacks aimed at the Middle East has a fully functional ransomware module that can encrypt files on the infected device, Kaspersky Lab said on Monday.

The security firm has published a report detailing Shamoon 2.0 and a new piece of malware, dubbed “StoneDrill,” that has been connected to both Shamoon and the Iran-linked threat actor Charming Kitten, aka NewsBeef and Newscaster.

One of the most interesting pieces of information shared by the company about Shamoon 2.0 is that, in addition to its well-known wiper functionality, it includes a ransomware module. The ransomware functionality is currently inactive, but experts believe it could be leveraged in future Shamoon attacks.

Once it infects a machine, Shamoon checks the system time to determine when to drop the main payload, which allows the attackers to either wipe or encrypt files and partitions.

“In the ‘encryption/ransomware’ mode, a weak pseudo – random RC4 key is generated, which is further encrypted by the RSA public key and stored directly on the hard drive (at <DeviceHarddisk0Partition0>) starting at offset 0x201, right after the master boot record,” Kaspersky said in its report.

The ransomware module can be used to encrypt Shamoon components, files stored in Windows folders (e.g. Desktop, Downloads, Documents, Pictures), NTFS master file table (MFT) data from all drives except the system drive, files in Windows system folders, and part of the FirmwareBootDevice partition.

Shamoon is not the only wiper whose authors have recently decided to add ransomware functionality to their creation. Late last year, researchers reported that a variant of the KillDisk malware, which had been involved in the attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector, had been designed to encrypt files and hold them for ransom instead of deleting them.

Kaspersky Lab also revealed that the resources used by Shamoon appear to have a Yemeni Arabic language ID. While this could indicate that the threat group behind Shamoon is located in Yemen, which would also have a good reason to target Saudi Arabia, it’s also possible that this is a false flag. Previously, researchers attributed the Shamoon attacks to Iran.

Related: Shamoon Malware Delivered via Weaponized Documents

Related: Multiple Groups Cooperated in Shamoon Attacks

Related: Shamoon 2 Variant Targets Virtualization Products

Written By

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join this webinar to learn best practices that organizations can use to improve both their resilience to new threats and their response times to incidents.

Register

Join this live webinar as we explore the potential security threats that can arise when third parties are granted access to a sensitive data or systems.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Application Security

Cycode, a startup that provides solutions for protecting software source code, emerged from stealth mode on Tuesday with $4.6 million in seed funding.

Data Protection

The CRYSTALS-Kyber public-key encryption and key encapsulation mechanism recommended by NIST for post-quantum cryptography has been broken using AI combined with side channel attacks.

Data Protection

The cryptopocalypse is the point at which quantum computing becomes powerful enough to use Shor’s algorithm to crack PKI encryption.

Cybercrime

The changing nature of what we still generally call ransomware will continue through 2023, driven by three primary conditions.

Cyberwarfare

WASHINGTON - Cyberattacks are the most serious threat facing the United States, even more so than terrorism, according to American defense experts. Almost half...

Cybercrime

No one combatting cybercrime knows everything, but everyone in the battle has some intelligence to contribute to the larger knowledge base.

Cybercrime

A recently disclosed vBulletin vulnerability, which had a zero-day status for roughly two days last week, was exploited in a hacker attack targeting the...

Cyberwarfare

Websites of German airports, administration bodies and banks were hit by DDoS attacks attributed to Russian hacker group Killnet