To impact affected systems, the group uses ransomware. The AES and IV keys used for encrypting the files are encrypted by a public RSA key and added to the contents of the encrypted file after encryption. The private RSA key is needed to decrypt the files. The ransomware has several different run-functions, including:
a. -domain string : domain
b. -force : force blacklisted computers
c. -list string: list
d. -nomutex : force not checking mutex
e. -noransom : spread with no encryption
f. -passwordf string: password
g. -path string : path
h. -t int : thread
i. -username string: username
As a default option, Mutex by the name Globaldbdbdbdb is defined at runtime. The tool supports multiple thread actions. During encryption”, shadow copies are deleted in quiet mode using the vssadmin.exe delete shadow /all /Quiet command.
The tool uses a list of file extensions of interest to avoid harming the operational capability of the OS.
Files such as msilog, log, ldf, lock, theme, msi, sys, wpx, cpl, adv, msc, scr, key, ico, dll, hta, deskthemepack, nomedia, msu, rtp, msp, idx, ani, 386, diagcfg, bin, mod, ics, com, hlp, spl, nls, cab, diagpkg, icl, ocx, rom, prf, themepack, msstyles, icns, mpa, drv, cur, diagcab, exe, cmd, shs, and Darkbit will not be encrypted.
The tool can be run with or without arguments, and sometimes, as part of an activity, ESXCLI is used to map existing virtual systems. At the end of the process, the following command is run to turn off the machines in the list: Esxcli –formatter=csv –format-param=fields==”WorldID,DisplayName” vm process list | sed -n ‘1!p’ | grep -vi”,/vmfs,” | cut -d ‘,’ -f1| awk ‘{system(“esxcli vm process kill -t=force -w=”$1)}’
The ransomware also heavily relies on legitimate software, such as rport or tacoscript.