Babyduck

MITRE ATT&CK does not currently catalogue Babyduck, so this is our assessment of the techniques it uses, drawn from public reporting. The techniques themselves, and every "what that means" definition below, come from MITRE ATT&CK v19.2. Confidence: medium. Treat it as orientation, not attribution.

1. T1047 Windows Management Instrumentation Execution

   What they do: babyduck uses Windows Management Instrumentation for initial execution and remote payload deployment.

   What that means: Adversaries may abuse Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to execute malicious commands and payloads.

2. T1059.001 PowerShell Execution

   What they do: babyduck executes malicious commands via PowerShell scripts injected into legitimate processes.

   What that means: Adversaries may abuse PowerShell commands and scripts for execution.

3. T1106 Native API Execution

   What they do: babyduck leverages native Windows API calls to execute cryptomining payloads and evade detection.

   What that means: Adversaries may interact with the native OS application programming interface (API) to execute behaviors.

4. T1547.001 Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder PersistencePrivilege Escalation

   What they do: babyduck persists by injecting malicious registry run keys containing cryptocurrency wallet addresses.

   What that means: Adversaries may achieve persistence by adding a program to a startup folder or referencing it with a Registry run key.

5. T1685 Disable or Modify Tools Defense Impairment

   What they do: babyduck disables antivirus tools and Windows Defender services using direct process termination commands.

   What that means: Adversaries may disable, degrade, or tamper with security tools or applications (e.g., endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools, intrusion detection systems (IDS), antivirus, logging agents, sensors, etc.) to impair or reduce visibility of defensive capabilities.

6. T1688 Safe Mode Boot Defense Impairment

   What they do: babyduck forces systems into Safe Mode to bypass user interaction checks during initial compromise.

   What that means: Adversaries may abuse Windows safe mode to disable endpoint defenses.

7. T1070.004 File Deletion Stealth

   What they do: babyduck deletes Volume Shadow Copies and backup directories via vssadmin and built-in file deletion routines.

   What that means: Adversaries may delete files left behind by the actions of their intrusion activity.

8. T1018 Remote System Discovery Discovery

   What they do: babyduck discovers remote hosts using native TCP/UDP scanning against common service ports.

   What that means: Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of other systems by IP address, hostname, or other logical identifier on a network that may be used for Lateral Movement from the current system.

9. T1021.002 SMB/Windows Admin Shares Lateral Movement

   What they do: babyduck moves laterally across networks by exploiting SMB shares to deploy ransomware binaries.

   What that means: Adversaries may use Valid Accounts to interact with a remote network share using Server Message Block (SMB).

10. T1486 Data Encrypted for Impact Impact

    What they do: babyduck encrypts victim files using a custom symmetric encryption algorithm targeting document and database folders.

    What that means: Adversaries may encrypt data on target systems or on large numbers of systems in a network to interrupt availability to system and network resources.