Cephalus

MITRE ATT&CK does not currently catalogue Cephalus, 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. T1059.001 PowerShell Execution

   What they do: cephalus uses PowerShell scripts to execute malicious commands and deploy ransomware payloads across compromised systems.

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

2. T1106 Native API Execution

   What they do: cephalus leverages native API calls to interact with system functions for execution and evasion during initial compromise.

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

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

   What they do: cephalus establishes persistence by modifying registry run keys to ensure malware execution on system startup.

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

4. T1685 Disable or Modify Tools Defense Impairment

   What they do: cephalus disables antivirus tools and security software to prevent detection and ensure successful ransomware deployment.

   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.

5. T1027.013 Encrypted/Encoded File Stealth

   What they do: cephalus encodes and encrypts its own malware binaries to evade signature-based detection systems.

   What that means: Adversaries may encrypt or encode files to obfuscate strings, bytes, and other specific patterns to impede detection.

6. T1070.004 File Deletion Stealth

   What they do: cephalus deletes Volume Shadow Copies and backup files using system commands to prevent data recovery.

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

7. T1049 System Network Connections Discovery Discovery

   What they do: cephalus discovers network connections to identify high-value targets and establish command-and-control channels.

   What that means: Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of network connections to or from the compromised system they are currently accessing or from remote systems by querying for information over the network.

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

   What they do: cephalus moves laterally through SMB shares to access additional victim machines within the network.

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

9. T1486 Data Encrypted for Impact Impact

   What they do: cephalus encrypts victim files using strong symmetric cryptography to maximize impact and ransom demand.

   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.

10. T1490 Inhibit System Recovery Impact

    What they do: cephalus inhibits system recovery by corrupting critical system files and disabling repair mechanisms.

    What that means: Adversaries may delete or remove built-in data and turn off services designed to aid in the recovery of a corrupted system to prevent recovery.