Cryptolocker

MITRE ATT&CK does not currently catalogue Cryptolocker, 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: cryptolocker executes PowerShell scripts to deploy payloads and manipulate system behavior.

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

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

   What they do: cryptolocker modifies registry run keys to ensure persistence after reboot.

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

3. T1685 Disable or Modify Tools Defense Impairment

   What they do: cryptolocker disables antivirus tools and security software to evade detection during infection.

   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.

4. T1070.004 File Deletion Stealth

   What they do: cryptolocker deletes Volume Shadow Copies and backup files to prevent recovery.

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

5. T1135 Network Share Discovery Discovery

   What they do: cryptolocker uses network share discovery to locate victim file shares for encryption targets.

   What that means: Adversaries may look for folders and drives shared on remote systems as a means of identifying sources of information to gather as a precursor for Collection and to identify potential systems of interest for Lateral Movement.

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

   What they do: cryptolocker uses SMB/Windows Admin Shares for lateral movement across networked systems.

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

7. T1486 Data Encrypted for Impact Impact

   What they do: cryptolocker encrypts victim files using strong symmetric cryptography to maximize impact.

   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.

8. T1490 Inhibit System Recovery Impact

   What they do: cryptolocker calls system recovery inhibitors like shutdown commands to disrupt restoration.

   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.

Crowdsourced payment data from Ransomwhere, licensed CC BY 4.0. Figures are what has been reported and attributed to this family, not a confirmed total. Cite as: Cable, Jack. (2024). Ransomwhere: A Crowdsourced Ransomware Payment Dataset (1.1.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6512122