Hotarus

MITRE ATT&CK does not currently catalogue Hotarus, 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: low. Treat it as orientation, not attribution.

1. T1059.001 PowerShell Execution

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

   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: hotarus modifies registry run keys to ensure malware execution upon 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.

3. T1685 Disable or Modify Tools Defense Impairment

   What they do: hotarus disables antivirus tools and security software to prevent detection and cleanup efforts.

   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. T1027.016 Junk Code Insertion Stealth

   What they do: hotarus inserts junk code into binaries to evade static analysis and detection tools.

   What that means: Adversaries may use junk code / dead code to obfuscate a malware’s functionality.

5. T1070.004 File Deletion Stealth

   What they do: hotarus deletes Volume Shadow Copies and backup files to eliminate recovery options for victims.

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

6. T1135 Network Share Discovery Discovery

   What they do: hotarus scans network shares to discover victim file structures and target directories for encryption.

   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.

7. T1567.002 Exfiltration to Cloud Storage Exfiltration

   What they do: hotarus exfiltrates sensitive victim data before encryption to increase leverage in ransom demands.

   What that means: Adversaries may exfiltrate data to a cloud storage service rather than over their primary command and control channel.

8. T1486 Data Encrypted for Impact Impact

   What they do: hotarus encrypts victim files using a custom ransomware algorithm to maximize impact and extortion.

   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.