Spirals

MITRE ATT&CK does not currently catalogue Spirals, 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 v20.0. Confidence: low. Treat it as orientation, not attribution.

1. T1059.001 PowerShell Execution

   What they do: Spirals executes malicious payloads via PowerShell scripts to automate compromise and persistence.

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

2. T1685 Disable or Modify Tools Defense Impairment

   What they do: Spirals disables security tools like EDR and backup agents to hinder incident response and recovery.

   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.

3. T1070.004 File Deletion Stealth

   What they do: Spirals deletes Volume Shadow Copies and backup artifacts via system commands to prevent data restoration.

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

4. T1083 File and Directory Discovery Discovery

   What they do: Spirals uses file and directory discovery to enumerate critical system paths and data folders before encryption.

   What that means: Adversaries may enumerate files and directories or may search in specific locations of a host or network share for certain information within a file system.

5. T1560.001 Archive via Utility Collection

   What they do: Spirals archives victim data using utility tools prior to exfiltration for extortion leverage.

   What that means: Adversaries may use utilities to compress and/or encrypt collected data prior to exfiltration.

6. T1486 Data Encrypted for Impact Impact

   What they do: Spirals encrypts victim files and directories using cryptographic routines 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.

7. T1490 Inhibit System Recovery Impact

   What they do: Spirals inhibits system recovery by corrupting restore points and disabling automatic 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.

8. T1491.001 Internal Defacement Impact

   What they do: Spirals performs internal defacement by replacing or corrupting web content to disrupt services.

   What that means: An adversary may deface systems internal to an organization in an attempt to intimidate or mislead users, thus discrediting the integrity of the systems.