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Executive Summary

Unit 42 researchers have observed recent EKANS (Snake backward) ransomware activity affecting multiple industries in the U.S and Europe. As a result, we’ve created this threat assessment report for the activities of this ransomware. Identified techniques and campaigns can be visualized using the Unit 42 Playbook Viewer.

EKANS, which was first observed in January 2020, has relatively basic ransomware behavior, as it primarily seeks to encrypt your files and display a ransom note when finished. Although EKANS is basic in terms of file encryption, it's worth mentioning that it does have some interesting functionalities that make it distinct from other ransomware strains. EKANS ransomware is written in Golang and includes a static “kill list” that will stop numerous antivirus and Industrial Control Systems (ICS) processes and services. After killing the processes, it then proceeds to delete shadow copies to disable any restoration capabilities. Like many ransomware malware families, EKANS attempts to also encrypt resources connected to the victim’s machine via the network.

After encrypting files, EKANS doesn’t follow a uniform extension change like other active ransomware. Instead, EKANS modifies the extension with five random characters. This may be an attempt by the creators of the ransomware to evade instant detection by just looking at the file extensions. One way to identify an EKANS infection is by looking for the hexadecimal string of EKANS at the end of the file, which is added by the ransomware.

EKANS’ intrusion vector at the moment seems to be spearphishing, to compromise credentials. Having file-blocking policies in place, and securing any open Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) ports will help prevent the malware from entering the network. We encourage ICS asset owners to review their security posture against malware, such as EKANS, that aims to disrupt ICS operations. The EKANS operators have affected different industries including energy, architecture firms, healthcare, transportation, and manufacturing.

Palo Alto Networks Threat Prevention platform with WildFire, and Cortex XDR detects activity associated with this ransomware. Customers can also review activity associated with this Threat Assessment using AutoFocus with the following tag: EKANS.

Impact Assessment

Several adversarial techniques were observed in this activity and the following measures are suggested within Palo Alto Networks’ products and services to ensure mitigation of threats related with the EKANS ransomware, as well as other malware using the similar techniques:

Tactic Technique

(Mitre ATT&CK ID)

Product / Service Course of Action
Initial Access Spearphishing Attachment (T1193) NGFW Setup File Blocking
Threat Prevention† Ensure that antivirus profiles are set to block on all decoders except 'imap' and 'pop3'
Ensure a secure antivirus profile is applied to all relevant security policies
WildFire Ensure that WildFire file size upload limits are maximized
Ensure forwarding is enabled for all applications and file types in WildFire file blocking profiles
Ensure a WildFire Analysis profile is enabled for all security policies
Ensure forwarding of decrypted content to WildFire is enabled
Ensure all WildFire session information settings are enabled
Ensure alerts are enabled for malicious files detected by WildFire
Ensure 'WildFire Update Schedule' is set to download and install updates every minute
Cortex XDR Configure Malware Security Profile
Cortex XSOAR Deploy XSOAR Playbook - Phishing Investigation - Generic V2
Deploy XSOAR - Endpoint Malware Investigation
Execution Scheduled Task (T1053) Cortex XDR Enable Anti-Exploit
Enable Anti-Malware Protection
User Execution (T1204) NGFW Ensure that User-ID is only enabled for internal trusted interfaces
Ensure that 'Include/Exclude Networks' is used if User-ID is enabled
Ensure that the User-ID Agent has minimal permissions if User-ID is enabled
Ensure that the User-ID service account does not have interactive logon rights
Ensure remote access capabilities for the User-ID service account are forbidden.
Ensure that security policies restrict User-ID Agent traffic from crossing into untrusted zones
Threat Prevention† Ensure that antivirus profiles are set to block on all decoders except 'imap' and 'pop3'
Ensure a secure antivirus profile is applied to all relevant security policies
Ensure an anti-spyware profile is configured to block on all spyware severity levels, categories, and threats
Ensure DNS sinkholing is configured on all anti-spyware profiles in use
Ensure passive DNS monitoring is set to enabled on all anti-spyware profiles in use
Ensure a secure anti-spyware profile is applied to all security policies permitting traffic to the Internet
DNS Security Enable DNS Security in Anti-Spyware profile
URL Filtering Ensure that PAN-DB URL Filtering is used
Ensure that URL Filtering uses the action of “block” or “override” on the <enterprise approved value> URL categories
Ensure that access to every URL is logged
Ensure all HTTP Header Logging options are enabled
Ensure secure URL filtering is enabled for all security policies allowing traffic to the Internet
WildFire Ensure that WildFire file size upload limits are maximized
Ensure forwarding is enabled for all applications and file types in WildFire file blocking profiles
Ensure a WildFire Analysis profile is enabled for all security policies
Ensure forwarding of decrypted content to WildFire is enabled
Ensure all WildFire session information settings are enabled
Ensure alerts are enabled for malicious files detected by WildFire
Ensure 'WildFire Update Schedule' is set to download and install updates every minute
Cortex XDR Enable Anti-Exploit
Enable Anti-Malware Protection
Cortex XSOAR Deploy XSOAR Playbook - Phishing Investigation - Generic V2
Deploy XSOAR Playbook - Cortex XDR - Isolate Endpoint
Deploy XSOAR - Block Account Generic
Persistence Bootkit (T1067) Cortex XDR Enable Anti-Exploit
Enable Anti-Malware Protection
Scheduled Task (T1053) Enable Anti-Exploit
Enable Anti-Malware Protection
Privilege Escalation Enable Anti-Exploit
Enable Anti-Malware Protection
Credential Access Credential in Files (T1080) Enable Anti-Exploit
Enable Anti-Malware Protection
Configure Restrictions Security Profile
Discovery File and Directory Discovery (T1083) XDR monitors for behavioral events via BIOCs along a causality chain to identify discovery behaviors
Process Discovery (T1057) XDR monitors for behavioral events via BIOCs along a causality chain to identify discovery behaviors
Collection Automated Collection (T1119) Enable Anti-Exploit
Enable Anti-Malware Protection
Data from Local System (T1005) Enable Anti-Exploit
Enable Anti-Malware Protection
Command and Control Custom Command and Control (T1094) NGFW Ensure application security policies exist when allowing traffic from an untrusted zone to a more trusted zone
Ensure 'Service setting of ANY' in a security policy allowing traffic does not exist
Ensure 'Security Policy' denying any/all traffic to/from IP addresses on Trusted Threat Intelligence Sources Exists
Threat Prevention† Ensure that antivirus profiles are set to block on all decoders except 'imap' and 'pop3'
Ensure a secure antivirus profile is applied to all relevant security policies
Ensure an anti-spyware profile is configured to block on all spyware severity levels, categories, and threats
Ensure DNS sinkholing is configured on all anti-spyware profiles in use
Ensure passive DNS monitoring is set to enabled on all anti-spyware profiles in use
Ensure a secure anti-spyware profile is applied to all security policies permitting traffic to the Internet
DNS Security Enable DNS Security in Anti-Spyware profile
URL Filtering Ensure that PAN-DB URL Filtering is used
Ensure that URL Filtering uses the action of “block” or “override” on the <enterprise approved value> URL categories
Ensure that access to every URL is logged
Ensure all HTTP Header Logging options are enabled
Ensure secure URL filtering is enabled for all security policies allowing traffic to the Internet
Cortex XSOAR Deploy XSOAR Playbook - Block IP
Deploy XSOAR Playbook - Block URL
Deploy XSOAR Playbook - Hunting C&C Communication Playbook
Deploy XSOAR Playbook - PAN-OS Query Logs for Indicators
Impact Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486) Cortex XDR Enable Anti-Malware Protection
Enable the “Anti-Ransomware” security module in your security profile
Cortex XSOAR Deploy XSOAR Playbook - Ransomware Manual for incident response.

Table 1. Courses of Action for EKANS ransomware
†These capabilities are part of the NGFW security subscriptions service

Conclusion

EKANS is a relatively new ransomware, and we still continue to investigate the threat, that’s active targeting vulnerable enterprises for financial gain.

Although we haven’t seen EKANS leveraging compromised RDP, one of ransomware's top intrusion vectors are unsecured RDP ports. It’s always good practice to close those ports if they are not needed, or secure them. We encourage having the proper protections and best practices in place to prevent EKANS into getting into, or executing within, your network.

ICS asset owners should particularly be aware of this ransomware as it tries to kill ICS-related processes, so reviewing their security posture against this threat is recommended.

The suggested courses of action in this report are based on the information currently available to Palo Alto Networks and the capabilities within Palo Alto Networks’ products and services.

Additional Resources

 

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