Rewterz Threat Alert – Hive Ransomware – Active IOCs

Severity

High

Analysis Summary

Hive is one of the quickest evolving ransomware families which was first observed in June 2021 and likely operates as an affiliate-based ransomware, employs a wide variety of tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), creating significant challenges for defense and mitigation. Hive ransomware uses multiple mechanisms to compromise business networks, including phishing emails with malicious attachments to gain access and Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to move laterally once on the network. After compromising a victim network, Hive ransomware actors exfiltrate data and encrypt files on the network. The actors leave a ransom note in each affected directory within a victim’s system, which provides instructions on how to purchase the decryption software. The ransom note also threatens to leak exfiltrated victim data on the Tor site, “HiveLeaks.”

The latest variant introduced by this ransomware is written in Rust languaguage as opposed to the previous variants, which were written in GoLang or Go. 
According to researchers:

The new variation employs a unique collection of algorithms, including Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellmann (ECDH) with Curve25519 and XChaCha20-Poly1305″ (authenticated encryption with ChaCha20 symmetric cipher)

The latest Hive version approaches file encryption in a distinctive manner. It produces two sets of keys in memory, uses them to encrypt files, and then encrypts and writes the sets to the root of the drive it encrypts, with a .key extension. 

Impact

• Unauthorized Access
• Data Exfiltration
• File Encryption

Indicators of Compromise

MD5

fa181087df0176eb9b39d70d75d2b9d3
e75a075266cc6689599217b410a79ed8
583ce06f5812bbb83e7388b58e7498f5
f2d50918efd1be9dfae1c6e049e797d8

SHA-256

23f9744316621d583cc811663b620df5d92c3de4554a82a863c9c974c38ccaf1
25793a0764a51b38806b7dcf5f5d8df9620f090f72362aa03187c8813e054482
25f621faa29e7814e8c6d75d3e7fc3f65877d81b5dafb397526b26dcd8d3594d
27cb6c7baa77bd84c21e29c75365c6990c69d0d9134e0f9272f3444aacba4488

SHA-1

2a01233ffa882a27799e45b64865eb84e4655336
5c00a0409d06573837c4c395f9dcbf5ecc16991e
9e8dafdfea6b79dc3f13b582529caa451f5a6355
81b57e9cab3e582a1f433d656f12df198225ad1e

Remediation

• Search for IOCs in your environment.
• Block all threat indicators at your respective controls.
• Maintain cyber hygiene by updating your anti-virus software and implement patch management lifecycle.
• Maintain Offline Backups – In a ransomware attack, the adversary will often delete or encrypt backups if they have access to them. That’s why it’s important to keep offline (preferably off-site), encrypted backups of data and test them regularly.
• Emails from unknown senders should always be treated with caution.
• Never trust or open ” links and attachments received from unknown sources/senders.