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 language 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

9164496918c431af3af6b2bc198d08b5
d49f28cfa9db6febb31b32885176e443

SHA-256

4bc60d512816e33bfa5c6a43ee4f9f60eae20c19ecb29c896d2664b0ed225c01
8af39d53b7b9e57995003b9c22dbcad3823dd739ad8586011be57be9b9adfeb6

SHA-1

55b4b7d628d72cbb9231fd4a99c3bec7a53eea57
f6a2537270e9892d22e49cd1086516b02122d91c

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 implementing a 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