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BlackMatter Ransomware: In-Depth Analysis & Recommendations

CISA has issued a security bulletin regarding the BlackMatter 'big game hunter' ransomware group following a sharp increase in cases targeting U.S. businesses. To mitigate these attacks, it is recommended...
Dvir Sason
6 min read
Published November 2, 2021
Last updated June 12, 2023

Executive Summary

CISA has issued a security bulletin regarding the BlackMatter 'big game hunter' ransomware group following a sharp increase in cases targeting U.S. businesses. To mitigate these attacks, it is recommended that organizations employ multifactor authentication (MFA) as well as updating vulnerable software and systems, such as those that are commonly exploited by ransomware groups.

Background

Over the July 4th holiday, REvil attacked Kaseya's customers using a Sodinokibi payload that, amongst its many indicators of compromise (IOC), included a "Blacklivesmatter" registry entry.

Not long after, REvil seemingly disappeared from the dark web, potentially in an attempt to avoid law enforcement attention or as the result of some take down action.

Aside from being an interesting indicator of compromise (IOC) at the time, the "Blacklivesmatter" registry entry seemingly provides an early indication of things to come, namely the formation of a big game hunter ransomware group using the moniker, "BlackMatter," that, based on our research, appears to be an amalgamation of REvil and Darkside's team members and tradecraft. The groups exhibit strong similarities in their codebases, infrastructure configuration, techniques, and operating philosophies.

REvil and Darkside, as we know, have been two of the most prolific ransomware groups throughout 2020 and 2021, with landmark attacks on Colonial Pipeline and JBS as well as the infamous Travelex incident that saw the organization and their customers suffering disruption for months.

Targets

While mainly targeting Windows based systems, we have observed unique payloads targeting Linux systems, as well. Linux payloads don't encrypt data; they act as remote access trojans (RATs) to pivot to other windows-based machines.

Since forming BlackMatter in mid-July 2021, the group's first foray seemingly targeted a US-based architecture company in, or around, July 28, 2021, some three weeks after the Kaseya incident.

1-negotiations

Figure 1 - Example BlackMatter Ransom Negotiations

BlackMatter offers threat actors and affiliates access to custom configurable binary payloads for each victim that include unique traits such as a tailored ransom note, often providing proof of the stolen data, as well as the victim's name and their identifier.

Based on dark web posts by an identity purporting to be BlackMatter, the group is only interested in targeting businesses with more than $100M annual revenues and they are avoiding networks that were previously compromised by Darkside or REvil. To incentivize others to provide access to new potential victim networks, theoretically appealing to malicious insider threats as well as initial access operators, the group offers a $100K bounty.

As seen in REvil's recruitment activity during 2020, BlackMatter have provided proof and reassurances of their ability to pay any would-be affiliate by depositing 4BTC (~$247K) with the forum.

2-forumpost

Figure 2 - BlackMatter Forum Post

Notably, the group appears to target organizations in English-speaking countries (explicitly listing Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States) although they exclude healthcare and government institutions, likely to avoid local law enforcement action resulting from political pressure, especially in the wake of an attack that might be considered an act of cyber warfare.

Delivery

Unlike many cyberattacks that rely on phishing to establish a foothold, BlackMatter appears to gain initial access primarily via the compromise of vulnerable edge devices and the abuse of corporate credentials obtained from other sources.

While it is possible that some edge cases may see the use of spear-phishing campaigns and malicious document payloads, leading to the compact ~80kb BlackMatter payload being dropped or downloaded, this has not been observed in any investigations we have conducted.

In addition to BlackMatter members exploiting infrastructure vulnerabilities, such as those found in remote desktop, virtualization and VPN appliances or servers, initial access operators affiliated with the group will likely bring their own TTP and may favor exploiting some vulnerabilities over others.

Additionally, the group are thought to make use of credentials obtained from other sources, such as third-party credential leaks, broad phishing campaigns or purchased from dark web marketplaces, taking advantage of credential reuse and exploiting organizations that don't enforce multi-factor authentication on internet-facing services.

In many cases, BlackMatter and their affiliates appear opportunistic, happening on vulnerable organizations potentially based on their susceptibility to a preferred intrusion method rather than investing time and effort toward a specific target.

In other cases, it is apparent that BlackMatter has gained an extensive and intimate knowledge of the victim's infrastructure with victim-specific ransomware configurations, including tailored process and service names to ensure they are terminated prior to the encryption phase, as well as an embedded list of high-privilege credential, these credentials may include domain administrator or service accounts that provide the the ability to access and encrypt data throughout the network.

What can we say about the payload?

  • Highly efficient multithreaded executable, written in C, that is only ~80kb in size.
  • Version 3.0 hides the configuration in different locations, making it harder to extract and analyze.
  • To hide execution flow, every function is decoded, loaded to memory, executed and then purged.
  • Relies on native Windows cryptography libraries, making the payload much smaller.
  • Encrypts files using a combination of Salsa20 and 1024-bit RSA keys.
  • Allows specified file extensions and filenames to be excluded from the encryption process, often to ensure that Windows will still boot.
  • Not specific to BlackMatter and previously used by Darkside and MedusaLocker, a four-year old ICMLuaUtil COM-based user account control (UAC) bypass impacting Windows 7 thru 10 is used to elevate privileges (due to it being considered a 'feature' by Microsoft, no fix will be released).
  • BlackMatter's configuration allows previously acquired credentials to be specified and potentially used with the UAC bypass.
  • Enumerates and deletes shadow copies using the Windows Management Instrumentation Command-Line (WMIC) utility: IWbemServices::ExecQuery - ROOT\CIMV2 : SELECT * FROM Win32_ShadowCopy
  • Victim ID along with the ransom note filename and encrypted file extension is based on the MachineGuid value within the Registry (HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography\MachineGuid).
  • The resulting encrypted file extension includes nine mixed-case alphanumeric characters along with the ransom note being saved on the victim's desktop and to c:\%extension%-README.txt, both of which may evade some dictionary-based detection methods.
  • Encryption process involves reading the target file, renaming it with the new extension, partially encrypting and re-writing 1024KB of data.
  • Enumerates Active Directory environments using native LDAP queries, specifically the built-in computers folder LDAP://CN=Computers to identify potential target machines.
  • Updates the victim's desktop wallpaper to inform them of the situation:
    3-wallpaper
       Figure 3 - BlackMatter Wallpaper
  • Sets the Access Control List of encrypted files to "Everyone", granting any and all users access.
  • To avoid detection and allow file encryption without interference of security controls, BlackMatter supports the use of Windows 'safe-mode' with the built-in local administrator account being enabled and set for automatic sign in along with the run-once Registry key being set to execute the BlackMatter payload.

The victim-specific ransom note advises the victim of both the data encryption and theft, advising them to install the TOR browser bundle so that the dark web negotiation site can be accessed.4-ransomnote

Figure 4 - Ransom Note

In the past, REvil and Darkside have avoided the encryption of machines identified as being within countries that are members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), based on identifying the country code used by victim's keyboard layout.

This, combined with early cybercrime forum posts indicating that only native Russian speakers are eligible to work with the group provides a strong indication that the founding members of the group originate and operated from within the region.

Notably, BlackMatter does not appear to perform the same geolocation checks, perhaps in an attempt to avoid association with the region and their past escapades.

Command and Control

The payload will communicate to command-and-control (C2) infrastructure over HTTPS, encrypted using AES. The victim sends a beacon including the machine name, OS version and CPU architecture, OS language, username, domain name, disk sizes, and potential encryption keys:

5-c2comms

Figure 5 - C2 Communications

This communication was observed as impersonating the following user-agent strings that may be anomalous in some environments:

  • Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1)
  • Firefox/89.0
  • Gecko/20100101
  • Edge/91.0.864.37
  • Safari/537.36

Payload Configuration

The BlackMatter configuration, seemingly a JSON structure, allows the payload to be tailored toward a specific victim including:

  • RSA public key to be used to encrypt the Salsa20 encryption key.
  • Company victim ID
  • AES Key to be used during Salsa20 key initialization (used later in file encryption).
  • Bot malware version, mentioning the payload version.
  • Odd Crypt Large Files - to further damage large files such as databases.
  • Need Make Logon - will attempt to authenticate using the mentioned credentials in the config.
  • Mount units and crypt - attempt to mount volumes and encrypt them.
  • Look for network shares and AD resources to attempt and encrypt them as well.
  • Processes and services exit prior to encryption to ensure maximum impact.
  • Creating mutex's to avoid detection.
  • Preparing victim's data and exfiltrating.
  • Dropping ransom notes post file encryption.
  • C2 domains to communicate over HTTP or HTTPS.
  • Setting a unique ransom note.
    6-config
       Figure 6 - Payload Configuration

Recommendations

  • Enforce MFA wherever possible.
  • Keep backup plans well maintained and operational.
  • Employ Patch Management processes on externally facing appliances such as VPN's.
  • Continuously assess external organization posture while looking for accessible devices, such as Exchange and vCenter servers.
  • Rotate users, admins and service accounts passwords while checking continuously for leaked credentials.
  • Prepare and practice Incident Response procedures for ransomware attacks.
  • Block the mentioned servers and IOC's.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

SHA256 Windows payloads:

  1. 02ec55a8f4f97a84370ca72b03912ae8625d344b7bd1af92a2de4b636183f2ab
  2. 072158f5588440e6c94cb419ae06a27cf584afe3b0cb09c28eff0b4662c15486
  3. 0751c422962dcd500d7cf2cf8bf544ddf5b2fe3465df7dd9b9998f6bba5e08a4
  4. 14a3e308c90183b3785b6c26ec40d29405361cd8dec204a62235733401bf5f5c
  5. 1c63a4fdee1528429886a0de5e89eaa540a058bf27cd378b8d139e045a2f7849
  6. 1eea3cbd729d4493c0c0a84efe6840abf1760efe221dc971d32ca5017b5c19c2
  7. 20742987e6f743814b25e214f8b2cd43111e2f60a8856a6cca87cafd85422f41
  8. 22d7d67c3af10b1a37f277ebabe2d1eb4fd25afbd6437d4377400e148bcc08d6
  9. 2466fca0e29b06c78ffa8a44193fb58c30e6bec4e54bbef8e6622349b95cce4c
  10. 2aad85dbd4c79bd21c6218892552d5c9fb216293a251559ba59d45d56a01437c
  11. 2c323453e959257c7aa86dc180bb3aaaa5c5ec06fa4e72b632d9e4b817052009
  12. 2cdb5edf3039863c30818ca34d9240cb0068ad33128895500721bcdca70c78fd
  13. 2e50eb85f6e271001e69c5733af95c34728893145766066c5ff8708dcc0e43b2
  14. 3a03530c732ebe53cdd7c17bee0988896d36c2b632dbd6118613697c2af82117
  15. 3a4bd5288b89aa26fbe39353b93c1205efa671be4f96e50beae0965f45fdcc40
  16. 4ad9432cc817afa905bab2f16d4f713af42ea42f5e4fcf53e6d4b631a7d6da91
  17. 4be85e2083b64838fb66b92195a250228a721cdb5ae91817ea97b37aa53f4a2b
  18. 520bd9ed608c668810971dbd51184c6a29819674280b018dc4027bc38fc42e57
  19. 5da8d2e1b36be0d661d276ea6523760dbe3fa4f3fdb7e32b144812ce50c483fa
  20. 668a4a2300f36c9df0f7307cc614be3297f036fa312a424765cdb2c169187fe6
  21. 66e6563ecef8f33b1b283a63404a2029550af9a6574b84e0fb3f2c6a8f42e89f
  22. 6d4712df42ad0982041ef0e2e109ab5718b43830f2966bd9207a7fac3af883db
  23. 6e846881115448d5d4b69bf020fcd5872a0efef56e582f6ac8e3e80ea79b7a55
  24. 706f3eec328e91ff7f66c8f0a2fb9b556325c153a329a2062dc85879c540839d
  25. 730f2d6243055c786d737bae0665267b962c64f57132e9ab401d6e7625c3d0a4
  26. 77340f01535db5c80c1f3e725a8f8de17bb227f567b8f568dd339be6ddacf60e
  27. 7f6dd0ca03f04b64024e86a72a6d7cfab6abccc2173b85896fc4b431990a5984
  28. 8323fdfda08300c691d330badec2607ea050cc10ee39934faeebedf3877df3ac
  29. 86c84c07e27cc8aba129e1cf51215b65c445f178b94f2e8c4c10e6bc110daa94
  30. 8eada5114fbbc73b7d648b38623fc206367c94c0e76cb3b395a33ea8859d2952
  31. 8f1b0affffb2f2f58b477515d1ce54f4daa40a761d828041603d5536c2d53539
  32. 98227953d55c5aee2271851cbea3680925d4d0838ee0d63090da143c8d71ac55
  33. 9bae897c19f237c22b6bdc024df27455e739be24bed07ef0d409f2df87eeda58
  34. 9cf9441554ac727f9d191ad9de1dc101867ffe5264699cafcf2734a4b89d5d6a
  35. a5cdca5a8120b5532f6de3395b9b6d411ad9234b857ce17bb3cc5747be6a7dd2
  36. b0e929e35c47a60f65e4420389cad46190c26e8cfaabe922efd73747b682776a
  37. b1891a5375198e262dfe6f83a89574e7aa438f41e2853d5d31e101bcec95cbf3
  38. b3e82b43750c7d0833f69abd3d31751c9e8face5063573946f61abbdda513eb8
  39. b4b9fdf30c017af1a8a3375218e43073117690a71c3f00ac5f6361993471e5e7
  40. b824bbc645f15e213b4cb2628f7d383e9e37282059b03f6fe60f7c84ea1fed1f
  41. c6e2ef30a86baa670590bd21acf5b91822117e0cbe6060060bc5fe0182dace99
  42. c728e3a0d4a293e44314d663945354427848c220d05d5d87cdedd9995fee3dfe
  43. cf60d0d6b05bfe2e51ca9dac01a4ae506b90d78d8d9d0fc266e3c01d8d2ba6b7
  44. d4645d2c29505cf10d1b201826c777b62cbf9d752cb1008bef1192e0dd545a82
  45. d4647619fa2dc8fef5560d1662cbee6eb7dc95298dd40edf12dd4c8ee902d767
  46. daed41395ba663bef2c52e3d1723ac46253a9008b582bb8d9da9cb0044991720
  47. e146f17a53300e19ec480d069b341688127d46198ff0fdd0e059914130d56f56
  48. e4a2260bcba8059207fdcc2d59841a8c4ddbe39b6b835feef671bceb95cd232d
  49. e9b24041847844a5d57b033bf0b41dc637eba7664acfb43da5db635ae920a1b4
  50. eaac447d6ae733210a07b1f79e97eda017a442e721d8fafe618e2c789b18234b
  51. eafce6e79a087b26475260afe43f337e7168056616b3e073832891bf18c299c1
  52. ed47e6ecca056bba20f2b299b9df1022caf2f3e7af1f526c1fe3b8bf2d6e7404
  53. f32604fba766c946b429cf7e152273794ebba9935999986b7e137ca46cd165fc
  54. f7b3da61cb6a37569270554776dbbd1406d7203718c0419c922aa393c07e9884
  55. fe2b2beeff98cae90f58a5b2f01dab31eaa98d274757a7dd9f70f4dc8432a6e2
02ec55a8f4f97a84370ca72b03912ae8625d344b7bd1af92a2de4b636183f2ab 
072158f5588440e6c94cb419ae06a27cf584afe3b0cb09c28eff0b4662c15486 
0751c422962dcd500d7cf2cf8bf544ddf5b2fe3465df7dd9b9998f6bba5e08a4 
14a3e308c90183b3785b6c26ec40d29405361cd8dec204a62235733401bf5f5c 
1c63a4fdee1528429886a0de5e89eaa540a058bf27cd378b8d139e045a2f7849 
1eea3cbd729d4493c0c0a84efe6840abf1760efe221dc971d32ca5017b5c19c2 
20742987e6f743814b25e214f8b2cd43111e2f60a8856a6cca87cafd85422f41 
22d7d67c3af10b1a37f277ebabe2d1eb4fd25afbd6437d4377400e148bcc08d6 
2466fca0e29b06c78ffa8a44193fb58c30e6bec4e54bbef8e6622349b95cce4c 
2aad85dbd4c79bd21c6218892552d5c9fb216293a251559ba59d45d56a01437c 
2c323453e959257c7aa86dc180bb3aaaa5c5ec06fa4e72b632d9e4b817052009 
2cdb5edf3039863c30818ca34d9240cb0068ad33128895500721bcdca70c78fd 
2e50eb85f6e271001e69c5733af95c34728893145766066c5ff8708dcc0e43b2 
3a03530c732ebe53cdd7c17bee0988896d36c2b632dbd6118613697c2af82117 
3a4bd5288b89aa26fbe39353b93c1205efa671be4f96e50beae0965f45fdcc40 
4ad9432cc817afa905bab2f16d4f713af42ea42f5e4fcf53e6d4b631a7d6da91 
4be85e2083b64838fb66b92195a250228a721cdb5ae91817ea97b37aa53f4a2b 
520bd9ed608c668810971dbd51184c6a29819674280b018dc4027bc38fc42e57 
5da8d2e1b36be0d661d276ea6523760dbe3fa4f3fdb7e32b144812ce50c483fa 
668a4a2300f36c9df0f7307cc614be3297f036fa312a424765cdb2c169187fe6 
66e6563ecef8f33b1b283a63404a2029550af9a6574b84e0fb3f2c6a8f42e89f 
6d4712df42ad0982041ef0e2e109ab5718b43830f2966bd9207a7fac3af883db 
6e846881115448d5d4b69bf020fcd5872a0efef56e582f6ac8e3e80ea79b7a55 
706f3eec328e91ff7f66c8f0a2fb9b556325c153a329a2062dc85879c540839d 
730f2d6243055c786d737bae0665267b962c64f57132e9ab401d6e7625c3d0a4 
77340f01535db5c80c1f3e725a8f8de17bb227f567b8f568dd339be6ddacf60e 
7f6dd0ca03f04b64024e86a72a6d7cfab6abccc2173b85896fc4b431990a5984 
8323fdfda08300c691d330badec2607ea050cc10ee39934faeebedf3877df3ac 
86c84c07e27cc8aba129e1cf51215b65c445f178b94f2e8c4c10e6bc110daa94 
8eada5114fbbc73b7d648b38623fc206367c94c0e76cb3b395a33ea8859d2952 
8f1b0affffb2f2f58b477515d1ce54f4daa40a761d828041603d5536c2d53539 
98227953d55c5aee2271851cbea3680925d4d0838ee0d63090da143c8d71ac55 
9bae897c19f237c22b6bdc024df27455e739be24bed07ef0d409f2df87eeda58 
9cf9441554ac727f9d191ad9de1dc101867ffe5264699cafcf2734a4b89d5d6a 
a5cdca5a8120b5532f6de3395b9b6d411ad9234b857ce17bb3cc5747be6a7dd2 
b0e929e35c47a60f65e4420389cad46190c26e8cfaabe922efd73747b682776a 
b1891a5375198e262dfe6f83a89574e7aa438f41e2853d5d31e101bcec95cbf3 
b3e82b43750c7d0833f69abd3d31751c9e8face5063573946f61abbdda513eb8 
b4b9fdf30c017af1a8a3375218e43073117690a71c3f00ac5f6361993471e5e7 
b824bbc645f15e213b4cb2628f7d383e9e37282059b03f6fe60f7c84ea1fed1f 
c6e2ef30a86baa670590bd21acf5b91822117e0cbe6060060bc5fe0182dace99 
c728e3a0d4a293e44314d663945354427848c220d05d5d87cdedd9995fee3dfe 
cf60d0d6b05bfe2e51ca9dac01a4ae506b90d78d8d9d0fc266e3c01d8d2ba6b7 
d4645d2c29505cf10d1b201826c777b62cbf9d752cb1008bef1192e0dd545a82 
d4647619fa2dc8fef5560d1662cbee6eb7dc95298dd40edf12dd4c8ee902d767 
daed41395ba663bef2c52e3d1723ac46253a9008b582bb8d9da9cb0044991720 
e146f17a53300e19ec480d069b341688127d46198ff0fdd0e059914130d56f56 
e4a2260bcba8059207fdcc2d59841a8c4ddbe39b6b835feef671bceb95cd232d 
e9b24041847844a5d57b033bf0b41dc637eba7664acfb43da5db635ae920a1b4 
eaac447d6ae733210a07b1f79e97eda017a442e721d8fafe618e2c789b18234b 
eafce6e79a087b26475260afe43f337e7168056616b3e073832891bf18c299c1 
ed47e6ecca056bba20f2b299b9df1022caf2f3e7af1f526c1fe3b8bf2d6e7404 
f32604fba766c946b429cf7e152273794ebba9935999986b7e137ca46cd165fc 
f7b3da61cb6a37569270554776dbbd1406d7203718c0419c922aa393c07e9884 
fe2b2beeff98cae90f58a5b2f01dab31eaa98d274757a7dd9f70f4dc8432a6e2

SHA256 Linux payloads:

  1. 6a7b7147fea63d77368c73cef205eb75d16ef209a246b05698358a28fd16e502
  2. d4645d2c29505cf10d1b201826c777b62cbf9d752cb1008bef1192e0dd545a82
6a7b7147fea63d77368c73cef205eb75d16ef209a246b05698358a28fd16e502
d4645d2c29505cf10d1b201826c777b62cbf9d752cb1008bef1192e0dd545a82

Domains:

  • nowautomation[.]com
  • fluentzip[.]org
  • mojobiden[.]com
  • paymenthacks[.]com

IP addresses:

  • 99.83.154[.]118

What you should do now

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  2. Download our free report and learn the risks associated with SaaS data exposure.
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