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.
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
- 0f3e5603cf3f5cc91e8eb031a4b5c45d
- 44aba241dd3f0d156c6ed82a0ab3a9e1
- 4144a0d0777073b1c5d83d743682c5e9
- 2eafe1d0f2579e730ed03445bff12d0c
- d7fb1939cf5bda2d2c6b792324554dfc
SHA-256
- 88b1d8a85bf9101bc336b01b9af4345ed91d3ec761554d167fe59f73af73f037
- 065208b037a2691eb75a14f97bdbd9914122655d42f6249d2cca419a1e4ba6f1
- 33744c420884adf582c46a4b74cbd9c145f2e15a036bb1e557e89d6fd428e724
- afab34235b7f170150f180c7afb9e3b4e504a84559bbd03ab71e64e3b6541149
- 36759cab7043cd7561ac6c3968832b30c9a442eff4d536e901d4ff70aef4d32d
SHA-1
- 594347df314d674bac4ea744b274f6d17556c40b
- 8516db624f17ad1cc56f71a69555272b216a8aee
- 6b557c3dbe83d7e2fd77e2f6e649495c25a20181
- 0c7297f37db3a6f4d73ccadf16553401780b1321
- 3e5577716dbac03b32a272e0c6104127ce52b2d0
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