An evaluation of HellCat and Morpheus ransomware operations has revealed that associates related to the respective cybercrime entities are utilizing equivalent code for his or her ransomware payloads.
The findings come from SentinelOne, which analyzed artifacts uploaded to the VirusTotal malware scanning platform by the identical submitter in the direction of the top of December 2024.
“These two payload samples are identical except for victim specific data and the attacker contact details,” safety researcher Jim Walter stated in a brand new report shared with The Hacker Information.
Each HellCat and Morpheus are nascent entrants to the ransomware ecosystem, having emerged in October and December 2024, respectively.
A deeper examination of the Morpheus/HellCat payload, a 64-bit transportable executable, has revealed that each samples require a path to be specified as an enter argument.
They’re each configured to exclude the WindowsSystem32 folder, in addition to a hard-coded listing of extensions from the encryption course of, particularly .dll, .sys, .exe, .drv, .com, and .cat, from the encryption course of.
“An unusual characteristic of these Morpheus and HellCat payloads is that they do not alter the extension of targeted and encrypted files,” Walter stated. “The file contents will be encrypted, but file extensions and other metadata remain intact after processing by the ransomware.”
Moreover, Morpheus and HellCat samples depend on the Home windows Cryptographic API for key technology and file encryption. The encryption key’s generated utilizing the BCrypt algorithm.
Barring encrypting the recordsdata and dropping equivalent ransom notes, no different system modifications are made to the affected techniques, akin to altering the desktop wallpaper or establishing persistence mechanisms.
SentinelOne stated the ransom notes for HellCat and Morpheus observe the identical template as Underground Group, one other ransomware scheme that sprang forth in 2023, though the ransomware payloads themselves are structurally and functionally completely different.
“HellCat and Morpheus RaaS operations appear to be recruiting common affiliates,” Walter stated. “While it is not possible to assess the full extent of interaction between the owners and operators of these services, it appears that a shared codebase or possibly a shared builder application is being leveraged by affiliates tied to both groups.”
The event comes as ransomware continues to thrive, albeit in an more and more fragmented vogue, regardless of ongoing makes an attempt by legislation enforcement companies to sort out the menace.
“The financially motivated ransomware ecosystem is increasingly characterized by the decentralization of operations, a trend spurred by the disruptions of larger groups,” Trustwave stated. “This shift has paved the way for smaller, more agile actors, shaping a fragmented yet resilient landscape.”
Information shared by NCC Group exhibits {that a} document 574 ransomware assaults have been noticed in December 2024 alone, with FunkSec accounting for 103 incidents. A few of the different prevalent ransomware teams have been Cl0p (68), Akira (43), and RansomHub (41).
“December is usually a much quieter time for ransomware attacks, but last month saw the highest number of ransomware attacks on record, turning that pattern on its head,” Ian Usher, affiliate director of Menace Intelligence Operations and Service Innovation at NCC Group, stated.
“The rise of new and aggressive actors, like FunkSec, who have been at the forefront of these attacks is alarming and suggests a more turbulent threat landscape heading into 2025.”
