Sunday, April 20, 2025
HomeMalwareRyuk Ransomware Group using Zerologon Vulnerability to Accomplish their Objective Faster

Ryuk Ransomware Group using Zerologon Vulnerability to Accomplish their Objective Faster

Published on

SIEM as a Service

Follow Us on Google News

Ryuk ransomware is known for targeting know for targeting various large organizations worldwide. It is often distributed by other malware such as Emotet or TrickBot.

Ryuk Ransomware initially uncovered in August 2018 since then it infects and compromise various organization and steals millions of dollars from affected victims.

The analysis shows that Ryuk is a result of the custom development of an older commodity malware known as Hermes, believed to have been authored by North Korea’s Stardust Chollima (a.k.a. APT38, believed to be a revenue-generating offshoot of the well-known APT Lazarus Group).

- Advertisement - Google News

Ryuk With Zerologon

Zerologon is a dangerous vulnerability tracked as CVE-2020-1472, it is due to a flaw in the login process that let attacker establishes a vulnerable Netlogon secure channel connection to a domain controller, using the Netlogon Remote Protocol (MS-NRPC).

Ryuk threat actors use Zerologon (CVE-2020-1472) vulnerability to complete the ransomware to domain-wide in about 5 hours.

“We saw the threat actors leverage access to an environment via the Bazar Loader malware. This time around, we saw them accomplish their objective faster, but the general tactics and techniques stayed similar between incidents,” reads the DFIR report.

In this case, Ryuk dropped by the sophisticated Bazar Loader malware which is a part of the TrickBot group’s and it primarily focuses on high-value targets.

The attackers started as a low-level user and exploit the recently disclosed Zerologon vulnerability (CVE-2020-1472) to gain access to the primary domain controller.

Lateral movements handled via SMB file transfers and WMI executions, once they moved with secondary domain controller threat actors run more domain discovery via Net and the PowerShell Active Directory module.

In about five hours attackers completed their objective by executing the ransomware on the primary domain controller.

Here you can find the complete timeline

The first thing you should do is work with your IT department to ensure the patch from Microsoft is implemented on your network immediately if it hasn’t been done so already.

August’s patch from Microsoft added five Event IDs for vulnerable Netlogon connections. When a secure channel connection during the initial deployment phase is allowed, event ID 5829 is generated.

You can follow us on LinkedinTwitterFacebook for daily Cybersecurity and hacking news updates.

Also Read:

Hackers Spread Android Malware Via Coronavirus Safety App & Gain Contacts Access to Infect All of Them via SMS

Cookiethief – Android Malware that Gains Root Access to Steal Browser & Facebook App Cookies

Google Play Store Flooding with Spyware, Banking Trojan, Adware Via Games, and Utility Apps

Gurubaran
Gurubaran
Gurubaran is a co-founder of Cyber Security News and GBHackers On Security. He has 10+ years of experience as a Security Consultant, Editor, and Analyst in cybersecurity, technology, and communications.

Latest articles

10 Best Patch Management Tools 2025

In today's digital landscape, maintaining secure and efficient IT systems is critical for organizations....

10 Best Cloud Security Solutions 2025

In today’s digital era, businesses are increasingly adopting cloud computing to store data, run...

Chinese Hackers Exploit Ivanti Connect Secure Flaw to Gain Unauthorized Access

In a sophisticated cyber-espionage operation, a group known as UNC5221, suspected to have China-nexus,...

New Android SuperCard X Malware Uses NFC-Relay Technique for POS & ATM Transactions

A new malware strain known as SuperCard X has emerged, utilizing an innovative Near-Field...

Resilience at Scale

Why Application Security is Non-Negotiable

The resilience of your digital infrastructure directly impacts your ability to scale. And yet, application security remains a critical weak link for most organizations.

Application Security is no longer just a defensive play—it’s the cornerstone of cyber resilience and sustainable growth. In this webinar, Karthik Krishnamoorthy (CTO of Indusface) and Phani Deepak Akella (VP of Marketing – Indusface), will share how AI-powered application security can help organizations build resilience by

Discussion points


Protecting at internet scale using AI and behavioral-based DDoS & bot mitigation.
Autonomously discovering external assets and remediating vulnerabilities within 72 hours, enabling secure, confident scaling.
Ensuring 100% application availability through platforms architected for failure resilience.
Eliminating silos with real-time correlation between attack surface and active threats for rapid, accurate mitigation

More like this

New Android SuperCard X Malware Uses NFC-Relay Technique for POS & ATM Transactions

A new malware strain known as SuperCard X has emerged, utilizing an innovative Near-Field...

KeyPlug Malware Server Leak Exposes Fortinet Firewall and VPN Exploitation Tools

Cybersecurity researchers have stumbled upon a treasure trove of operational tools and scripts linked...

Researchers Uncover Stealthy Tactics and Techniques of StrelaStealer Malware

Cybersecurity experts have recently shed light on the sophisticated operations of StrelaStealer, also known...