tool

EKANS S0605

Type: malware
Platform: Windows
Created: 12 February 2021
Last modified: 16 April 2025

EKANS is ransomware variant written in Golang that first appeared in mid-December 2019 and has been used against multiple sectors, including energy, healthcare, and automotive manufacturing, which in some cases resulted in significant operational disruptions. EKANS has used a hard-coded kill-list of processes, including some associated with common ICS software platforms (e.g., GE Proficy, Honeywell HMIWeb, etc), similar to those defined in MegaCortex.[1][2]

Techniques44th pct

Tactics41st pct

Threat groupsNone recorded

CampaignsNone recorded

Enterprise ATT&CK only. Any Mobile or ICS rows on the same ATT&CK page are not carried.

MITRE reference S0605

System Network Configuration Discovery T1016↗

EKANS can determine the domain of a compromised host.3

Discovery25 detection rules

Obfuscated Files or Information T1027↗

EKANS uses encoded strings in its process kill list.4

Stealth116 detection rules

Match Legitimate Resource Name or Location T1036.005↗

EKANS has been disguised as update.exe to appear as a valid executable.5

Stealth27 detection rules

Windows Management Instrumentation T1047↗

EKANS can use Windows Mangement Instrumentation (WMI) calls to execute operations.6

Execution73 detection rules

Process Discovery T1057↗

EKANS looks for processes from a hard-coded list.7 8 9

Discovery10 detection rules

Data Encrypted for Impact T1486↗

EKANS uses standard encryption library functions to encrypt files.10 11

Impact27 detection rules

Standing S0605

Reach is how much of ATT&CK this tool touches. Coverage is how well defended each thing it does is, as a median per technique rather than a total — a total would just restate the reach. Each figure is ranked against all 825 ATT&CK software entries only where that population actually spreads. Where most of the population shares one value, a percentile would rank the tie instead of the entity, so the raw value is shown and no rank is claimed.

Reach

Techniques944th pct

44th percentile · 56% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have more Enterprise techniques.

Tactics541st pct

41st percentile · 59% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have more tactics spanned.

Threat groups061% tie · 22 values

61% of the population shares a single value across only 22 distinct values, so a percentile here would rank the tie, not the entity.

Campaigns085% tie · 8 values

85% of the population shares a single value across only 8 distinct values, so a percentile here would rank the tie, not the entity.

Coverage

Rules / technique37medTop 15%

85th percentile · 85% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have this many detection rules per technique or fewer.

Tests / technique10med

Detection coverage S0605

634 distinct rules cover the 9 techniques recorded for this tool. The 647 technique-to-rule mappings resolve to 634 distinct rules, because one rule can cover several techniques. 419 Sigma · 215 Splunk.

9 covered by at least one rule634 distinct rules in total

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MITRE reference S0605

Reach

Coverage

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