malware

DEATHRANSOM S0616

Type: malware
Platform: Windows
Created: 2 June 2021
Last modified: 25 April 2025

DEATHRANSOM is ransomware written in C that has been used since at least 2020, and has potential overlap with FIVEHANDS and HELLOKITTY.[1]

Techniques44th pct

Tactics32nd pct

Threat groupsNone recorded

CampaignsNone recorded

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

Standing S0616

Reach is how much of ATT&CK this malware 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.

Select	Description	Category	Status	Event	OS	Product	MITRE ATT&CK	CVEs	Severity	Author	Created	Updated	ID	Refs
Splunk	The following analytic detects the execution of network scanning utilities such as Advanced IP Scanner or Advanced Port Scanner. (...)	Anomaly	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security · CrowdStrike	Discovery Network Service Discovery Discovery Network Share Discovery	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-10-24	2026-05-13	9a4e50c7-5b62-4d52-93b4-f2b61332e9a5
	Detects the deletion of all backups or system state backups via "wbadmin.exe". (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Impact Inhibit System Recovery	-	high	frack113, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2021-12-13	2024-05-10	639c9081-f482-47d3-a0bd-ddee3d4ecd76
	Detects loading of Amsi.dll by uncommon processes	Hunting	test	image_load	windows	Sysmon	Impact Inhibit System Recovery	-	low	frack113	2023-03-12	2026-06-29	facd1549-e416-48e0-b8c4-41d7215eedc8
	Detects a highly relevant Antivirus alert that reports ransomware. (...)	Generic	test	antivirus	-	-	Impact Data Encrypted for Impact	-	critical	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Arnim Rupp	2022-05-12	2026-06-15	4c6ca276-d4d0-4a8c-9e4c-d69832f8671f
	Detects the removal or uninstallation of an application via "Wmic.EXE".	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	medium	frack113	2022-01-28	2024-07-02	b53317a0-8acf-4fd1-8de8-a5401e776b96
	Detects an attempt to terminate a process via "wmic" with the "call terminate" flag. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-09-11	—	49d9671b-0a0a-4c09-8280-d215bfd30662
	Detects DNS queries made by "AppInstaller.EXE". (...)	Generic	test	dns	windows	Sysmon	Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer	-	medium	frack113	2021-11-24	2023-11-09	7cff77e1-9663-46a3-8260-17f2e1aa9d0a
	Detects suspicious user agent strings used in APT malware in proxy logs	Generic	test	proxy	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Markus Neis	2019-11-12	2024-02-15	6ec820f2-e963-4801-9127-d8b2dce4d31b
	Detects suspicious user agent string of APT40 Dropbox tool	Emerging	test	proxy	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service Exfiltration to Cloud Storage	-	high	Thomas Patzke	2019-11-12	2023-05-18	5ba715b6-71b7-44fd-8245-f66893e81b3d
	Detects execution of GfxDownloadWrapper.exe with a URL as an argument to download file.	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer	-	medium	Victor Sergeev, oscd.community	2020-10-09	2023-10-18	eee00933-a761-4cd0-be70-c42fe91731e7
Splunk	The following analytic detects the creation of AWS KMS keys with an encryption policy accessible to everyone, including external entities. (...)	Generic	stable	cloud_audit	-	AWS CloudTrail · AWS	Impact Data Encrypted for Impact	-	medium	Patrick Bareiss, Splunk	2020-10-27	2026-05-13	16ae9076-d1d5-411c-8fdd-457504b33dac
Splunk	The following analytic detects when AWS S3 bucket versioning is suspended by a user. (...)	Anomaly	stable	cloud_audit	-	AWS CloudTrail · AWS	Impact Inhibit System Recovery	-	medium	Patrick Bareiss, Splunk	2022-10-04	2026-05-13	f32598bb-fa5f-4afd-8ab3-0263cc28efbc
	Detects automated lateral movement by Turla group	Unsupported	unsupported	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Discovery File and Directory Discovery Discovery Network Share Discovery Lateral Movement Remote Services SMB/Windows Admin Shares	-	medium	Markus Neis	2017-11-07	2023-02-24	75925535-ca97-4e0a-a850-00b5c00779dc
Splunk	The following analytic detects the creation of AWS KMS keys with an encryption policy accessible to everyone, including external entities. (...)	Generic	stable	cloud_audit	-	AWS CloudTrail · AWS	Impact Data Encrypted for Impact	-	medium	Rod Soto, Patrick Bareiss Splunk	2020-10-27	2026-05-13	c79c164f-4b21-4847-98f9-cf6a9f49179e
Splunk	The following analytic identifies users with KMS keys performing encryption operations on S3 buckets. (...)	Anomaly	stable	cloud_audit	-	AWS CloudTrail · AWS	Impact Data Encrypted for Impact	-	medium	Rod Soto, Patrick Bareiss Splunk	2020-10-27	2026-05-13	884a5f59-eec7-4f4a-948b-dbde18225fdc
Splunk	The following analytic detects when AWS S3 bucket versioning is suspended by a user. (...)	Anomaly	stable	cloud_audit	-	AWS CloudTrail · AWS	Impact Inhibit System Recovery	-	medium	Bhavin Patel, Splunk	2023-05-01	2026-05-13	657902a9-987d-4879-a1b2-e7a65512824b
	Identifies disabling of default Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) encryption in the current region. (...)	Generic	stable	cloud_audit	-	AWS CloudTrail · AWS	Impact Data Encrypted for Impact Impact Data Manipulation	-	medium	Sittikorn S	2021-06-29	2021-08-20	16124c2d-e40b-4fcc-8f2c-5ab7870a2223
	Detects the import or deletion of key material in AWS KMS, which can be used as part of ransomware attacks. (...)	Generic	experimental	cloud_audit	-	AWS CloudTrail · AWS	Impact Data Encrypted for Impact Resource Development Stage Capabilities Install Digital Certificate	-	high	toopricey	2025-10-18	—	1279262f-1464-422f-ac0d-5b545320c526
	Detects when S3 bucket versioning is disabled. (...)	Generic	test	cloud_audit	-	AWS CloudTrail · AWS	Impact Inhibit System Recovery	-	medium	Sean Johnstone \| Unit 42	2023-10-28	—	a136ac98-b2bc-4189-a14d-f0d0388e57a7
	Detects file creation events linked to the Axios NPM supply chain compromise. (...)	Emerging	experimental	file_event	linux	Sysmon	Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Initial Access Supply Chain Compromise Compromise Software Supply Chain	-	high	Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)	2026-04-01	—	b7cb840c-11f6-47f7-b3ef-5524739c9077
	Detects file creation events linked to the Axios NPM supply chain compromise on macOS devices. (...)	Emerging	experimental	file_event	macos	-	Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Initial Access Supply Chain Compromise Compromise Software Supply Chain	-	high	Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)	2026-04-01	—	2db0458c-05c9-4069-a26f-77becd9c8c13
	Detects the Linux-specific execution chain of the plain-crypto-js malicious npm dependency by Axios NPM package, including payload download via curl and detached execution using nohup and python3. (...)	Emerging	experimental	process_creation	linux	Sysmon	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Unix Shell Python Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Initial Access Supply Chain Compromise Compromise Software Supply Chain	-	high	Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)	2026-04-01	—	0a23a62d-c5b3-468b-a072-25064a9a8c87
	Detects the macOS-specific execution chain of the plain-crypto-js malicious npm dependency in Axios NPM Package, including AppleScript execution via osascript, payload download, permission modification, execution, and cleanup.	Emerging	experimental	process_creation	macos	-	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter AppleScript Unix Shell Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Initial Access Supply Chain Compromise Compromise Software Supply Chain	-	high	Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)	2026-04-01	—	a09ee860-31b3-4586-8a68-0ebd74ce0e5f
	Detects the specific Windows execution chain and process tree associated with the Axios NPM supply chain compromise. (...)	Emerging	experimental	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Windows Command Shell Visual Basic Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Initial Access Supply Chain Compromise Compromise Software Supply Chain	-	high	Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)	2026-04-01	—	f6c27ecc-d890-4452-80e6-2e274a10e097
	Detects DNS queries for the malicious C2 domain associated with the plain-crypto-js/Axios npm package supply chain compromise. (...)	Emerging	experimental	dns	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols Command and Control Dynamic Resolution	-	high	Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)	2026-04-01	—	73e5d24f-493f-4092-bd2f-c72cabda40ee
	Detects deletion of files with extensions often used for backup files. (...)	Generic	test	file_delete	windows	Sysmon	Impact Inhibit System Recovery	-	medium	frack113	2022-01-02	2023-02-15	06125661-3814-4e03-bfa2-1e4411c60ac3
Splunk	The following analytic detects the execution of a suspicious `bcdedit` command that reconfigures a host from safe mode back to normal boot. (...)	Generic	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security · CrowdStrike	Impact Inhibit System Recovery	-	medium	Teoderick Contreras, Splunk	2021-09-07	2026-05-13	dc7a8004-0f18-11ec-8c54-acde48001122
Splunk	The following analytic detects modifications to the Windows error recovery boot configurations using bcdedit.exe with flags such as "recoveryenabled" and "no". (...)	Generic	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security · CrowdStrike	Impact Inhibit System Recovery	-	medium	Michael Haag, Splunk	2021-01-11	2026-10-02	809b31d2-5462-11eb-ae93-0242ac130002
Splunk	The following analytic detects the use of `bitsadmin.exe` with the `transfer` parameter to download a remote object. (...)	Generic	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security · CrowdStrike	Execution, Persistence, Stealth BITS Jobs Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer	-	medium	Michael Haag, Sittikorn S	2021-03-30	2026-10-02	80630ff4-8e4c-11eb-aab5-acde48001122
	Detects Bitsadmin connections to IP addresses instead of FQDN names	Generic	test	proxy	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols Execution, Persistence, Stealth BITS Jobs	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2022-06-10	2022-08-24	8ccd35a2-1c7c-468b-b568-ac6cdf80eec3
	Detects Bitsadmin connections to domains with uncommon TLDs	Generic	test	proxy	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols Execution, Persistence, Stealth BITS Jobs	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Tim Shelton	2019-03-07	2026-09-30	9eb68894-7476-4cd6-8752-23b51f5883a7
	Attempts to detect system changes made by Blue Mockingbird	Emerging	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Persistence, Defense Impairment Modify Registry Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	high	Trent Liffick (@tliffick)	2020-05-14	2022-10-09	c3198a27-23a0-4c2c-af19-e5328d49680e
	Attempts to detect system changes made by Blue Mockingbird	Emerging	test	registry_set	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Persistence, Defense Impairment Modify Registry Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	high	Trent Liffick (@tliffick)	2020-05-14	2023-08-17	92b0b372-a939-44ed-a11b-5136cf680e27
	Detect access to files and shares with names and extensions used by BlueSky ransomware which could indicate a current or previous encryption attempt.	Emerging	test	file_event	windows	WinEventLog Security	Impact Data Encrypted for Impact	-	high	j4son	2023-05-23	—	eee8311f-a752-44f0-bf2f-6b007db16300
	Detects the use of the bcdedit command to tamper with the boot configuration data. (...)	Generic	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Impact Inhibit System Recovery	-	high	E.M. Anhaus (originally from Atomic Blue Detections, Endgame), oscd.community	2019-10-24	2023-02-15	1444443e-6757-43e4-9ea4-c8fc705f79a2
	Detects execution of Chromium based browser in headless mode	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Stealth Hide Artifacts Hidden Window Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer	-	low	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-09-12	—	ef9dcfed-690c-4c5d-a9d1-482cd422225c
	Detects usage of "getcap" binary. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	linux	Sysmon	Discovery File and Directory Discovery	-	low	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2022-12-28	2026-01-24	d8d97d51-122d-4cdd-9e2f-01b4b4933530
	Detects HTTP request used by Chafer malware to receive data from its C2.	Emerging	test	proxy	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2019-01-31	2024-02-15	fb502828-2db0-438e-93e6-801c7548686d
Splunk	The following analytic detects the execution of a suspicious `bcdedit` command that configures a host to boot in safe mode with network support. (...)	Generic	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security · CrowdStrike	Impact Inhibit System Recovery	-	medium	Teoderick Contreras, Splunk	2021-09-07	2026-05-13	81f1dce0-0f18-11ec-a5d7-acde48001122
	Adversaries may communicate using application layer protocols associated with web traffic to avoid detection/network filtering by blending in with existing traffic. (...)	Generic	test	ps_script	windows	PowerShell	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols	-	medium	frack113	2022-01-23	2025-07-18	d4488827-73af-4f8d-9244-7b7662ef046e
	Find information about network devices that is not stored in config files	Generic	test	authentication	-	Cisco AAA · Cisco	Discovery File and Directory Discovery Discovery Password Policy Discovery Discovery Process Discovery Discovery Remote System Discovery Discovery System Information Discovery Discovery System Network Configuration Discovery Discovery System Network Connections Discovery Discovery System Owner/User Discovery Discovery System Time Discovery	-	low	Austin Clark	2019-08-12	2023-01-04	9705a6a1-6db6-4a16-a987-15b7151e299b
Splunk	The following analytic detects the execution of curl commands with insecure flags within the Cisco Isovalent environment. (...)	Anomaly	stable	process_creation	-	Cisco	Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer	-	medium	Bhavin Patel, Splunk	2026-01-05	2026-10-02	c16c4899-d3f7-461b-92c2-cc0ef5758855
	Modifications to a config that will serve an adversary's impacts or persistence	Generic	test	authentication	-	Cisco AAA · Cisco	Impact Data Manipulation Transmitted Data Manipulation Impact Inhibit System Recovery Execution, Persistence, Privilege Escalation Scheduled Task/Job Persistence Server Software Component	-	medium	Austin Clark	2019-08-12	2025-04-28	671ffc77-50a7-464f-9e3d-9ea2b493b26b	-
Splunk	This analytic detects the usage of the Utility osascript on a macOS device initiated a network connection lasting longer than 10 minutes (600 seconds). (...)	Anomaly	stable	network_connection	-	Cisco NVM · Cisco	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter AppleScript	-	medium	Radka Viskova, Splunk	2026-09-18	2026-09-22	6bc88a9d-f7de-4257-b526-acf15bc5a517
Splunk	This analytic identifies the use of Chromium-based browsers (like Microsoft Edge) running in headless mode with the `--dump-dom` argument. (...)	Generic	stable	network_connection	-	Cisco NVM · Cisco	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-07-01	2026-09-22	cd0e816f-f67d-4dbe-a153-480b546e867e
Splunk	This analytic detects unexpected outbound network connections initiated by known webserver processes such as `httpd.exe`, `nginx.exe`, or `tomcat.exe` to common file sharing or public content hosting services like GitHub, Discord CDN, Transfer.sh, or Pastebin. (...)	Generic	stable	network_connection	-	Cisco NVM · Cisco	Initial Access Exploit Public-Facing Application Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-07-01	2026-09-22	1984f997-3b49-4d4b-a7e9-dc5dbf88370e
Splunk	The following analytic detects the use of known suspicious SSL certificates in any observed event where the SSL_CertFingerprint field is present. (...)	Generic	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols Resource Development Develop Capabilities Code Signing Certificates Command and Control Encrypted Channel Asymmetric Cryptography Resource Development Obtain Capabilities Digital Certificates	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-04-03	2026-09-22	c43f7b49-2dab-4e76-892e-7f971c2f20f1
Splunk	The following analytic detects potential reverse shell activity by identifying connections involving ports commonly associated with remote access tools, shell listeners, or tunneling utilities. (...)	Anomaly	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Command and Control Non-Standard Port Privilege Escalation, Stealth Process Injection Command and Control Remote Access Tools Lateral Movement Remote Services	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-04-03	2026-05-13	d85c05c8-42c0-4e4a-87e7-4e1bb3e844e3
Splunk	The following analytic detects outbound connections to commonly abused file sharing and pastebin-style hosting domains. (...)	Anomaly	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service Exfiltration to Cloud Storage Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Resource Development Obtain Capabilities Tool Command and Control Proxy External Proxy	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-04-03	2026-05-13	f7e5e792-d907-46c1-a58e-4ff974dc462a
Splunk	The following analytic detects file transfers flagged as malware that occurred over non-standard ports (other than 80 and 443). (...)	Anomaly	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Command and Control Non-Standard Port	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-04-09	2026-09-22	f26445a8-a6a2-4855-bec0-0c39e52e5b8f

Title

Description

DEATHRANSOM S0616

DEATHRANSOM S0616

DEATHRANSOM MITRE reference S0616

Standing S0616

Reach

Coverage

DEATHRANSOM detections S0616