malware

HELLOKITTY S0617

Type: malware
Platform: Windows
Created: 3 June 2021
Last modified: 25 April 2025

HELLOKITTY is a ransomware written in C++ that shares similar code structure and functionality with DEATHRANSOM and FIVEHANDS. HELLOKITTY has been used since at least 2020, targets have included a Polish video game developer and a Brazilian electric power company.[1]

Techniques29th pct

TacticsBottom 21%

Threat groupsNone recorded

CampaignsNone recorded

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

Standing S0617

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.

Standing S0617

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
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 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
	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
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
	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
	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	-
	Detects execution of wmic utility with the "computersystem" flag in order to obtain information about the machine such as the domain, username, model, etc.	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2022-09-08	2023-02-14	9d7ca793-f6bd-471c-8d0f-11e68b2f0d2f
	Detects the execution of the builtin "copy" command that targets a shadow copy (sometimes used to co (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Impact Inhibit System Recovery	-	high	Max Altgelt (Nextron Systems), Tobias Michalski (Nextron Systems)	2021-08-09	2023-03-07	c73124a7-3e89-44a3-bdc1-25fe4df754b1
Splunk	The following analytic detects the use of PowerShell to delete shadow copies via the WMIC PowerShell module. (...)	Generic	stable	ps_script	windows	PowerShell	Impact Inhibit System Recovery	-	medium	Teoderick Contreras, Splunk	2021-05-12	2026-10-02	5ee2bcd0-b2ff-11eb-bb34-acde48001122
	Shadow Copies deletion using operating systems utilities via PowerShell	Generic	stable	ps_classic_start	windows	PowerShell	Impact Inhibit System Recovery	-	high	frack113	2021-06-03	2023-10-27	87df9ee1-5416-453a-8a08-e8d4a51e9ce1
Splunk	The following analytic detects the deletion of shadow copies using the vssadmin.exe or wmic.exe utilities. (...)	Generic	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security · CrowdStrike	Impact Inhibit System Recovery	-	medium	David Dorsey, Splunk	2020-04-29	2026-10-09	b89919ed-ee5f-492c-b139-95dbb162039e
	Detects deletion of Windows Volume Shadow Copies with PowerShell code and Get-WMIObject. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Impact Inhibit System Recovery	-	high	Tim Rauch, Elastic (idea)	2022-09-20	2022-12-30	21ff4ca9-f13a-41ad-b828-0077b2af2e40
	Detects deletion of Windows Volume Shadow Copies with PowerShell code and Get-WMIObject. (...)	Generic	test	ps_script	windows	PowerShell	Impact Inhibit System Recovery	-	high	Tim Rauch, frack113	2022-09-20	2022-12-02	c1337eb8-921a-4b59-855b-4ba188ddcc42
Splunk	The following analytic detects the modification of registry keys to disable System Restore on a machine. (...)	Generic	stable	registry_event	windows	Sysmon	Impact Inhibit System Recovery	-	medium	Teoderick Contreras, Splunk, Steven Dick	2021-03-31	2026-10-02	f4f837e2-91fb-11eb-8bf6-acde48001122
	This rule will monitor executable and script file creation by office applications. (...)	Unsupported	experimental	file_event	windows	Sysmon	Stealth System Binary Proxy Execution Regsvr32 Execution User Execution Malicious File Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	high	Vadim Khrykov (ThreatIntel), Cyb3rEng (Rule)	2021-08-23	2022-06-02	8c6fd6fc-28fc-4597-a86a-fc1de20b039d
	Detects the initial execution of "cmd.exe" which spawns "explorer.exe" with the appropriate command line arguments for opening the "My Computer" folder.	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Discovery Network Share Discovery	-	high	@Kostastsale	2022-12-22	2024-08-23	c3d76afc-93df-461e-8e67-9b2bad3f2ac4
	Detects the recovery of files from backups via "wbadmin.exe". (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Impact Inhibit System Recovery	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), frack113	2024-05-10	—	6fe4aa1e-0531-4510-8be2-782154b73b48
	Detects the creation of files with the ".funksec" extension, which is appended to encrypted files by the FunkLocker ransomware.	Emerging	experimental	file_event	windows	Sysmon	Impact Data Encrypted for Impact	-	high	Saiprashanth Pulisetti ( @Prashanthblogs)	2025-08-08	—	2c76a22b-702d-48fd-8fa9-e41e2fe203b3
	This rule detect common flag combinations used by CrackMapExec in order to detect its use even if the binary has been replaced.	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Credential Access Brute Force Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Discovery Password Policy Discovery Execution, Persistence, Privilege Escalation Scheduled Task/Job Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2022-02-25	2023-03-08	42a993dd-bb3e-48c8-b372-4d6684c4106c
	Detects various execution patterns of the CrackMapExec pentesting framework	Generic	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Execution, Persistence, Privilege Escalation Scheduled Task/Job Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	high	Thomas Patzke	2020-05-22	2023-11-06	058f4380-962d-40a5-afce-50207d36d7e2
	Detects suspicious use of PCHunter, a tool like Process Hacker to view and manipulate processes, ker (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Discovery File and Directory Discovery Discovery Process Discovery Discovery Query Registry Discovery System Information Discovery Discovery System Service Discovery	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Nasreddine Bencherchali	2022-10-10	2024-11-23	fca949cc-79ca-446e-8064-01aa7e52ece5
	Detects wmiexec/dcomexec/atexec/smbexec from Impacket framework	Generic	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Lateral Movement Remote Services Distributed Component Object Model Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	high	Ecco, oscd.community, Jonhnathan Ribeiro, Tim Rauch	2019-09-03	2023-02-21	10c14723-61c7-4c75-92ca-9af245723ad2
	Adversaries may look for details about the network configuration and settings of systems they access (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Discovery Domain Trust Discovery Discovery Network Share Discovery Discovery Permission Groups Discovery Domain Groups Discovery System Network Connections Discovery Discovery System Owner/User Discovery	-	high	frack113	2021-12-10	2023-02-14	b2317cfa-4a47-4ead-b3ff-297438c0bc2d
	Detects the execution of WMIC with the "csproduct" which is used to obtain information such as hardw (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	medium	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2023-02-14	—	3e3ceccd-6c06-48b8-b5ff-ab1d25db8c1d
Splunk	The following analytic identifies a high frequency of process termination events on a computer within a short period. (...)	Anomaly	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon	Impact Data Encrypted for Impact	-	medium	Teoderick Contreras	2021-03-19	2026-05-13	17cd75b2-8666-11eb-9ab4-acde48001122
	Detects a suspicious child process of a Microsoft HTML Help (HH.exe)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Visual Basic JavaScript Initial Access Phishing Spearphishing Attachment Stealth System Binary Proxy Execution Compiled HTML File Regsvr32 Rundll32 Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	high	Maxim Pavlunin, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2020-04-01	2023-04-12	52cad028-0ff0-4854-8f67-d25dfcbc78b4
Splunk	The following analytic identifies the use of suspicious command-line parameters associated with Impacket tools, such as `wmiexec.py`, `smbexec.py`, `dcomexec.py`, and `atexec.py`, which are used for lateral movement and remote code execution. (...)	Generic	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security · CrowdStrike	Persistence, Privilege Escalation Create or Modify System Process Windows Service Lateral Movement Remote Services SMB/Windows Admin Shares Distributed Component Object Model Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	medium	Mauricio Velazco, Splunk	2021-11-19	2026-05-13	8ce07472-496f-11ec-ab3b-3e22fbd008af
Splunk	The following analytic identifies suspicious command-line parameters associated with the use of Impacket's smbexec.py for lateral movement. (...)	Generic	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security · CrowdStrike	Persistence, Privilege Escalation Create or Modify System Process Windows Service Lateral Movement Remote Services SMB/Windows Admin Shares Distributed Component Object Model Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	medium	Michael Haag, Splunk	2023-04-25	2026-05-13	bb3c1bac-6bdf-4aa0-8dc9-068b8b712a76
Splunk	The following analytic detects the use of Impacket's `wmiexec.py` tool for lateral movement by identifying specific command-line parameters. (...)	Generic	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security · CrowdStrike	Persistence, Privilege Escalation Create or Modify System Process Windows Service Lateral Movement Remote Services SMB/Windows Admin Shares Distributed Component Object Model Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	medium	Michael Haag, Splunk	2021-11-19	2026-10-09	d6e464e4-5c6a-474e-82d2-aed616a3a492
	Detects the load of RstrtMgr DLL (Restart Manager) by a suspicious process. (...)	Generic	test	image_load	windows	Sysmon	Impact Data Encrypted for Impact Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	high	Luc Génaux	2023-11-28	—	b48492dc-c5ef-4572-8dff-32bc241c15c8
	Detects the load of RstrtMgr DLL (Restart Manager) by an uncommon process. (...)	Generic	test	image_load	windows	Sysmon	Impact Data Encrypted for Impact Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	low	Luc Génaux	2023-11-28	2026-07-28	3669afd2-9891-4534-a626-e5cf03810a61

Title

Description

HELLOKITTY S0617

HELLOKITTY S0617

HELLOKITTY MITRE reference S0617

Standing S0617

Reach

Coverage

HELLOKITTY MITRE reference S0617

Standing S0617

Reach

Coverage

HELLOKITTY detections S0617