Malicious Akira ESXi Encryptor Execution

ATT&CK techniques

Impact

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
- T1486Data Encrypted for Impact

What it detects

This rule detects execution of the Akira ESXi encryptor identified by its distinctive virtual-machine targeting arguments. Akira operators ran the Linux ESXi encryptor with flags such as --stopvm --vmonly and --ep to shut down and encrypt virtual machines. These combined VM-control encryptor arguments indicate active hypervisor-level ransomware deployment against an ESXi host.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious CACTUS Ransomware Note and Encrypted File Artifacts (via file_event)

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Malicious Akira ESXi Encryptor Execution

Pivot detection · T1486 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

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