Malicious BlackCat Boot Configuration Change to Safe Mode with Networking via bcdedit (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Impact

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
- T1490Inhibit System Recovery

What it detects

This rule detects bcdedit being used to force the system to boot into Safe Mode with networking, a pre-ransomware defense-evasion step observed in the Nitrogen campaign before BlackCat encryption. Adversaries reboot endpoints into Safe Mode so that most security agents do not load while the ransomware still reaches network shares, making this a high-value early indicator of imminent encryption.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1685 — drag to rearrange

Malicious Shadow Copy and Backup Catalog Deletion (via process_creation)

Malicious Boot Recovery Disabled via Bcdedit (via process_creation)

Windows Defender Tampering via Set-MpPreference and Exclusions

Suspicious Windows Defender Real-Time Protection Disabled via Policy Registry by Cephalus Ransomware

Suspicious Symbolic Link Evaluation Enabled via fsutil by RansomHub Ransomware

Suspicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via PowerShell WMI by Akira Ransomware

Suspicious Microsoft Defender Path Exclusion of User Directories (via process_creation)

Malicious Windows Defender Tampering via Set-MpPreference (via process_creation)

Malicious Container Runtime Tampering via chmod on runc (via process_creation)

Malicious BlackCat Boot Configuration Change to Safe Mode with Networking via bcdedit (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1685 · 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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