Suspicious EKANS Ransomware Payload Dropped to Drive Root (via file_event)

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 creation of the file update.exe directly in the root of the C drive, a staging behavior of EKANS ransomware prior to encryption of ICS environments. EKANS drops its payload and ransom note to the drive root and user desktop before terminating industrial and database processes. Writing an executable named update.exe to the drive root is highly unusual and warrants immediate investigation.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious EKANS Ransomware Payload Dropped to Drive Root (via file_event)

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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