Rakhni

Overview

Executive Summary

Infection Vector and Dynamic Execution

• The Decision Matrix: The malware checks for the presence of a specific folder (often related to Bitcoin Core). If it finds evidence of high-value cryptocurrency activity, it will likely deploy the Ransomware module. If the machine appears to be a standard workstation with sufficient CPU power, it will deploy the Cryptominer (typically XMRig for mining Monero) to generate long-term, stealthy income.
• Ransomware Operations: If triggered, the ransomware module encrypts a wide range of files using strong cryptography, appending specific extensions (like `.locked` or `.rakhni`) to the files, and drops a ransom note demanding payment.
• Cryptomining Operations: If the miner is deployed, Rakhni establishes persistence, often utilizing process hollowing to inject the XMRig mining payload into legitimate Windows processes (like `svchost.exe`) to hide its CPU usage from casual inspection.

Threat Assessment

Remediation and Eradication

• Endpoint Isolation: Isolate the infected endpoint immediately to sever communication with the attacker's C2 infrastructure (halting both encryption key exchange and cryptomining pool communication).
• Decryption Tools: Rakhni is one of the older ransomware families, and significant flaws were found in its cryptography. Free decryption tools (often provided by Kaspersky or the "No More Ransom" project) are available for many variants of Rakhni. Do not pay the ransom.
• Complete System Re-image: Whether acting as ransomware or a miner, Rakhni establishes deep persistence and often drops secondary malware. A complete wipe and re-image of the system is the recommended remediation strategy.

Known aliases

Threat reports may refer to this family under multiple names:

• Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Rakhni
• CoinMiner.Rakhni
• Win32/Rakhni

MITRE ATT&CK Techniques

Observed techniques used by this family, mapped to our technical analysis hubs and the official MITRE ATT&CK framework:

MITRE D3FEND™ Defensive Countermeasures

Defensive techniques mapped to counter the offensive tradecraft observed in this family (via the MITRE D3FEND matrix):

Tiered Detection Rules (Cisco CAIRN Model)

Modern threat detection requires multi-layered rule engineering. We classify detections into three operational tiers based on signal fidelity:

rule MALWARE_WIN_RAKHNI_T1_ARTIFACT {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 1 Primitive Artifact: Raw string matches for Rakhni"
        tier = "T1 - Primitive Artifact"
        confidence = "Low-Medium (Fast Triage)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Threat Research Desk"
        date = "2026-10-14"
    strings:
        $s1 = "rakhni" ascii wide nocase
        $s2 = "trojan-ransom.win32.rakhni" ascii wide nocase
        $s3 = "coinminer.rakhni" ascii wide nocase
        $s4 = "win32/rakhni" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}

title: SystemHelpDesk Detection - Rakhni (Ransomware) Execution & Triage
id: 37a38d58-c504-56bc-83e8-6a7b40e2fc5e
status: production
description: Detects execution, defense evasion, and persistence behaviors associated
  with the Rakhni malware family. Detects volume shadow copy deletion, boot status
  tampering, and recovery inhibition characteristic of modern ransomware operations.
references:
- https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/families/rakhni
- https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/defensive/ransomware-protection
- https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/
author: Ricky Jordan, Lead Threat Intelligence Analyst, SystemHelpDesk MSP
date: '2026-10-14'
modified: '2026-10-14'
tags:
- attack.ransomware
- author.ricky-jordan
- source.systemhelpdesk-mfc
- attack.t1486
- attack.t1496
- attack.t1055_012
logsource:
  category: process_creation
  product: windows
detection:
  selection_process:
    Image|endswith:
    - \vssadmin.exe
    - \wmic.exe
    - \wbadmin.exe
    - \bcdedit.exe
    CommandLine|contains:
    - delete shadows
    - shadowcopy delete
    - resize shadowstorage
    - recoveryenabled no
    - ignoreallfailures
  condition: selection_process
falsepositives:
- Legitimate enterprise administrative scripts during approved change windows
- Authorized IT software deployment utilities and backup management agents
level: critical

rule MALWARE_WIN_RAKHNI_T3_ATTRIBUTION {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 3 Attribution Fingerprint: Heuristic detection for Rakhni tradecraft"
        tier = "T3 - Attribution Fingerprint"
        confidence = "High (Confirmed Family Signature)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Threat Research Desk"
        date = "2026-10-14"
    strings:
        // Core family identifier & heuristic payload signatures
        $attrib_str = "rakhni" ascii wide nocase
        $pe_magic = "MZ" ascii
        $net_marker = "http" ascii nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and ($attrib_str and $net_marker) and filesize < 15MB
}

Containment & Response Steps

Ordered checklist for responders. Adapt to your environment and engage professional support for active incidents.

1. Immediately isolate affected host(s) from the internal network (disconnect physical Ethernet and disable Wi-Fi/Bluetooth) to prevent Rakhni from spreading laterally or encrypting network-attached storage (NAS) and shared SMB volumes.
2. Preserve volatile system memory (RAM capture) on a representative endpoint before attempting a reboot or power-down, as Rakhni symmetric encryption keys or uncompiled payload components may still reside in memory.
3. Audit process execution logs and terminate active scripting interpreters (e.g. PowerShell, CMD, WScript) or commands executing 'vssadmin.exe delete shadows' or 'wbadmin' used by Rakhni to inhibit recovery.
4. Investigate the initial compromise vector (such as exposed RDP instances, spearphishing attachments, or vulnerable edge gateways) and enforce an immediate credential reset for all compromised Active Directory accounts.
5. Restore critical assets and databases exclusively from verified, air-gapped, or immutable offline backups once the Rakhni binary and related persistence hooks are eradicated.

What to Avoid

Common mistakes during response to this family that can destroy evidence, spread the infection, or worsen recovery.

1. Do not restart or power cycle infected systems prematurely; doing so destroys volatile RAM encryption keys and may trigger bootloader locking logic embedded in Rakhni.
2. Avoid negotiating or paying the extortion demand without prior forensic evaluation and consultation with incident response specialists, as payment does not guarantee data recovery.
3. Do not connect clean backup drives or external storage to the affected network until Rakhni eradication is completely verified.

References & External Analysis

• Search "rakhni" on VirusTotal (External Analysis)
• Search "rakhni" on Any.Run (Sandbox Sandbox)
• Search "rakhni" on MalwareBazaar (Malware Samples)

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Threats (Category: Ransomware)

Explore other documented threats in the same operational category:

• Msidrop
• Beaugrit
• Flystudi
• Agile
• Grandcrab
• Ukpa
• Putabmow
• Cryptomix

Machine-readable

Get this profile as JSON: https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/api/rakhni.json

Ecosystem & Interactive Environments

This profile is part of the Malware Families Catalog, a public dataset of 2,899 malware families. The catalog is also published across our ecosystem: Hugging Face, Kaggle, Zenodo, Replit, StackBlitz, CodeSandbox, and CodePen.