Fspm

Overview

Executive Summary

Infection Vector and Technical Capabilities

• Protocol Scanning and Exploitation: The tool may rapidly scan the local subnet for specific open ports (like SMB/445 or FTP/21) and attempt to exploit known vulnerabilities or misconfigurations (such as anonymous access or weak default credentials).
• Share Enumeration: Fspm tools often automate the process of mapping hidden or administrative network shares (e.g., `C$`, `ADMIN$`), allowing the attacker to locate file servers, backup repositories, or user directories that should be restricted.
• Brute-Forcing: Some variants include localized brute-forcing capabilities, attempting a rapid dictionary attack against identified services using a hardcoded list of common corporate passwords.

Threat Assessment

Incident Response and Remediation

• Immediate Endpoint Isolation: The endpoint where the Fspm tool was executed must be isolated from the network immediately to halt the active reconnaissance and prevent further lateral movement.
• Hunt for Lateral Movement (Network Logs): Security analysts must review internal firewall logs, Windows Event Logs (specifically Event ID 4624 - Successful Logon), and EDR telemetry to trace the network connections initiated by the tool. Identify any internal servers or shares the attacker successfully accessed.
• Re-imaging and Credential Audit: The compromised machine must be wiped and re-imaged from a known-good baseline. A comprehensive audit of network share permissions and service account credentials is required to remediate the vulnerabilities the tool was attempting to exploit.

Known aliases

Threat reports may refer to this family under multiple names:

• HackTool.Fspm
• Exploit.Win32.Fspm
• Tool.NetworkScanner

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_FSPM_T1_ARTIFACT {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 1 Primitive Artifact: Raw string matches for Fspm"
        tier = "T1 - Primitive Artifact"
        confidence = "Low-Medium (Fast Triage)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Threat Research Desk"
        date = "2026-10-14"
    strings:
        $s1 = "fspm" ascii wide nocase
        $s2 = "hacktool.fspm" ascii wide nocase
        $s3 = "exploit.win32.fspm" ascii wide nocase
        $s4 = "tool.networkscanner" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}

title: SystemHelpDesk Detection - Fspm (Ransomware) Execution & Triage
id: 4a8b00d2-f97e-5453-b89f-c64f29b284cb
status: production
description: Detects execution, defense evasion, and persistence behaviors associated
  with the Fspm 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/fspm
- 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.t1046
- attack.t1135
- attack.t1110_001
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_FSPM_T3_ATTRIBUTION {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 3 Attribution Fingerprint: Heuristic detection for Fspm 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 = "fspm" 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 Fspm 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 Fspm 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 Fspm 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 Fspm 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 Fspm.
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 Fspm eradication is completely verified.

References & External Analysis

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Threats (Category: Ransomware)

Explore other documented threats in the same operational category:

• Tougle
• Crowti
• Mycop
• Aque
• Kgen
• Nadrac
• Nistio
• Jhee

Machine-readable

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