Pasta

Overview

Pasta (identified in antimalware telemetry under signatures Ransom:Win32/Pasta, Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Pasta, and Win32/Pasta) is an extortion crypto-ransomware family targeting Microsoft Windows endpoints. Propagated through spearphishing email campaigns, weaponized macros, and drive-by exploit kits, Pasta conducts immediate host reconnaissance upon execution. It terminates database management processes, backup daemons, and virtualization services using taskkill to unlock files. Pasta traverses local disk volumes, removable drives, and connected network shares, encrypting documents, spreadsheets, databases, and archives using AES-256 encryption wrapped with an embedded RSA public key. It executes shell commands invoking vssadmin to delete Volume Shadow Copies and uses bcdedit to disable automatic Windows startup recovery. It drops ransom notes in encrypted folders demanding cryptocurrency payment in exchange for a decryption utility.

Known aliases

Threat reports may refer to this family under multiple names:

• Ransom:Win32/Pasta
• Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Pasta
• Win32/Pasta
• Ransom.Pasta
• Ransom:Win32/Pasta.A

MITRE ATT&CK Techniques

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

Tactical Mitigations

Based on the techniques used by this family, consider the following defensive strategies:

• T1566.001: Scan email attachments for malicious macros, scripts, or suspicious archive files.

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_PASTA_T1_ARTIFACT {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 1 Primitive Artifact: Raw string matches for Pasta"
        tier = "T1 - Primitive Artifact"
        confidence = "Low-Medium (Fast Triage)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Threat Research Desk"
        date = "2026-10-14"
    strings:
        $s1 = "pasta" ascii wide nocase
        $s2 = "ransom:win32/pasta" ascii wide nocase
        $s3 = "trojan-ransom.win32.pasta" ascii wide nocase
        $s4 = "win32/pasta" ascii wide nocase
        $s5 = "ransom.pasta" ascii wide nocase
        $s6 = "ransom:win32/pasta.a" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}

title: SystemHelpDesk Detection - Pasta (Ransomware) Execution & Triage
id: a27f0c3c-7fe9-5388-aa02-dc8144c0752d
status: production
description: Detects execution, defense evasion, and persistence behaviors associated
  with the Pasta 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/pasta
- 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.t1490
- attack.t1566_001
- attack.t1083
- attack.t1070_004
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_PASTA_T3_ATTRIBUTION {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 3 Attribution Fingerprint: Heuristic detection for Pasta 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 = "pasta" 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. Disconnect the affected host from network connections immediately to halt encryption across shared network drives.
2. Kill active ransomware processes via Windows Task Manager or elevated PowerShell commands.
3. Preserve forensic memory dumps and sample files for threat intelligence and hash matching.
4. Block delivery vectors including malicious URLs and sender email domains.
5. Restore encrypted files from air-gapped, immutable backup archives.

What to Avoid

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

1. Do not pay the cryptocurrency ransom demand; it funds illicit cybercrime activities without guarantee of recovery.
2. Do not reboot systems before securing volatile memory data.

References & External Analysis

• Microsoft Defender Threat Encyclopedia - Ransom:Win32/Pasta
• Trend Micro Threat Encyclopedia - Ransom_Pasta
• Kaspersky Threat Intelligence Portal - Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Pasta
• Search "pasta" on VirusTotal (External Analysis)
• Search "pasta" on Any.Run (Sandbox Sandbox)
• Search "pasta" on MalwareBazaar (Malware Samples)

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Threats (Category: Ransomware)

Explore other documented threats in the same operational category:

• Silly
• Lodbak
• Genericrxal
• Mresmon
• P2Pworm
• Arhost
• Rupttass
• Busky

Machine-readable

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