Cryptowire

Overview

Executive Summary

Infection Vector and Technical Capabilities

• Defense Evasion: The malware actively attempts to terminate endpoint security services, disable Windows Defender, and crucially, delete Volume Shadow Copies (`vssadmin.exe Delete Shadows /All /Quiet`) to prevent easy, local data restoration.
• Rapid Encryption: It utilizes strong cryptographic algorithms (typically AES paired with an asymmetric key like RSA) to encrypt user files, databases, and network shares. The encrypted files are appended with a specific extension (e.g., `.cryptowire` or `.locked`), and a ransom note is dropped into every affected directory.
• Lateral Movement: Before triggering the final encryption payload, attackers often manually deploy tools like Cobalt Strike or Mimikatz alongside Cryptowire to dump credentials and move laterally, aiming to compromise the Domain Controller to push the ransomware globally across the enterprise.

Threat Assessment

Incident Response and Remediation

• Immediate Network Segmentation: Do not simply turn off the machines, as this destroys volatile memory forensics. Instantly sever the network connection of all infected machines (and the Domain Controller if compromised) from the internet and the rest of the LAN to halt lateral movement and data exfiltration.
• Engage Incident Response: Immediately engage specialized third-party Incident Response and legal counsel. Do not attempt to negotiate with the threat actors without professional guidance.
• Eradication and Recovery: Eradicating ransomware requires a complete infrastructure rebuild. All affected machines must be wiped to bare metal and rebuilt from known-good, offline backups. All enterprise credentials must be rotated globally.

Known aliases

Threat reports may refer to this family under multiple names:

• Ransomware.Cryptowire
• Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Cryptowire
• Cryptolocker.Wire

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_CRYPTOWIRE_T1_ARTIFACT {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 1 Primitive Artifact: Raw string matches for Cryptowire"
        tier = "T1 - Primitive Artifact"
        confidence = "Low-Medium (Fast Triage)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Threat Research Desk"
        date = "2026-10-14"
    strings:
        $s1 = "cryptowire" ascii wide nocase
        $s2 = "ransomware.cryptowire" ascii wide nocase
        $s3 = "trojan-ransom.win32.cryptowire" ascii wide nocase
        $s4 = "cryptolocker.wire" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}

title: SystemHelpDesk Detection - Cryptowire (Ransomware) Execution & Triage
id: 6c77ad0d-14a3-53b8-97b8-7c4ad0b1ee09
status: production
description: Detects execution, defense evasion, and persistence behaviors associated
  with the Cryptowire 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/cryptowire
- 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.t1012
- attack.t1078
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_CRYPTOWIRE_T3_ATTRIBUTION {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 3 Attribution Fingerprint: Heuristic detection for Cryptowire 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 = "cryptowire" 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 Cryptowire 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 Cryptowire 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 Cryptowire 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 Cryptowire 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 Cryptowire.
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 Cryptowire eradication is completely verified.

References & External Analysis

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Threats (Category: Ransomware)

Explore other documented threats in the same operational category:

• Jo0Br8Hglsii
• Babonock
• Fayu
• Rzwaagpbkfii
• Pchealthboost
• Freyja
• Malwar
• Ceckno

Machine-readable

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