Wadhrama

Overview

Executive Summary

Infection Chain and Execution

• Privilege Escalation: It attempts to bypass User Account Control (UAC) or exploit local vulnerabilities to gain administrative or `SYSTEM` level privileges.
• Defense Evasion: Before encrypting files, it actively attempts to terminate anti-malware processes and stops database services (e.g., MSSQL) to ensure database files are unlocked and available for encryption.
• Encryption and Destruction: Wadhrama utilizes a combination of symmetric and asymmetric encryption (often AES and RSA) to lock files. It simultaneously executes commands (`vssadmin.exe delete shadows /all /quiet`) to destroy local volume shadow copies, preventing easy recovery.
• Extortion: A ransom note is deposited in affected directories, instructing the victim on how to purchase the decryption key, usually demanding payment in Bitcoin.

Threat Impact

Defense and Resilience Strategies

• Offline, Immutable Backups: The only reliable defense against Wadhrama is a robust 3-2-1 backup strategy, ensuring that at least one copy of critical data is stored offline and is immutable (cannot be altered or deleted).
• RDP Security: Secure all remote access points. RDP must be placed behind a VPN, secured with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and restricted via strict IP whitelisting.
• Behavioral EDR: Deploy EDR solutions tuned to immediately block processes attempting mass file modifications or the unauthorized deletion of volume shadow copies.

Known aliases

Threat reports may refer to this family under multiple names:

• Ransomware.Wadhrama
• Win32/Wadhrama
• Trojan-Ransom.Wadhrama

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_WADHRAMA_T1_ARTIFACT {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 1 Primitive Artifact: Raw string matches for Wadhrama"
        tier = "T1 - Primitive Artifact"
        confidence = "Low-Medium (Fast Triage)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Threat Research Desk"
        date = "2026-10-14"
    strings:
        $s1 = "wadhrama" ascii wide nocase
        $s2 = "ransomware.wadhrama" ascii wide nocase
        $s3 = "win32/wadhrama" ascii wide nocase
        $s4 = "trojan-ransom.wadhrama" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}

title: SystemHelpDesk Detection - Wadhrama (Ransomware) Execution & Triage
id: ec394e7b-7ed2-5804-874e-2b8b32a3ed3e
status: production
description: Detects execution, defense evasion, and persistence behaviors associated
  with the Wadhrama 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/wadhrama
- 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.t1078
- attack.t1562_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_WADHRAMA_T3_ATTRIBUTION {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 3 Attribution Fingerprint: Heuristic detection for Wadhrama 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 = "wadhrama" 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 Wadhrama 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 Wadhrama 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 Wadhrama 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 Wadhrama 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 Wadhrama.
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 Wadhrama eradication is completely verified.

References & External Analysis

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Threats (Category: Ransomware)

Explore other documented threats in the same operational category:

• Genericrxdx
• Vbcheman
• Vbcryptor
• Tongji
• Dzan
• Amber
• Chepdu
• Locky

Machine-readable

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