E2F3F4D

Overview

Executive Summary

Static Detection and Technical Context

• High Confidence: Hash detections have an extremely low false-positive rate. If a file triggers this alert, it is almost certainly malicious.
• Lack of Context: While the detection is highly accurate, the identifier itself provides no context about what the malware actually does (e.g., whether it is an info-stealer, ransomware, or adware).
• Evasion Vulnerability: Hash-based detections are easily bypassed by malware authors. Changing a single byte of the malicious executable (e.g., recompiling it or adding a null byte) completely alters the resulting hash, rendering the static signature useless.

Threat Impact and Response

Incident Mitigation Strategy

• Verify Execution Status: Check the EDR logs immediately to determine if the EPP successfully blocked the file from executing, or if it was only flagged after the process was already running.
• Hash Lookups: Take the full SHA-256 hash associated with the alert and query it against threat intelligence platforms (like VirusTotal) to identify the true malware family and obtain actionable context on its capabilities.
• Endpoint Sweeps: Utilize the identified hash as an Indicator of Compromise (IOC) to sweep the entire enterprise network, ensuring the specific malicious file has not been dropped on other hosts.

Known aliases

Threat reports may refer to this family under multiple names:

• Trojan.Hash
• Malware.e2f3f4d

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_E2F3F4D_T1_ARTIFACT {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 1 Primitive Artifact: Raw string matches for E2F3F4D"
        tier = "T1 - Primitive Artifact"
        confidence = "Low-Medium (Fast Triage)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Threat Research Desk"
        date = "2026-10-14"
    strings:
        $s1 = "e2f3f4d" ascii wide nocase
        $s2 = "trojan.hash" ascii wide nocase
        $s3 = "malware.e2f3f4d" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}

title: SystemHelpDesk Detection - E2f3f4d (Ransomware) Execution & Triage
id: 54bde2c0-e374-5995-b672-ed8cc09f0af7
status: production
description: Detects execution, defense evasion, and persistence behaviors associated
  with the E2f3f4d 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/e2f3f4d
- 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.t1082
- attack.t1027
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_E2F3F4D_T3_ATTRIBUTION {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 3 Attribution Fingerprint: Heuristic detection for E2F3F4D 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 = "e2f3f4d" 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 E2F3F4D 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 E2F3F4D 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 E2F3F4D 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 E2F3F4D 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 E2F3F4D.
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 E2F3F4D eradication is completely verified.

References & External Analysis

• Search "e2f3f4d" on VirusTotal (External Analysis)
• Search "e2f3f4d" on Any.Run (Sandbox Sandbox)
• Search "e2f3f4d" on MalwareBazaar (Malware Samples)

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Threats (Category: Ransomware)

Explore other documented threats in the same operational category:

• Lucky
• Hpfareit
• Proteus
• Psexec
• Miancha
• Npgi
• Specx
• Fwwy

Machine-readable

Get this profile as JSON: https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/api/e2f3f4d.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.