Lyposit
Table of Contents
Overview
Lyposit (documented extensively across threat intelligence advisories under signatures including Ransom:Win32/Lyposit, Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Lyposit, and closely associated with the infamous Reveton / Citadel police locker family) is a notorious screen-locking ransomware threat active since 2012. Distributed through drive-by exploit kits (such as Blackhole and Sweet Orange) and malicious malvertising campaigns, Lyposit immediately locks the victim's desktop upon infection. It utilizes geolocation IP lookups to display a localized law enforcement banner matching the victim's country (e.g., FBI in the US, Metropolitan Police in the UK, Gendarmerie in France, BKA in Germany). The alert falsely claims illegal computer activities were detected, activates the local webcam to take a picture of the user to heighten psychological distress, and demands payment via Ukash, Paysafecard, or Bitcoin to unlock the machine.
Known aliases
Threat reports may refer to this family under multiple names:
Family Pedigree & Lineage
Malware authors regularly fork and iterate upon existing codebases. Observed upstream lineage and downstream variants for this family include:
Derived From / Upstream Ancestry: Reveton Police Locker Syndicate
Known Derivatives & Downstream Variants: Ransom:Win32/Lyposit.A · Ransom:Win32/Lyposit.B
MITRE ATT&CK Techniques
This family has been observed using the following ATT&CK techniques: T1486 · T1125 · T1547.001 · T1562.001 · T1082
Tactical Mitigations
Based on the techniques used by this family, consider the following defensive strategies:
- T1125: Restrict access to local camera or microphone APIs. Utilize endpoint protection that monitors hardware access.
MITRE D3FEND™ Defensive Countermeasures
Defensive techniques mapped to counter the offensive tradecraft observed in this family (via the MITRE D3FEND matrix):
| D3FEND ID | Countermeasure Name | Tactic | Countered ATT&CK | Defensive Guidance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
D3-SDA | System Discovery Analysis | Detect | T1082 | Alert on rapid enumerations of systeminfo, hostname, and registry hardware trees in short intervals. |
D3-HAC | Hardware Device Access Control | Isolate | T1125 | Enforce Group Policy hardware access restrictions on integrated webcams and microphones. |
D3-FAED | File Alteration Early Detection | Detect | T1486 | Deploy canary files and monitor mass rename/encryption I/O spikes to terminate ransomware threads immediately. |
D3-RPM | Registry Persistence Monitoring | Detect | T1547.001 | Audit and restrict write privileges to user and machine-level Registry Run/RunOnce keys using Endpoint Privilege Management. |
D3-STA | Security Tool Anti-Tamper Enforcement | Harden | T1562.001 | Block unauthorized modification of antivirus registry flags and prevent stopping security agent services. |
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:
Tier 1 Primitive Artifact Rule (Fast Triage)
Matches raw strings and file markers. Vulnerable to binary repacking and simple obfuscation.
rule MALWARE_WIN_LYPOSIT_T1_ARTIFACT {
meta:
description = "Tier 1 Primitive Artifact: Raw string matches for Lyposit"
tier = "T1 - Primitive Artifact"
confidence = "Low-Medium (Fast Triage)"
author = "SystemHelpdesk Threat Research Desk"
date = "2026-10-14"
strings:
$s1 = "lyposit" ascii wide nocase
$s2 = "ransom:win32/lyposit" ascii wide nocase
$s3 = "trojan-ransom.win32.lyposit" ascii wide nocase
$s4 = "reveton police locker" ascii wide nocase
$s5 = "trojan.lyposit" ascii wide nocase
$s6 = "win32/lyposit" ascii wide nocase
condition:
uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}
Tier 2 Behavioral Context Rule (Process Chains & Sigma)
Tracks parent-child process anomalies and suspicious scripting telemetry. Resilient against file renames.
title: SystemHelpDesk Detection - Lyposit (Ransomware) Execution & Triage
id: 4b6c830d-e5aa-5a5b-b73b-bf82a76bc8a8
status: production
description: Detects execution, defense evasion, and persistence behaviors associated
with the Lyposit 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/lyposit
- 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.t1125
- attack.t1547_001
- attack.t1562_001
- attack.t1082
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
Tier 3 Attribution Fingerprint Rule (High Fidelity)
Deep signature matching distinctive operational fingerprints and payload characteristics.
rule MALWARE_WIN_LYPOSIT_T3_ATTRIBUTION {
meta:
description = "Tier 3 Attribution Fingerprint: Heuristic detection for Lyposit 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 = "lyposit" 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
}
References & External Analysis
- Microsoft Defender Threat Encyclopedia - Ransom:Win32/Lyposit
- Trend Micro Threat Encyclopedia - Ransom_REVETON
- Search "lyposit" on VirusTotal (External Analysis)
- Search "lyposit" on Any.Run (Sandbox Sandbox)
- Search "lyposit" on MalwareBazaar (Malware Samples)
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Ransom:Win32/Lyposit (Reveton)?
Lyposit is a notorious police-themed screen-locking ransomware family belonging to the Reveton malware syndicate.
How does Lyposit customize its extortion message by country?
It queries geo-IP lookup services upon infection to display police insignia and language specific to the victim's country (e.g., FBI, BKA, Gendarmerie).
Why does Lyposit turn on the victim's webcam?
It displays a live webcam video feed on the lockscreen to intimidate victims into believing law enforcement is actively recording them.
How was Lyposit distributed to victims?
It was primarily delivered through drive-by exploit kits (Blackhole, Sweet Orange) on compromised websites and malvertising.
How can administrators remove Lyposit?
Start in Safe Mode, delete the rogue DLL/executable from %AppData%, and restore the Winlogon Shell and Run registry values.
How do I remove the Lyposit Ransomware from Windows?
Manual removal of Lyposit is highly discouraged as it may leave persistence mechanisms intact. We recommend disconnecting the device from the internet and utilizing a professional incident response service or enterprise-grade EDR software to conduct a full forensic sweep.
Is Lyposit a virus or a Ransomware?
Lyposit is classified as a Ransomware. Unlike traditional viruses that infect files, modern malware like Lyposit typically operates as a standalone payload designed to compromise systems, steal data, or deploy secondary stage implants.
What are the main symptoms of a Lyposit infection?
Symptoms of Lyposit can include unexpected system slowness, unauthorized outbound network traffic to unknown IP addresses, disabled security software, and suspicious background processes running from AppData or Temp directories.
Protect Your Network Against Ransomwares
Want to prevent Lyposit and similar threats from compromising your organization? Read our comprehensive defensive guide: Ransomware Containment & Incident Response.
📣 Threat Intel Correction or Update?
Notice an outdated IOC, unlisted alias, or disputed attribution? Threat researchers are invited to propose an update on GitHub or contact the SystemHelpDesk research desk. All community revisions are credited in our public CHANGELOG.
Machine-readable
Get this profile as JSON: https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/api/lyposit.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.