{
  "family": "bitcovar",
  "sample_count": 1,
  "category": "ransomware",
  "description": "Bitcovar (classified in antivirus detection telemetry under designations including Ransom:Win32/Bitcovar, Ransom.Win32.Bitcovar, and Win32/Bitcovar) is a crypto-ransomware designed to locate, encrypt, and hold hostage high-value user documents, database stores, and system files. Disseminated across enterprise networks and consumer workstations via social engineering, phishing attachments, malicious drive-by downloads, or weaponized software cracks, Bitcovar executes an initial reconnaissance phase upon system ingress. The binary evaluates host privileges, detects active hypervisors and sandbox environments to evade behavioral analysis, and establishes resilient autostart persistence by configuring registry keys under HKCU\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Run or registering background Windows services. Operational mechanics characteristic of this family include file system traversal, high-speed symmetric/asymmetric encryption, Volume Shadow Copy destruction via vssadmin, and extortion note display. Outbound communication is established with remote threat actor infrastructure to beacon operational status and receive tasking, posing significant security risks to data integrity and host availability.",
  "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk Threat Intelligence Team.",
  "aliases": [
    "Ransom:Win32/Bitcovar",
    "Ransom.Win32.Bitcovar",
    "Win32/Bitcovar"
  ],
  "enrichment_level": "curated_sourced",
  "faq": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is Ransom:Win32/Bitcovar?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Bitcovar is a ransomware threat designed to infiltrate Windows systems and execute unauthorized operations without user consent."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How does Bitcovar compromise target systems?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "It commonly infiltrates systems via phishing emails, trojanized software installers, exploit kits, or unpatched vulnerabilities."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What persistence mechanisms does Bitcovar utilize?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "It typically creates autostart entries in the Windows Registry (HKCU/HKLM Run keys), registers scheduled tasks, or installs hidden background services."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What risks does Bitcovar pose to an enterprise?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "It can lead to credential theft, system manipulation, unauthorized remote access, data loss, or secondary malware delivery."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How can administrators detect and eliminate Bitcovar?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Deploy modern EDR solutions with updated behavioral signatures, isolate infected endpoints, audit autostart persistence entries, and conduct full antimalware scans."
      }
    }
  ],
  "faq_count": 5,
  "mitre_attack": [
    "T1486",
    "T1490",
    "T1489",
    "T1547.001",
    "T1083"
  ],
  "cisa_advisory": null,
  "last_updated": "2026-10-16",
  "mitre_attack_detail": [
    {
      "id": "T1486",
      "name": "Data Encrypted for Impact (The core function of the ransomware)",
      "tactic": "Impact"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1490",
      "name": "Inhibit System Recovery (Deleting Shadow Copies to prevent restoration)",
      "tactic": "Impact"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1012",
      "name": "Query Registry (Identifying mounted drives and network shares to encrypt)",
      "tactic": "Discovery"
    }
  ],
  "containment_steps": [
    "Isolate the infected machine from the network immediately—pull the ethernet cable or disable the Wi-Fi adapter to stop the encryption from spreading to network shares.",
    "Do not immediately reboot the machine; if the encryption process is active, rebooting may finalize the damage or destroy volatile memory keys.",
    "Identify the initial infection vector (e.g., phishing email, exposed RDP) to prevent further compromise.",
    "Restore operations from known-good, offline backups; paying the ransom is highly discouraged as it funds criminal enterprises and does not guarantee data recovery."
  ],
  "what_to_avoid": [
    "Do not connect backup drives to the infected machine until it has been completely wiped and reimaged, as the ransomware will encrypt the backups.",
    "Avoid communicating directly with the attackers without the assistance of professional incident responders or law enforcement."
  ],
  "target_industries": [
    "Healthcare",
    "Critical Infrastructure",
    "Enterprise"
  ],
  "motivation": "Financial Extortion",
  "threat_actors": [
    "Unknown / Cybercriminal"
  ],
  "target_geographies": [
    "Global"
  ],
  "attack_stage": [
    "defense_evasion",
    "impact"
  ],
  "ecosystem": [
    "windows_pe"
  ],
  "is_emerging": false,
  "sources": [
    {
      "name": "Microsoft Defender Threat Encyclopedia - Ransom:Win32/Bitcovar",
      "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/threats/malware-encyclopedia-description?Name=Ransom:Win32/Bitcovar"
    },
    {
      "name": "Kaspersky Threat Intelligence - Ransom.Win32.Bitcovar",
      "url": "https://threats.kaspersky.com/en/threat/"
    },
    {
      "name": "MITRE ATT&CK - Enterprise Techniques",
      "url": "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1486/"
    }
  ],
  "target_platforms": [
    "Windows 11",
    "Windows 10",
    "Windows Server 2022",
    "Windows Server 2019"
  ]
}