{
  "family": "cardinal",
  "sample_count": 5,
  "category": "ransomware",
  "description": "Cardinal (classified in antivirus detection telemetry under designations including Ransom:Win32/Cardinal, Ransom.Win32.Cardinal, and Win32/Cardinal) 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, Cardinal 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/Cardinal",
    "Ransom.Win32.Cardinal",
    "Win32/Cardinal"
  ],
  "enrichment_level": "curated_sourced",
  "faq": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is Ransom:Win32/Cardinal?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Cardinal is a ransomware threat designed to infiltrate Windows systems and execute unauthorized operations without user consent."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How does Cardinal 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 Cardinal 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 Cardinal 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 Cardinal?",
      "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": "T1055.012",
      "name": "Process Injection: Process Hollowing",
      "tactic": "Defense Evasion"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1056.001",
      "name": "Input Capture: Keylogging",
      "tactic": "Collection"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1071.001",
      "name": "Application Layer Protocol: Web Protocols (Encrypted C2)",
      "tactic": "Command and Control"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1555",
      "name": "Credentials from Password Stores",
      "tactic": "Credential Access"
    }
  ],
  "containment_steps": [
    "Immediately isolate the infected endpoint from the network to sever the attacker's interactive control session and halt lateral movement.",
    "Assume all credentials typed on the machine or stored in local browsers have been stolen, and mandate immediate enterprise-wide password resets for the affected user.",
    "Perform a deep memory forensics analysis to extract the Cardinal payload and determine its exact C2 infrastructure for network-wide blocking.",
    "Do a thorough hunt across the environment for lateral movement, as the attacker likely used the RAT to compromise file shares or domain controllers."
  ],
  "what_to_avoid": [
    "Do not assume the attack is thwarted if an AV engine quarantines a dropper; the Cardinal RAT itself may already be running resident in memory.",
    "Avoid rebooting the machine before capturing a memory image, as the decrypted payload and critical forensic evidence will be lost."
  ],
  "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/Cardinal",
      "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/threats/malware-encyclopedia-description?Name=Ransom:Win32/Cardinal"
    },
    {
      "name": "Kaspersky Threat Intelligence - Ransom.Win32.Cardinal",
      "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"
  ]
}