{
  "family": "cryptear",
  "sample_count": 1,
  "category": "ransomware",
  "description": "<h3>Executive Summary</h3>\nCryptear is a variant of destructive Ransomware designed to infiltrate corporate networks, rapidly encrypt critical file systems, and demand a cryptocurrency payment for the decryption key. It represents a severe, immediate threat to business continuity, often leveraging sophisticated evasion techniques to bypass endpoint security before initiating its encryption routine.\n\n<h3>Infection Vector and Technical Capabilities</h3>\nCryptear typically gains access to a network through compromised Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connections (via brute-forcing or purchased credentials), malicious phishing attachments, or by exploiting public-facing vulnerabilities on edge devices.\n\nOnce inside the network, Cryptear executes a devastating attack chain:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Defense Evasion:</strong> The malware actively attempts to terminate endpoint security services, disable Windows Defender, and crucially, delete Volume Shadow Copies (`vssadmin.exe Delete Shadows /All /Quiet`) to prevent easy, local data restoration.</li>\n<li><strong>Rapid Encryption:</strong> It utilizes strong cryptographic algorithms (typically AES paired with an asymmetric key like RSA) to encrypt user files, databases, and network shares. The encrypted files are appended with a specific extension (e.g., `.cryptear` or `.crypted`), and a ransom note (`HOW_TO_DECRYPT.txt`) is dropped into every affected directory.</li>\n<li><strong>Lateral Movement:</strong> Before triggering the final encryption payload, attackers often manually deploy tools like Cobalt Strike or Mimikatz alongside Cryptear to dump credentials and move laterally, aiming to compromise the Domain Controller to push the ransomware globally across the enterprise.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<h3>Threat Assessment</h3>\nA Cryptear infection is a catastrophic security incident that immediately halts business operations. It poses an existential threat to the organization through severe data loss, extended downtime, potential regulatory fines, and reputational damage.\n\n<h3>Incident Response and Remediation</h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Immediate Network Segmentation:</strong> Do not simply turn off the machines, as this destroys volatile memory forensics. Instantly sever the network connection of all infected machines (and the Domain Controller if compromised) from the internet and the rest of the LAN to halt lateral movement and data exfiltration.</li>\n<li><strong>Engage Incident Response:</strong> Immediately engage specialized third-party Incident Response and legal counsel. Do not attempt to negotiate with the threat actors without professional guidance.</li>\n<li><strong>Eradication and Recovery:</strong> Eradicating ransomware requires a complete infrastructure rebuild. All affected machines must be wiped to bare metal and rebuilt from known-good, offline backups. All enterprise credentials must be rotated globally.</li>\n</ul>",
  "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk team.",
  "aliases": [
    "Ransomware.Cryptear",
    "Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Cryptear",
    "Cryptolocker.Cryptear"
  ],
  "enrichment_level": "expert-seo",
  "faq": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is Cryptear and what threat category does it belong to?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Cryptear is classified as a Ransomware. Documented across security telemetry, it is engineered to execute unauthorized operations, establish persistent footholds on target endpoints, and facilitate malicious campaigns targeting enterprise and individual environments."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How does Cryptear establish persistence and evade defensive controls?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Cryptear typically establishes persistence through registry run keys, scheduled tasks, or service installations, while evading signature-based antivirus solutions through code obfuscation, memory injection, or anti-analysis sandbox checks."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What are the essential incident response steps for mitigating a Cryptear compromise?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Security teams responding to Cryptear should immediately isolate affected endpoints from the network, perform memory triage to capture volatile forensic artifacts, audit registry and startup persistence mechanisms, revoke exposed user credentials, and restore systems from verified, clean backups."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What cryptographic algorithms and file targeting techniques does Ransomware.Cryptear employ during execution?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Ransomware.Cryptear typically leverages hybrid cryptographic architectures combining symmetric stream or block ciphers (such as AES-256 or ChaCha20) for rapid file encryption with asymmetric algorithms (such as RSA-2048 or Curve25519) to securely protect the session keys. It aggressively targets sensitive file extensions including corporate documents, databases, virtual disks, and backups while systematically executing commands to delete Volume Shadow Copies (vssadmin delete shadows /all /quiet) and disable system recovery options."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Are decryptors available for Ransomware.Cryptear, and what is the recommended recovery procedure?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Decryption availability for Ransomware.Cryptear depends on whether security researchers or law enforcement (such as the No More Ransom initiative) have recovered the master private keys or discovered flaws in its key generation routines. Victims should never pay the extortion demand, as payment fuels criminal operations without guaranteeing file restoration. The recommended recovery procedure entails isolating infected hosts, conducting forensic disk imaging, identifying the root access vector, and restoring validated systems from immutable offline backups."
      }
    }
  ],
  "faq_count": 5,
  "mitre_attack": [
    "T1486",
    "T1490",
    "T1012",
    "T1078"
  ],
  "cisa_advisory": null,
  "last_updated": "2026-10-15",
  "type": "Ransomware",
  "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,
  "mitre_attack_detail": [
    {
      "id": "T1486",
      "name": "Data Encrypted for Impact",
      "tactic": "Impact"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1490",
      "name": "Inhibit System Recovery (Behaviorally blocking the deletion of backups)",
      "tactic": "Impact"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1012",
      "name": "Query Registry (Identifying mounted drives and network shares to encrypt)",
      "tactic": "Discovery"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1078",
      "name": "Valid Accounts (The goal of the attack)",
      "tactic": "Initial Access"
    }
  ],
  "containment_steps": [
    "Immediately isolate affected host(s) from the internal network (disconnect physical Ethernet and disable Wi-Fi/Bluetooth) to prevent Cryptear from spreading laterally or encrypting network-attached storage (NAS) and shared SMB volumes.",
    "Preserve volatile system memory (RAM capture) on a representative endpoint before attempting a reboot or power-down, as Cryptear symmetric encryption keys or uncompiled payload components may still reside in memory.",
    "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 Cryptear to inhibit recovery.",
    "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.",
    "Restore critical assets and databases exclusively from verified, air-gapped, or immutable offline backups once the Cryptear binary and related persistence hooks are eradicated."
  ],
  "what_to_avoid": [
    "Do not restart or power cycle infected systems prematurely; doing so destroys volatile RAM encryption keys and may trigger bootloader locking logic embedded in Cryptear.",
    "Avoid negotiating or paying the extortion demand without prior forensic evaluation and consultation with incident response specialists, as payment does not guarantee data recovery.",
    "Do not connect clean backup drives or external storage to the affected network until Cryptear eradication is completely verified."
  ],
  "target_platforms": [
    "Windows 11",
    "Windows 10",
    "Windows Server 2022",
    "Windows Server 2019"
  ]
}