{ "family": "hamweq", "sample_count": 1, "category": "ransomware", "description": "

Executive Summary

\nHamweq (often associated with the extensive IRCBot or AutoRun worm families) is a self-replicating malicious Worm and Botnet agent. Designed to rapidly propagate across local networks and removable media, Hamweq compromises Windows systems, establishes persistence, and connects the infected host to a centralized Internet Relay Chat (IRC) command-and-control server, awaiting instructions from the botmaster.\n\n

Propagation and Execution Lifecycle

\nHamweq relies on aggressive, largely automated propagation techniques:\n\n\n

Threat Assessment

\nA Hamweq infection is a significant security incident. While older, its worm capabilities allow it to rapidly contaminate an entire enterprise environment. Once connected to the IRC botnet, the compromised machines can be instructed to download secondary malware (like ransomware), harvest credentials, or participate in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.\n\n

Eradication and Incident Response

\n", "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk team.", "aliases": [ "Worm.Hamweq", "IRC.Hamweq", "Win32/Hamweq" ], "enrichment_level": "expert-seo", "faq": [ { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is Hamweq and what threat category does it belong to?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Hamweq 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 Hamweq establish persistence and evade defensive controls?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Hamweq 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 Hamweq compromise?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Security teams responding to Hamweq 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 Worm.Hamweq employ during execution?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Worm.Hamweq 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 Worm.Hamweq, and what is the recommended recovery procedure?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Decryption availability for Worm.Hamweq 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": [ "T1091", "T1059", "T1547.001" ], "cisa_advisory": null, "last_updated": "2026-10-15", "type": "Worm / Botnet", "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": "T1091", "name": "Replication Through Removable Media (The core propagation mechanism using autorun.inf)", "tactic": "Lateral Movement" }, { "id": "T1059", "name": "Command and Scripting Interpreter", "tactic": "Execution" }, { "id": "T1547.001", "name": "Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder", "tactic": "Persistence" } ], "containment_steps": [ "Immediately isolate affected host(s) from the internal network (disconnect physical Ethernet and disable Wi-Fi/Bluetooth) to prevent Hamweq 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 Hamweq 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 Hamweq 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 Hamweq 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 Hamweq.", "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 Hamweq eradication is completely verified." ], "target_platforms": [ "Windows 11", "Windows 10", "Windows Server 2022", "Windows Server 2019" ] }