{
  "family": "rakhni",
  "sample_count": 1,
  "category": "ransomware",
  "description": "<h3>Executive Summary</h3>\nRakhni is a notorious and highly versatile malware family that originally emerged as Ransomware but evolved into a multifaceted threat capable of acting as both a crypto-locker and a persistent Cryptocurrency Miner. Developed in Delphi, Rakhni is particularly dangerous because it dynamically assesses the infected environment, choosing whether to deploy ransomware or a stealthy cryptominer based on the target's perceived value and processing power.\n\n<h3>Infection Vector and Dynamic Execution</h3>\nRakhni is predominantly distributed via massive spam campaigns containing malicious attachments (often disguised as PDFs or Office documents containing macro exploits) or via exploit kits.\n\nUpon execution, Rakhni performs a series of environmental checks that dictate its behavior:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The Decision Matrix:</strong> The malware checks for the presence of a specific folder (often related to Bitcoin Core). If it finds evidence of high-value cryptocurrency activity, it will likely deploy the Ransomware module. If the machine appears to be a standard workstation with sufficient CPU power, it will deploy the Cryptominer (typically XMRig for mining Monero) to generate long-term, stealthy income.</li>\n<li><strong>Ransomware Operations:</strong> If triggered, the ransomware module encrypts a wide range of files using strong cryptography, appending specific extensions (like `.locked` or `.rakhni`) to the files, and drops a ransom note demanding payment.</li>\n<li><strong>Cryptomining Operations:</strong> If the miner is deployed, Rakhni establishes persistence, often utilizing process hollowing to inject the XMRig mining payload into legitimate Windows processes (like `svchost.exe`) to hide its CPU usage from casual inspection.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<h3>Threat Assessment</h3>\nA Rakhni infection is a severe incident with dual implications. The ransomware payload causes immediate, catastrophic data loss and operational downtime. The cryptomining payload, while stealthier, severely degrades system performance, increases hardware wear, and indicates a critical failure in endpoint security controls.\n\n<h3>Remediation and Eradication</h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Endpoint Isolation:</strong> Isolate the infected endpoint immediately to sever communication with the attacker's C2 infrastructure (halting both encryption key exchange and cryptomining pool communication).</li>\n<li><strong>Decryption Tools:</strong> Rakhni is one of the older ransomware families, and significant flaws were found in its cryptography. Free decryption tools (often provided by Kaspersky or the \"No More Ransom\" project) are available for many variants of Rakhni. <strong>Do not pay the ransom.</strong></li>\n<li><strong>Complete System Re-image:</strong> Whether acting as ransomware or a miner, Rakhni establishes deep persistence and often drops secondary malware. A complete wipe and re-image of the system is the recommended remediation strategy.</li>\n</ul>",
  "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk team.",
  "aliases": [
    "Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Rakhni",
    "CoinMiner.Rakhni",
    "Win32/Rakhni"
  ],
  "enrichment_level": "expert-seo",
  "faq": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is Rakhni and what threat category does it belong to?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Rakhni 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 Rakhni establish persistence and evade defensive controls?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Rakhni 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 Rakhni compromise?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Security teams responding to Rakhni 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 Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Rakhni employ during execution?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Rakhni 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 Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Rakhni, and what is the recommended recovery procedure?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Decryption availability for Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Rakhni 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",
    "T1496",
    "T1055.012"
  ],
  "cisa_advisory": null,
  "last_updated": "2026-10-15",
  "type": "Ransomware / Cryptominer",
  "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": "T1496",
      "name": "Resource Hijacking (The core function of mining Monero cryptocurrency)",
      "tactic": "Impact"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1055.012",
      "name": "Process Injection: Process Hollowing (RunPE)",
      "tactic": "Defense Evasion"
    }
  ],
  "containment_steps": [
    "Immediately isolate affected host(s) from the internal network (disconnect physical Ethernet and disable Wi-Fi/Bluetooth) to prevent Rakhni 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 Rakhni 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 Rakhni 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 Rakhni 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 Rakhni.",
    "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 Rakhni eradication is completely verified."
  ],
  "target_platforms": [
    "Windows 11",
    "Windows 10",
    "Windows Server 2022",
    "Windows Server 2019"
  ]
}