{
  "family": "ransomheur",
  "sample_count": 1,
  "category": "ransomware",
  "description": "<h3>Executive Summary</h3>\n\"RansomHeur\" (short for Ransomware Heuristic) is a highly critical, generic detection signature utilized by advanced Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP) and EDR solutions. It does not identify a specific, named ransomware family (like LockBit or Ryuk). Instead, it indicates that the security engine has actively observed a process executing behavioral patterns that are definitively characteristic of a ransomware attack in progress.\n\n<h3>Heuristic Detection and Behavioral Context</h3>\nUnlike static signatures that look for known file hashes, a RansomHeur alert fires based on real-time behavioral analysis. A process flagged with this identifier has typically triggered a combination of the following rules:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mass File Modification:</strong> The process is rapidly opening, encrypting, and renaming a large volume of user files (e.g., documents, images, databases) across local disks or mapped network shares in a very short timeframe.</li>\n<li><strong>Volume Shadow Copy Deletion:</strong> The process has attempted to execute administrative commands (like `vssadmin.exe Delete Shadows /All /Quiet` or WMI equivalents) to destroy local system backups and prevent easy file restoration.</li>\n<li><strong>Cryptographic API Abuse:</strong> The process is making anomalous, high-frequency calls to Windows cryptographic APIs (e.g., CryptoAPI, CNG) outside of normal application behavior.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<h3>Threat Impact and Response</h3>\nA RansomHeur alert is a \"break-glass,\" severity-critical incident. It means active data destruction is occurring on the endpoint. However, if the EDR is configured correctly, the process may have been successfully terminated mid-encryption, limiting the damage.\n\n<h3>Immediate Containment Strategy</h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Total Network Isolation:</strong> <em>Immediately</em> and physically sever the affected machine's network connection (unplug Ethernet, disable Wi-Fi) to halt the encryption of mapped network drives and lateral spread.</li>\n<li><strong>Do Not Reboot:</strong> Do not reboot the machine, as this may trigger secondary payloads, delete forensic evidence in RAM (which might contain the encryption key), or accelerate the encryption routine upon startup.</li>\n<li><strong>Determine Blast Radius:</strong> Identify exactly which files were encrypted before the process was killed. Extract the malicious binary that triggered the alert for sandbox analysis to identify the true ransomware family and locate the attacker's entry point (e.g., compromised RDP, phishing email).</li>\n</ul>",
  "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk team.",
  "aliases": [
    "Generic.Ransom.Heur",
    "Heur:Trojan-Ransom",
    "Suspicious.Ransomware"
  ],
  "enrichment_level": "expert-seo",
  "faq": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is Ransomheur and what threat category does it belong to?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Ransomheur 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 Ransomheur establish persistence and evade defensive controls?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Ransomheur 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 Ransomheur compromise?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Security teams responding to Ransomheur 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 Generic.Ransom.Heur employ during execution?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Generic.Ransom.Heur 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 Generic.Ransom.Heur, and what is the recommended recovery procedure?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Decryption availability for Generic.Ransom.Heur 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"
  ],
  "cisa_advisory": null,
  "last_updated": "2026-10-15",
  "type": "Generic / 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"
    }
  ],
  "containment_steps": [
    "Immediately isolate affected host(s) from the internal network (disconnect physical Ethernet and disable Wi-Fi/Bluetooth) to prevent Ransomheur 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 Ransomheur 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 Ransomheur 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 Ransomheur 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 Ransomheur.",
    "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 Ransomheur eradication is completely verified."
  ],
  "target_platforms": [
    "Windows 11",
    "Windows 10",
    "Windows Server 2022",
    "Windows Server 2019"
  ]
}