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

Executive Summary

\nRecory is a deceptive malware family that operates primarily as \"Scareware\" or a Fake Antivirus (Fake AV) program, while occasionally exhibiting aggressive ransomware-like behaviors. Its core objective is financial extortion. It infiltrates a system, generates fabricated security alerts claiming the machine is heavily infected, and demands immediate payment (usually via credit card) for a \"premium license\" to remove the non-existent threats.\n\n

Infection Vector and Technical Capabilities

\nRecory is most commonly distributed via aggressive \"malvertising\" campaigns (where malicious ads redirect users to pages claiming their PC is infected) or bundled within \"free\" software installers downloaded from untrustworthy sources.\n\nOnce executed, Recory focuses entirely on psychological manipulation and system disruption:\n\n\n

Threat Assessment

\nWhile Recory typically does not utilize strong encryption to lock files (like true ransomware), it causes massive operational disruption and severe psychological distress for the user. Furthermore, entering credit card information into the extortion portal immediately compromises that financial data, leading to secondary fraud.\n\n

Remediation and Eradication

\n", "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk team.", "aliases": [ "FakeAV.Recory", "Ransom.Recory", "Scareware.Win32/Recory" ], "enrichment_level": "expert-seo", "faq": [ { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is Recory and what threat category does it belong to?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Recory 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 Recory establish persistence and evade defensive controls?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Recory 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 Recory compromise?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Security teams responding to Recory 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 FakeAV.Recory employ during execution?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "FakeAV.Recory 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 FakeAV.Recory, and what is the recommended recovery procedure?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Decryption availability for FakeAV.Recory 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": [ "T1491.001", "T1489", "T1547.001" ], "cisa_advisory": null, "last_updated": "2026-10-15", "type": "Ransomware / Fake AV", "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": "T1491.001", "name": "Defacement: Internal Defacement", "tactic": "Impact" }, { "id": "T1489", "name": "Service Stop (Forcefully stopping AV services)", "tactic": "Impact" }, { "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 Recory 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 Recory 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 Recory 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 Recory 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 Recory.", "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 Recory eradication is completely verified." ], "target_platforms": [ "Windows 11", "Windows 10", "Windows Server 2022", "Windows Server 2019" ] }