{
  "family": "sage",
  "sample_count": 3,
  "category": "ransomware",
  "description": "Ransomware:Win32/Sage (specifically known as Sage 2.0) is a highly destructive crypto-ransomware family that gained significant notoriety in early 2017. A variant of the notorious CryLocker family, Sage is designed to systematically encrypt the victim's data and demand a ransom in Bitcoin, heavily utilizing the Tor network to anonymize its payment infrastructure and communications.<br><br><b>Understanding Sage (Ransomware)</b><br>To an end-user, a Sage infection is a nightmare scenario. Their desktop wallpaper is changed to a threatening ransom note, and all personal and business files are appended with the `.sage` extension, rendering them completely inaccessible. For an Incident Response team, Sage represents a critical failure in initial defenses, requiring immediate containment to prevent lateral movement across network shares (`T1083`).<br><br><b>Execution and Encryption Mechanics</b><br>Sage is primarily distributed via massive, localized malspam campaigns (`T1566.001`), often using weaponized Word documents with malicious macros, or disguised within ZIP archives. Upon execution, it disables Windows Automatic Repair (`T1490`) and deletes all Volume Shadow Copies (`vssadmin.exe Delete Shadows /All /Quiet`) to prevent easy data recovery. It then initiates a rapid encryption routine (`T1486`), using strong cryptography (often ChaCha20 and RSA) to lock files. Crucially, Sage uses Tor (`T1090.003`) to communicate with its C2 servers, passing the victim's unique ID and receiving the public encryption key, ensuring the attacker's infrastructure remains hidden.<br><br><b>Indicators of Compromise & Impact</b><br>The impact is catastrophic data loss. Host-based IoCs are glaringly obvious: mass file modifications, the presence of files ending in `.sage`, and the appearance of ransom notes like `!Recovery_[random_string].html`. EDR telemetry will show the execution of `vssadmin.exe` and `bcdedit.exe`. Network IoCs will reveal the compromised endpoint attempting to resolve `.onion` addresses or connecting to known Tor exit nodes.",
  "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk team.",
  "aliases": [],
  "enrichment_level": "expert-seo",
  "faq": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is Sage and what threat category does it belong to?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Sage 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 Sage establish persistence and evade defensive controls?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Sage 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 Sage compromise?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Security teams responding to Sage 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 Sage employ during execution?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Sage 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 Sage, and what is the recommended recovery procedure?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Decryption availability for Sage 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",
    "T1566.001",
    "T1090.003"
  ],
  "cisa_advisory": null,
  "last_updated": "2026-06-09",
  "mitre_attack_detail": [
    {
      "id": "T1486",
      "name": "Data Encrypted for Impact (Ransomware)",
      "tactic": "Impact"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1490",
      "name": "Inhibit System Recovery (Deleting Volume Shadow Copies)",
      "tactic": "Impact"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1090.003",
      "name": "Proxy: Multi-hop Proxy (Tor Network for C2)",
      "tactic": "Command and Control"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1566.001",
      "name": "Phishing: Spearphishing Attachment",
      "tactic": "Initial Access"
    }
  ],
  "containment_steps": [
    "Immediately sever the infected endpoint's network connection (unplug ethernet, disable Wi-Fi) to stop Sage from encrypting connected network drives.",
    "Do not reboot the machine if encryption is actively in progress, as the decryption keys may temporarily reside in memory.",
    "Identify and secure all unaffected backups immediately to ensure they are not compromised by lateral movement.",
    "Format the infected drive and rebuild the system from a clean, trusted image."
  ],
  "what_to_avoid": [
    "Do not pay the ransom. Paying provides no guarantee of data recovery and funds further cybercriminal operations.",
    "Avoid connecting external drives to the infected machine for forensics until it is completely isolated, as the ransomware will encrypt them instantly."
  ],
  "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,
  "target_platforms": [
    "Windows 11",
    "Windows 10",
    "Windows Server 2022",
    "Windows Server 2019"
  ]
}