{
  "family": "satancrypt",
  "sample_count": 1,
  "category": "ransomware",
  "description": "<h3>Executive Summary</h3>\nSatancrypt (often related to the \"Satan\" Ransomware-as-a-Service family) is a highly destructive strain of enterprise ransomware designed to infiltrate corporate networks, rapidly encrypt critical file systems and databases, and demand a cryptocurrency payment for the decryption key. It is known for its aggressive targeting of database servers and its use of a centralized affiliate model for distribution, making it a severe, immediate threat to business continuity.\n\n<h3>Infection Vector and Technical Capabilities</h3>\nSatancrypt affiliates typically gain access to networks through compromised Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connections, malicious spam campaigns, or by exploiting public-facing web vulnerabilities (such as unpatched Tomcat or WebLogic servers).\n\nOnce inside the network, it executes a devastating attack chain:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Service Termination and Defense Evasion:</strong> The malware actively attempts to terminate endpoint security services and crucially, stops database services (SQL Server, Exchange, MySQL) using command-line tools to ensure those files are unlocked and available for encryption. It also deletes Volume Shadow Copies (`vssadmin.exe Delete Shadows`) to prevent easy data restoration.</li>\n<li><strong>Rapid Encryption:</strong> It utilizes strong cryptography (AES+RSA) to encrypt user files, databases, and network shares. The encrypted files are appended with the `.satan` or `.satancrypt` extension, and a ransom note (`HELP_DECRYPT_FILES.html`) is dropped into every affected directory.</li>\n<li><strong>Lateral Movement:</strong> Satancrypt variants are known to contain built-in lateral movement capabilities, attempting to spread to other machines on the local network using tools like Mimikatz to dump credentials and pass-the-hash.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<h3>Threat Assessment</h3>\nA Satancrypt infection is a catastrophic security incident that immediately halts business operations. It poses an existential threat to the organization through severe data loss, extended downtime, potential regulatory fines, and reputational damage.\n\n<h3>Incident Response and Remediation</h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Immediate Network Segmentation:</strong> Do not simply turn off the machines, as this destroys volatile memory forensics. Instantly sever the network connection of all infected machines from the internet and the rest of the LAN to halt lateral movement and data exfiltration.</li>\n<li><strong>Engage Incident Response:</strong> Immediately engage specialized third-party Incident Response and legal counsel. Do not attempt to negotiate with the threat actors without professional guidance.</li>\n<li><strong>Eradication and Recovery:</strong> Eradicating ransomware requires a complete infrastructure rebuild. All affected machines must be wiped to bare metal and rebuilt from known-good, offline backups. All enterprise credentials must be rotated globally.</li>\n</ul>",
  "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk team.",
  "aliases": [
    "Ransomware.Satan",
    "Trojan-Ransom.Win32.SatanCrypt",
    "Win32/Satana"
  ],
  "enrichment_level": "expert-seo",
  "faq": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is Satancrypt and what threat category does it belong to?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Satancrypt 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 Satancrypt establish persistence and evade defensive controls?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Satancrypt 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 Satancrypt compromise?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Security teams responding to Satancrypt 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 Ransomware.Satan employ during execution?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Ransomware.Satan 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 Ransomware.Satan, and what is the recommended recovery procedure?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Decryption availability for Ransomware.Satan 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",
    "T1489",
    "T1490",
    "T1078"
  ],
  "cisa_advisory": null,
  "last_updated": "2026-10-15",
  "type": "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": "T1489",
      "name": "Service Stop (Forcefully stopping AV services)",
      "tactic": "Impact"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1490",
      "name": "Inhibit System Recovery (Behaviorally blocking the deletion of backups)",
      "tactic": "Impact"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1078",
      "name": "Valid Accounts (The goal of the attack)",
      "tactic": "Initial Access"
    }
  ],
  "containment_steps": [
    "Immediately isolate affected host(s) from the internal network (disconnect physical Ethernet and disable Wi-Fi/Bluetooth) to prevent Satancrypt 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 Satancrypt 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 Satancrypt 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 Satancrypt 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 Satancrypt.",
    "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 Satancrypt eradication is completely verified."
  ],
  "target_platforms": [
    "Windows 11",
    "Windows 10",
    "Windows Server 2022",
    "Windows Server 2019"
  ]
}