{
  "family": "stampado",
  "sample_count": 1,
  "category": "ransomware",
  "description": "Ransom:Win32/Stampado is a notorious example of cheap 'Ransomware-as-a-Service' (RaaS). Unlike advanced ransomware families that demand massive payouts from corporations, Stampado was famously sold on the dark web for just $39 (`T1486`), allowing low-skill attackers (script kiddies) to easily generate and distribute their own ransomware campaigns.<br><br><b>Understanding Stampado (Cheap RaaS)</b><br>To an end-user, a Stampado infection results in the immediate encryption of their personal files, followed by a threatening ransom note demanding Bitcoin. For a SOC analyst, Stampado indicates that the network may have fallen victim to a highly untargeted, opportunistic attack, likely originating from a generic malspam campaign rather than a sophisticated Advanced Persistent Threat (APT).<br><br><b>Execution and Extortion Mechanics</b><br>Written primarily in AutoIt (a scripting language often used for legitimate automation but easily abused), Stampado is usually delivered via phishing emails containing malicious ZIP attachments. Upon execution, it does not require administrative privileges. It quickly enumerates user directories (`T1083`) and encrypts common document, image, and database file types using AES encryption (`T1486`). It establishes persistence via Registry Run keys. Crucially, Stampado aggressively attempts to delete Volume Shadow Copies (`T1490`) using `vssadmin.exe` to prevent easy restoration.<br><br><b>Indicators of Compromise & Impact</b><br>The impact is significant data loss and operational downtime. Host-based IoCs include the presence of files with a `.locked` extension, the sudden execution of `vssadmin.exe delete shadows /all /quiet`, and the creation of ransom note files (often named `RESTORE_FILES.txt` or similar) in every encrypted directory. Because it was sold so cheaply, many different, slightly modified versions of Stampado exist in the wild.",
  "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk team.",
  "aliases": [],
  "enrichment_level": "expert-seo",
  "faq": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is Stampado and what threat category does it belong to?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Stampado 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 Stampado establish persistence and evade defensive controls?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Stampado 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 Stampado compromise?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Security teams responding to Stampado 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 Stampado employ during execution?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Stampado 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 Stampado, and what is the recommended recovery procedure?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Decryption availability for Stampado 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": [
    "T1083",
    "T1486",
    "T1490"
  ],
  "cisa_advisory": null,
  "last_updated": "2026-06-09",
  "mitre_attack_detail": [
    {
      "id": "T1486",
      "name": "Data Encrypted for Impact (The core ransomware functionality)",
      "tactic": "Impact"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1490",
      "name": "Inhibit System Recovery (Deleting Volume Shadow Copies)",
      "tactic": "Impact"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1083",
      "name": "File and Directory Discovery (Locating files to encrypt)",
      "tactic": "Discovery"
    }
  ],
  "containment_steps": [
    "Isolate the infected endpoint immediately by physically disconnecting it from the network to prevent the encryption of mapped network drives.",
    "Identify the initial vector (e.g., the specific phishing email) and purge similar emails from the corporate mail server.",
    "Check for the availability of known decryptors; because Stampado was poorly coded in some versions, free decryption tools exist for certain variants.",
    "Restore encrypted files from secure, offline backups that were not accessible to the infected host."
  ],
  "what_to_avoid": [
    "Do not pay the ransom; given the low skill of the attackers who bought this RaaS, there is a very high chance they will not provide the decryption key.",
    "Avoid rebooting the infected machine repeatedly, as some ransomware families are designed to delete files permanently upon reboot if unpaid."
  ],
  "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"
  ]
}