Fire

Overview

Executive Summary

Infection Vector and Technical Capabilities

• File Infection (Parasitic): True "virus" variants of Fire attempt to append their malicious code to legitimate executable files (`.exe`, `.scr`, `.dll`) on the local hard drive and mapped network shares. When the legitimate program is run, the virus code executes first.
• Destructive Payloads: Some older variants carry destructive payloads triggered on specific dates, which may involve overwriting sector data on the hard drive, corrupting critical system files, or continuously forcing the system to reboot.
• Network Propagation: Worm-like variants aggressively scan the local subnet for open, unauthenticated file shares or legacy vulnerabilities to copy themselves and execute laterally.

Threat Assessment

Incident Response and Remediation

• Network Segmentation: Immediately isolate infected subnets to halt the worm-like lateral propagation and prevent the infection of mapped network drives.
• Specialized Antivirus Remediation: Unlike trojans, which can simply be deleted, parasitic viruses require specialized AV routines to "disinfect" the host files—stripping the malicious code while leaving the legitimate executable intact. If disinfection fails, the files must be restored from clean backups.
• Legacy Vulnerability Patching: Investigate how the malware propagated. The outbreak strongly indicates the presence of unpatched legacy systems or overly permissive internal file shares that must be immediately secured.

Known aliases

Threat reports may refer to this family under multiple names:

• Virus.Win32.Fire
• Worm.Fire
• Trojan.Fire

MITRE ATT&CK Techniques

Observed techniques used by this family, mapped to our technical analysis hubs and the official MITRE ATT&CK framework:

Tactical Mitigations

Based on the techniques used by this family, consider the following defensive strategies:

• T1059: Restrict execution of scripting languages such as PowerShell, VBScript, or Python to authorized administrators. Enforce Script Block Logging.

MITRE D3FEND™ Defensive Countermeasures

Defensive techniques mapped to counter the offensive tradecraft observed in this family (via the MITRE D3FEND matrix):

Tiered Detection Rules (Cisco CAIRN Model)

Modern threat detection requires multi-layered rule engineering. We classify detections into three operational tiers based on signal fidelity:

rule MALWARE_WIN_FIRE_T1_ARTIFACT {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 1 Primitive Artifact: Raw string matches for Fire"
        tier = "T1 - Primitive Artifact"
        confidence = "Low-Medium (Fast Triage)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Threat Research Desk"
        date = "2026-10-14"
    strings:
        $s1 = "fire" ascii wide nocase
        $s2 = "virus.win32.fire" ascii wide nocase
        $s3 = "worm.fire" ascii wide nocase
        $s4 = "trojan.fire" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}

title: SystemHelpDesk Detection - Fire (Ransomware) Execution & Triage
id: f052b3f4-8640-559e-8a0a-ff5076728331
status: production
description: Detects execution, defense evasion, and persistence behaviors associated
  with the Fire malware family. Detects volume shadow copy deletion, boot status tampering,
  and recovery inhibition characteristic of modern ransomware operations.
references:
- https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/families/fire
- https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/defensive/ransomware-protection
- https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/
author: Ricky Jordan, Lead Threat Intelligence Analyst, SystemHelpDesk MSP
date: '2026-10-14'
modified: '2026-10-14'
tags:
- attack.ransomware
- author.ricky-jordan
- source.systemhelpdesk-mfc
- attack.t1059
- attack.t1485
- attack.t1091
logsource:
  category: process_creation
  product: windows
detection:
  selection_process:
    Image|endswith:
    - \vssadmin.exe
    - \wmic.exe
    - \wbadmin.exe
    - \bcdedit.exe
    CommandLine|contains:
    - delete shadows
    - shadowcopy delete
    - resize shadowstorage
    - recoveryenabled no
    - ignoreallfailures
  condition: selection_process
falsepositives:
- Legitimate enterprise administrative scripts during approved change windows
- Authorized IT software deployment utilities and backup management agents
level: critical

rule MALWARE_WIN_FIRE_T3_ATTRIBUTION {
    meta:
        description = "Tier 3 Attribution Fingerprint: Heuristic detection for Fire tradecraft"
        tier = "T3 - Attribution Fingerprint"
        confidence = "High (Confirmed Family Signature)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Threat Research Desk"
        date = "2026-10-14"
    strings:
        // Core family identifier & heuristic payload signatures
        $attrib_str = "fire" ascii wide nocase
        $pe_magic = "MZ" ascii
        $net_marker = "http" ascii nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and ($attrib_str and $net_marker) and filesize < 15MB
}

Containment & Response Steps

Ordered checklist for responders. Adapt to your environment and engage professional support for active incidents.

1. Immediately isolate affected host(s) from the internal network (disconnect physical Ethernet and disable Wi-Fi/Bluetooth) to prevent Fire from spreading laterally or encrypting network-attached storage (NAS) and shared SMB volumes.
2. Preserve volatile system memory (RAM capture) on a representative endpoint before attempting a reboot or power-down, as Fire symmetric encryption keys or uncompiled payload components may still reside in memory.
3. 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 Fire to inhibit recovery.
4. 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.
5. Restore critical assets and databases exclusively from verified, air-gapped, or immutable offline backups once the Fire binary and related persistence hooks are eradicated.

What to Avoid

Common mistakes during response to this family that can destroy evidence, spread the infection, or worsen recovery.

1. Do not restart or power cycle infected systems prematurely; doing so destroys volatile RAM encryption keys and may trigger bootloader locking logic embedded in Fire.
2. Avoid negotiating or paying the extortion demand without prior forensic evaluation and consultation with incident response specialists, as payment does not guarantee data recovery.
3. Do not connect clean backup drives or external storage to the affected network until Fire eradication is completely verified.

References & External Analysis

• Search "fire" on VirusTotal (External Analysis)
• Search "fire" on Any.Run (Sandbox Sandbox)
• Search "fire" on MalwareBazaar (Malware Samples)

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Threats (Category: Ransomware)

Explore other documented threats in the same operational category:

• Uiwaowr6Xsaje
• Crypmodadv
• Adkubru
• Palibu
• Kapucen
• Ksdler
• Flusihoc
• Hg8Absxocmcj

Machine-readable

Get this profile as JSON: https://malware-families-catalog.systemhelpdesk.com/api/fire.json

Ecosystem & Interactive Environments

This profile is part of the Malware Families Catalog, a public dataset of 2,899 malware families. The catalog is also published across our ecosystem: Hugging Face, Kaggle, Zenodo, Replit, StackBlitz, CodeSandbox, and CodePen.