LoFP LoFP / there could be cases where a legitimate file coincidentally matches a known ransomware note name. in such cases, further investigation is required to determine the nature of the file and its context.

Techniques

Sample rules

Common Ransomware Notes

Description

The following analytic detects the creation of files with names commonly associated with ransomware notes. It leverages file-system activity data from the Endpoint Filesystem data model, typically populated by endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools or Sysmon logs. This activity is significant because ransomware notes indicate a potential ransomware attack, which can lead to data encryption and extortion. If confirmed malicious, this activity could result in significant data loss, operational disruption, and financial impact due to ransom demands. Note that this analytic relies on a lookup table (ransomware_notes_lookup) that contains known ransomware note file names. Ensure that this lookup table is regularly updated to include new ransomware note file names as they are identified in the threat landscape. Also this analytic leverages a sub-search to enhance performance. sub-searches have limitations on the amount of data they can return. Keep this in mind if you have an extensive list of ransomware note file names.

Detection logic


| tstats `security_content_summariesonly`
  count
  min(_time) as firstTime
  max(_time) as lastTime
  values(Filesystem.user) as user
  values(Filesystem.dest) as dest
  values(Filesystem.file_path) as file_path
from datamodel=Endpoint.Filesystem
where [
  
| inputlookup ransomware_notes_lookup
  
| search status=true
  
| fields ransomware_notes
  
| dedup ransomware_notes
  
| rename ransomware_notes as Filesystem.file_name
]
by Filesystem.action Filesystem.dest Filesystem.file_access_time
   Filesystem.file_create_time Filesystem.file_hash
   Filesystem.file_modify_time Filesystem.file_name
   Filesystem.file_path Filesystem.file_acl Filesystem.file_size
   Filesystem.process_guid Filesystem.process_id Filesystem.user
   Filesystem.vendor_product

| `drop_dm_object_name(Filesystem)`

| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`

| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`

| `common_ransomware_notes_filter`