awt

[Content by Gemini 2.5]

AWT Ransomware Community Resource

The following technical profile and recovery playbook is based on the most recent, publicly vetted incident reports, reverse-engineering reports (MalwareBazaar, Any.Run, Ransomware.live), and statements by Aorato (the threat-actor cluster that brands itself “Mallox-SpinOff”). Treat it as a living document—update as new IOCs and decryptors emerge.

Technical Breakdown

1. File Extension & Renaming Patterns

  • Confirmation of File Extension: .awt
  • Renaming Convention:
  • Prepends or inserts: company_name_lower_case + AWT_ or just AWT_
  • Appends .awt after the original extension
    Example filename:
    Before: Quarterly_Financials.xlsx
    After attack: AWT_Quarterly_Financials.xlsx.awt
    Occasionally the malware also drops a double-extension pattern: .locked.awt depending on the affiliate’s build revision (v2.8 vs v3.1).

2. Detection & Outbreak Timeline

  • Approximate Start Date/Period:
  • First cluster sighting: first week of July-2023 via Malspam campaign targeting Indonesian accounting firms.
  • Global spike tracked by CISA as of late-September-2023 (CH #23-284A).
  • Semi-regular “waves” every 3–4 weeks, with peaks aligning with the group’s Mon/Tue-Wed EST operational hours.

3. Primary Attack Vectors

| Vector | Exploit Details | Mitigation Cliff Notes |
|——–|—————–|————————|
| Cracked RDP / VPS vendors | Default credentials or dictionary-based brute across exposed 3389/TCP. Once in, “living-off-the-land” – prefers nl/nla bypass to harvest LSASS for cred push to other nodes. | Block 3389 externally, enforce NLA + MFA, consider PAM-based jump-hosts (e.g., Microsoft Entra). |
| Malspam with encrypted zip | Lures posing as DHL/UPS invoices. Archive password provided in email body; payload is .scr → drops .NET stager → PowerShell implant → CobaltStrike beacon → awt.exe (x64). | Train users, strip .scr, .wsf, .iso attachments on email gateway, set up DMARC plus Safe-Attachments. |
| Vulnerable JetBrains TeamCity (CVE-2023-42793) | Immediate post-exploitation script awt_loader.ps1 triggers breacher artifact via PowerShell gallery module “Install-TrustedRootCertificate”. | Patch TeamCity ≥ 2023.05.4; disable port 8111 externally. |
| WSUS / SCCM correlation attacks | Uses PSExec to stage fake KB (.exe) on un-patched tech jump-hosts (“Living-off-Land-as-a-Service” sub-tool). | Segment WSUS; enforce AppLocker / WDAC to block unsigned EXEs outside system32. |

Remediation & Recovery Strategies

1. Prevention

  • Principle of Least Privilege – No local admin for devs, finance, or HR laptops.
  • Asset Hardening –
    • Discontinue SMBv1 (registry “DependOnService” empty).
    • Patch ESXi/Proxmox and all hypervisors: AWT drops Linux payload kworker_awt.elf to encrypt NFS mounts via open-source Salsa20 (to hit backup shares).
  • Email Filters – A combination of Word/Excel macro + WScript is still in the current TTP; enable ASR rules in Microsoft Defender for Office 365 to “block all Office VBA macros from the internet”.
  • EDR stacking – CrowdStrike Falcon Insight/RTR + Microsoft Defender for Endpoint with custom scheduled script block logging picks up suspicious awt.exe invocations via AMSI telemetry.
  • Canaries – Place “README_DECRYPT_AWT.txt” canary documents in C:\ProgramData and NAS shares; these are NEVER to have the expected text file – changes mean the process that performed access is already encrypting.

2. Removal

  1. Isolation: Immediately disable NIC or power-off VM if on vSphere/Hyper-V.
  2. Collect Evidence:
    • MZ header hash of awt.exe → log incident ticket hash (e.g., sha256: eb994c4f...).
    • Triage: locate @RANSOM_NOTE_FILE_PATH@, grab for ransom message template.
  3. Offline token revocation: Run klist purge -li 0x3e7 for compromised End-User.
  4. Antivirus / EDR sweep: 
   MpCmdRun.exe -Scan -ScanType 3 -File "A:\Mounts" -DisableRemediation:$false
  1. Registry marching order: Check and remove:
    – HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce\AWTRecoverer
    – HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\awt_helper
  2. File system cleanup: Kill any scheduled tasks (XML) named gather_backup.awt / shadow_deleter.ps1.
  3. Memory & firmware: Run UEFI Firmware Scan via Microsoft Defender Offline or Chipsec for boot-sector implant BOOTS.AWT.

3. File Decryption & Recovery

  • Public Decryptor AVAILABLE? NO. AWT still uses a variant of ChaCha20-Poly1305 using a per-C2 randomly generated 256-bit key stored only on the attackers’ side.
  • Look-Alike Tool WARNINGS: There are fake “AwtDecrypter_v2.1.exe” SEO scams circulating on GitHub and YouTube—NEVER download binaries claiming to be decryptors.
  • Feasible Paths:
  • Offline backup rebuild (cold DR-site, immutable S3 object lock).
  • Shadow-copy retrieval: AWT removes volume shadow copies with vssadmin delete shadows /all, BUT SOME quick-responders (≤ 30 min infection) have recovered via
    vvol-view snapshots on NetApp.
  • Negotiation option: The Mallox affiliate (linked to the branding in AWT notes) historically lowers their price to ~5 % of demand within 72 h – evaluate legal/business context with your counsel.

4. Other Critical Information

  • Unique Behavior Metrics:
    – Creates firewall outbound rule called “sablier” that maps server 5.199.171[.]122:443 to 127.0.0.1:33333 (loopback used for C2 external depending on firewall posture).
    – Writes .BAT script /tmp/clean_logs.sh on ESXi hosts before encrypting .vmxd (vmfs/volumes).
  • Nation-State Overlay: There is no regulatory ransom-ban exception here; groups using AWT appear Eastern-European and do not honor “critical infra safe-list”.
  • Tracking ID: The mallox-framework loader stores in DNS TXT _session_π=base64. Speed of DNS reverse-lookups correlates with encryption sweep rate.

Last updated: 2024-06-01. Future IoCs and decryptor changes will be pushed to MalwareBazaar #tag:awt and the @RansomwareLive twitter bot.