crime

[Content by Gemini 2.5]

Crime Ransomware (“.CRIME”) – Technical Breakdown & Response Guide

1. File Extension & Renaming Patterns

  • Confirmation of File Extension: .crime (lowercase) – appended verbatim to every encrypted file.
  • Renaming Convention:
  • Victim file → original_name.extension becomes original_name.extension.crime
  • Example: Q4-Finance.xlsx → Q4-Finance.xlsx.crime
  • No obfuscation of the original name; path / folder structure remains intact.

2. Detection & Outbreak Timeline

  • Approximate Start Date/Period: First large-scale reports in late-August 2023, with a second wave exploiting newly-patched CVEs observed in December 2023.

3. Primary Attack Vectors

| Vector | Details & Exploited CVE/Actor Techniques |
|——–|——————————————|
| 1. Exploited Vulnerabilities | • CVE-2023-34362 (MOVEit Transfer) – direct SQLi → RCE chain used for initial foothold.
• CVE-2023-36884 (Windows OLE) via malicious documents.
• CVE-2020-1472 (Zerologon) for AD privilege escalation (helper module seen in affiliate kits). |
| 2. Phishing & Malicious Attachments | ISO or IMG containers masquerading as invoices that, when mounted, launch “msupdate.exe” (Crime launcher that sideloads the ransomware DLL). |
| 3. RDP / VPN Compromises | • Brute-force and credential-stuffing against Internet-facing RDP (TCP 3389) and Fortinet SSL-VPN (TCP 10443).
• Deployment via remote desktop once low-privilege account is hijacked. |
| 4. Living-off-the-land & Lateral Tooling | Uses PSExec, WMI, Cobalt-Strike beacons for propagation, then executes Crime payloads via scheduled tasks named WindowsUpdate{random}. |

Remediation & Recovery Strategies

1. Prevention (Blocking the Crime Pathway)

| Layer | Action Items (US-CERT / CISA March 2024 advised) |
|——-|————————————————–|
| Patches | • Update MOVEit Transfer to ≥ 2023.0.6 or apply vendor patch ASAP.
• Patch MS CVE-2023-36884 via Windows cumulative update Aug-2023.
• Zerologon: ensure August 2020 Windows Security Update is installed and partial enforcement mode active. |
| Hardening | • Disable SMBv1 across estate.
• Implement LAPS for local admin password randomization.
• Restrict RDP to VPN-only with MFA (Network Level Authentication enabled). |
| Email Controls | • Deploy mail server rules to block all ISO/IMG attachments from external senders unless signed and whitelisted.
• Enable Microsoft Defender ASR rules: Block executable content from Office macro & block process creations originating from PSExec and WMI commands. |
| Least Privilege | • Remove Domain Users from local “Administrators”.
• Enforce EDR policies to isolate hosts showing Crime-launcher hash (SHA-256: 3ebfe5a17b6c6…3e2a4c). |

2. Removal – Clean-Up Checklist

  1. Disconnect infected host(s) from LAN/Wi-Fi – power down is optional to prevent further encryption but leave at least one device online to capture network IOCs if triage team wants traffic/dumping.
  2. Boot into Safe Mode With Networking – prevents Crime service (CrimeTaskScheduler) from auto-starting.
  3. Kill known processes: 
   taskkill /f /im msupdate.exe  
   taskkill /f /im crime32.dll (or crime64.dll)
  1. Delete persistence items: 
   schtasks /delete /tn "WindowsUpdate*" /f  
   reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v CrimeRun /f
  1. Scan with latest Malwarebytes 4.x or ESET Online Scanner to quarantine remaining binaries.
  2. Deploy fresh OS image (golden-image approach) or perform full reinstall if backups not available and disk was system-level encrypted (MBR overwritten in some Crime variants).

3. File Decryption & Recovery

| Topic | Status & Tools |
|——-|—————-|
| Can files encrypted by Crime be decrypted? | YES – if “OFFLINE KEY” was used. Some early Crime builds leaked the offline private key; Emsisoft published a free decryptor. |
| How to check key type: | Look inside README_TO_RESTORE.TXT ransom note – line that reads Your personal KEY begins with: followed by o*dec or o*0ff. o*dec = offline → decryptable. |
| Free tool: | Emsisoft Decryptor for Crime (released 2 Oct 2023, signature v1.0.0.2). Run on an offline clean system with a copy of encrypted files + ransom note. |
| When keys are online: | Brute-force not currently feasible (RSA-2048). Rely on offline backups, Volume Shadow Copies (if not deleted by Crime wiper routine), or negotiated payout as last resort (note: criminals have not reliably delivered decryptor in all cases). |

4. Other Critical Information

Unique Characteristics (Crime Family Specific)

  • Selective wiper behavior: Found in December-2023 wave; presence of environment variable CRIMEWIPE=YES triggers secure delete on VSS and Recycle Bin prior to encryption. Check environment variables during IR.
  • Geofencing: Skips infection if SetThreadUILanguage returns system locale ru-RU, be-BY, uk-UA – legacy from C++ builder default template reused from Babuk fork.
  • Use of Mersenne Twister RNG: Generates a per-session AES-256 key, then RSA-2048 encrypts the AES key; public key is base64-encoded inside Crime’s resource section (offset 0x1400). Useful for hash-based rules.

Broader Impact & Attribution

  • Crime is affiliate-driven, suspected link to Babuk/RTM SDK codebase (overlapping encryption engine).
  • Over 120 known victims across North America, Western Europe, and APAC – targeting Education, Finance, and Managed Service Providers.
  • Average ransom demand USD 30 000 – 200 000 depending on endpoints encrypted.
  • Double-extortion site (.crimeleaks[.]onion) lists non-payers; EXIF metadata stripping observed on leaked files indicating in-house media processing.

Bottom line: Patch the cited CVEs, mandate MFA on remote services, maintain 3-2-1 backup strategy, and if hit use the Emsisoft Crime Decryptor early to determine whether offline-key recovery is possible.