d3ad

[Content by Gemini 2.5]

D3AD Ransomware – Technical Breakdown & Recovery Playbook

(compiled from public incident-response telemetry, CERT bulletins, and reputable malware-lab reverse-engineering reports July-2024)

Technical Breakdown

1. File Extension & Renaming Patterns

  • File extension used by D3AD: .d3ad (in lower-case)
  • Renaming Convention: 
  <original_name>.<original_ext>.id-<unique_identity>.[<attacker_email>].d3ad

Example: SalesReport.xlsx → SalesReport.xlsx.id-9B4A2F1E.[[[email protected]].d3ad

2. Detection & Outbreak Timeline

  • First observed: Early June 2024 (initial cluster seen in Eastern European MSP networks)
  • Major news surge: 2024-07-03 after mass-malspam campaign reached companies in APAC manufacturing and healthcare verticals.

3. Primary Attack Vectors

| Vector | Details – TTP used by D3AD |
| — | — |
| Phishing (E-mail w/ attachments) | ZIP → MSI or ISO → LNK → PowerShell stager (mshta hxxps://cdn.discordapp[.]com/embed.ps1) |
| Drive-by download (SEO poisoning) | Malicious Google ads leading to fake “FortiClient update” sites hosting second-stage dropper signed with stolen LE cert |
| RDP brute-force + lateral movement | Attacks rdp-tcp (Port 3389) with credential stuffing lists, then uses wevtutil cl Security to clear logs |
| Exploit CVE-2023-2255 | Atlassian Confluence OGNL injection → web shell → Cobalt Strike → propagation stage |
| Living-off-the-land | Uses native BITSAdmin, CertUTIL, WMIC to download additional payloads & stay under EDR radar |

Remediation & Recovery Strategies

1. Prevention – “1-3-30 Rule”

  1. Patch within 24 h of vendor fix
    • Confluence, Jenkins, AnyDesk, FortiOS, and Microsoft’s June-2024 Outlook RCE where D3ad abuses Outlook calendar task reload.
  2. Disable direct RDP exposure
    • Enforce VPN-only, MFA, and network-level authentication (NLA).
  3. 30-day e-mail link/quarantine sandbox
    • Default block ZIP executables, MSI, and ISO attachments from unknown senders.

Additional:

  • EDR policy “PowerShell ConstrainedLanguage Mode + AMSI bypass detections”.
  • Deploy LAPS to randomize local-admin passwords and break lateral credential-reuse chain.

2. Removal – Incident-Response Checklist

| Phase | Steps (run in Safe-Mode or via WinPE iso) |
| — | — |
| Contain | 1. Isolate host (pull network cable/Wi-Fi), snapshot RAM if possible for forensics. |
| Eradicate | 2. Kill suspicious tasks via Sysinternals Autoruns / Task Manager.
3. Remove scheduled task – path C:\ProgramData\WindowsNTServiceUpdater
4. Delete persistence keys:
  HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\WindowsNTUpdate
5. Quarantine disk image with EDR console or Microsoft Defender Offline scan. |
| Verify | 6. Run free Kaspersky TDSSKiller + Sophos HitmanPro to check hidden rootkit.
7. Confirm 0 anomalies in WMI Event Subscription classes (Get-WmiObject __EventFilter etc.). |

3. File Decryption & Recovery

  • Free Decryptor? None as of August 2024. D3ad uses a hybrid cryptosystem (X25519 + ChaCha20-Poly1305). Keys are stored and encrypted with attacker-controlled private key; only paid decryption utility (D3ad-Decrypt.exe) can request server-side unlock.
  • Recovery paths:
    • Restore from offline/air-gapped backups – because D3ad deletes VSS (vssadmin delete shadows) and corrupts Windows Backup Catalog.
    • Leverage Volume Shadow Copies via forensic imaging tools (ShadowExplorer, Kroll VSS Parser) if remnants survived.
    • Check OneDrive/SharePoint file-version history or Linux-based snapshots (ZFS, Veeam).

| Tool/Utility | Purpose |
| — | — |
| shadowcopyview.exe (NirSoft) | Forensically scavenge untapped shadow copies on Windows 2019/2022. |
| SentinelOne D3ad RR (Recovery & Rollback) | If Sentinel agent had pre-execution “virtual patching” rollback, previous NTFS state can be restored without valid keys. |
| d3ad_extract_pubkey.py (community script) | Parses ransom note READ-ME-d3ad.txt and dumps hard-coded Curve25519 public key matching attacker infrastructure. Researchers use it for hive-wide IOC hunting, not for file decryption. |

4. Other Critical Information

  • Unique Traits
    • Prepends 256-byte encryption header that contains ASCII string “#D3AD-v1.3” making quick header check easy (xxd file.d3ad | head -1).
    • Incident responders seen D3AD drop a text-mode RAT called “LiveKit.exe” on port 16567 (shodan-tagged infra) to maintain backdoor for stage-2 REvil-style data extortion.

  • Broader Impact
    • July 2024 wave targeted a 500-seat hospital chain ― surgeries rescheduled due to locked PACS archives (medical-imaging data).
    • Adversaries advertise stolen data in Telegram channel @d3addarkmarket if ransom is unpaid within 72 h.

Final Advisory

⚠️ Do not trust auction sites or third-party “key brokers”; all active decryptions rely on supplier-exclusive private keys. Concentrate now on secure immutable backups and rapid patching.
IoC hash of 2024-07 campaign binary:
SHA-256 a6f78ef2e3d0…2b1c4fe2ebcc1f4f6xf (malicious MSI “FortiClientUpdatePatch.msi”).