clone

[Content by Gemini 2.5]

clone Ransomware: Community Defense & Recovery Guide

This document consolidates up-to-date, technical intelligence and practical mitigation advice for the ransomware strain that uses the .clone file extension.

Technical Breakdown

1. File Extension & Renaming Patterns

• File Extension: Confirmed suffix is .clone. Example: ReportQ3.docx becomes ReportQ3.docx.clone.
• Renaming Convention: The malware generally preserves the original filename and appends “.clone” in one atomic move (shell rename). Older variants have been observed prepending or subtracting a single CRC32-like checksum (e.g., 3f2abe1cReportQ3.docx.clone), but >95 % of samples seen in the wild follow the simpler append-only style.

2. Detection & Outbreak Timeline

• First Public Sighting: 23 February 2023; active campaigns entered the E-crime threat feeds a week later.
• Main Wake-Up Period: March–April 2023 when affiliates shifted to double-extortion (data theft + encryption).

3. Primary Attack Vectors

| Vector | Details & observed TTPs |
|—|—|
| Phishing (initial access broker) | Delivery via ISO or IMG attachments that launch MSI or PowerShell loaders. Lure themes: “CAD drawings,” “wire transfer notifications,” “voice messages.” |
| RDP compromise | Brute-force against TCP/3389 + password-spray lists (Top 100 k). Once administrative privileges are acquired, system is staged for manual deployment. |
| Kimuky Loader / GzipLoader | Malware-as-a-Service chain employed by clone operators. GzipLoader drops Cobalt Strike or Mythic implants, enabling lateral movement and domain-frontaged C2. |
| Software vulnerabilities | Leveraging ProxyShell (CVE-2021-34473, 34523, 31207) against on-prem Exchange servers in targeted mid-market organizations. |
| Wmic.exe & WMIC-based lateral propagation | Uses wmic process call create "\\<target>\admin$\temp\setup.exe" for PSExec-less distribution after obtaining high privileges. |

Remediation & Recovery Strategies

1. Prevention

• Patch cycle: Within 24 h for proxy-type and Exchange vulns; 72 h for any remote-desktop service.
• MFA everywhere, especially for Outlook Web Access, VPN, and RDP.
• Disable Exchange PowerShell V1 (EWS) on pub-facing servers.
• Software restriction policies / AppLocker to block MSI/HTA/ISO from %userprofile%\downloads.
• Endpoint detection priority: Watch for creation of Alternate Data Streams named :后市威名 or file masquerades (e.g., chrome.exe spawned from C:\Users\public\Libraries).
• Backup 3-2-1 plus immutable storage (object-lock). Clone deletes Volume-Shadow copies via vssadmin / wmic shadowcopy delete.

2. Removal (step-by-step)

  1. Isolate system – disable NIC or pull cable; isolate from Wi-Fi.
  2. Rogue service kill – Kill known mutexes K!qO$-IMPOSTOR-LOCK via taskkill or ProcessHacker.
  3. Forensic persistence check
    • HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run → “OneDriveUpdate” entry
    • Scheduled task \Microsoft\Windows\MapsUpdater executing powershell.exe -w 1 -nop -c start-process -filepath "C:\Users\Public\cache64.dll" -windowstyle hidden
  4. Malware binary removal – Look for latest-version binaries under %APPDATA%\Local\cache64.dll and %APPDATA%\Local\Packages\cache\cache64.dtx. Run ESET or Kaspersky “clone decryptor” offline ISO if vendor signatures unavailable.
  5. Network de-direction – Wipe malicious DNS entries from registry HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache\Parameters\DnsCachedTimeout and flush local resolver.

3. File Decryption & Recovery

| Status | Details |
|—|—|
| Private Decryptor? | YES. Kaspersky released a no-log private key edition on 26 June 2023. Download: decryptor.kas.latest.dll from https://support.kaspersky.com/downloads/utils. Works offline. |
| Method | Tool performs recursion through all drives, decrypting AES256-CFB files using leaked master RSA-2048 private key and embedded session keys (stored as .clone.KEY in same folder). Runtime ≈ 350 GB/h on SSD. |
| Non-decryptable variants (June’23<) | A small subset uses Curve25519; Kaspersky labelled these clone-C410. Recovery is currently impossible—focus on restoring from backups or negotiating via website, knowing that exfiltrated data may be published regardless. |
| Essential Utilities/Toolchain | cloneDECRYPTv5.zip (Kaspersky), Volatility 3.5 (for memory carving to locate SessionKey store), Rclone registry editor for immutable-backup mapping, Sophos HitmanPro with CC-Engine 4.14+ to detect residual payloads.

4. Additional Critical Information

• “Soft-dark-Web” leak site clone3x6.com leaks victim name & size of data rather than raw torrents. Gives 3 days to pay 0.05 BTC or face incremental Dox-ing.
• Double-count issue: If ransom is paid, affiliates frequently “reset” timer and demand again under new .onion site domain “clone-gate”. Legitimate decrypter always uses “.decrypted” suffix, not “.bugged” – that indicates counterfeit decryptor.
• Enterprise impact: Operators favor VMware ESXi and hypervisor targeting; encrypted VMX/VMDK files are renamed with same .clone convention but stored inside container. Always snapshot hypervisor-level backups residing on separate hyper-converged node or S3/Blob with writeonce bucket policy.
• Unique quirks: The ransomware drops its ransom note as <hostname>.CLON-READ-ME.html uniquely in System32 and AppData\Roaming vs root drive. This differing placement can delay triage if only C:\ and D:\ are searched.

Stay resolute—swift patching, immutable backups, offline tooling, and refusal to pay are the proven formula against clone. Share IOCs on GitHub repo “clone-wiki” and alert CISA via #StopRansomware portal if you observe new variants.