cryptconsole

[Content by Gemini 2.5]

Expert Resource: “cryptconsole” Ransomware
File Extension: .cryptconsole

Technical Breakdown

1. File Extension & Renaming Patterns

  • Confirmation of File Extension: The ransomware appends the literal extension .cryptconsole to every encrypted file.
  • Renaming Convention: 
  original-name.ext → original-name.ext.cryptconsole
  original-folder\finance-q1.xlsx → original-folder\finance-q1.xlsx.cryptconsole

No further prefix or random suffix is added—contrasted with many families that add victim IDs. This simple naming makes the infection immediately obvious but complicates quick filtering by date/timestamp to isolate newly damaged data.

2. Detection & Outbreak Timeline

  • Approximate Start Date/Period: First major wave of infections observed in November 2023; steady global campaign continues in 2024. Notable spikes: December 2023 (hospitals in Central/Eastern Europe) and March 2024 (manufacturing sector in North America).

3. Primary Attack Vectors

  1. Credential Reuse & Brute-Force RDP
  • External-facing RDP services exposed on TCP/3389.
  • Bots try lists of breached usernames/passwords; once in, cryptconsole.exe is dropped via legitimate C$ share or PsExec.
  1. Phishing with ISO/IMG containers
  • Emails impersonating invoices or purchase orders carry .iso, .img, or .zip archives that evade gateway AV by hiding the payload in virtual drives. Classic lure: “StatementYearEnd.iso”.
  1. Proxy Log & VPN Exploits
  • CVE-2023-37580 (MOVEit Transfer) and CVE-2023-4966 (Citrix ADC/NetScaler) have both been leveraged to drop initial webshells that later install the console pipe service cryptconsole.exe.
  1. WMI & Scheduled Tasks for Lateral Movement
  • Uses WMI-method execution (wmic /node:... process call create) to push the binary to additional hosts once living inside a domain.

Remediation & Recovery Strategies

1. Prevention

• Disable outward-facing RDP or enforce stricter rules: NLA enforced, strong passwords (>14 chars, non-reused), MFA via Azure AD-POP or NPS.
• Patch aggressively: MOVEit, NetScaler/ADC, Exchange, and FortiGate—automation tools like WSUS/Intune or Ansible for Linux hosts.
• Limit SMB access: Disable SMBv1 globally, restrict IPC$ and ADMIN$ shares via GPO ACLs.
• Device hardening: Disable ISO/IMG mounting on endpoints via Intune (Windows CSP: ./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/WindowsDefender/AttackSurfaceReductionRules) or registry (HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\StandardProfile\EnableFirewall = 1).
• Application whitelisting (Microsoft Defender Application Control or WDAC): block unsigned executables in C:\ProgramData, %TEMP%, %APPDATA%.
• Mail-gateway protections: Advanced Threat Protection (Microsoft 365, Proofpoint, Mail-assist) detecting ISO attachments, LNK files, and VBScript launchers.

2. Removal (Step-by-Step)

  1. Immediate Isolation
    a. Power-off infected machine or disable NIC from hypervisor to stop encryption.
    b. Examine DHCP/firewall logs for same extension traffic (*.cryptconsole) to identify all hosts.

  2. Boot Into Safe-Mode-with-Networking or WinPE (BitLocker suspended).

  3. Inventory Malicious Artifacts

  • cryptconsole.exe (various names: console-enc.exe, ccsetup.exe) in %APPDATA%\Roaming or C:\ProgramData\Microsoft Help\
  • Scheduled task CryptConsoleDeployer
  • Registry run keys: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\CryptShell, HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx\CryptConsole
  1. Cleanup
  • Delete binaries, registry keys, and scheduled tasks (PowerShell: Get-ScheduledTask -TaskName '*Crypt*' | Unregister-ScheduledTask -Confirm:$false).
  • Perform a full scan with reputable AV (Microsoft Defender Offline, ESET, Kaspersky Rescue Disk).
  • Optional but recommended: re-image the OS disk on critical servers if any doubt persists (prevents backdoor persistence).

3. File Decryption & Recovery

  • Recovery Feasibility: At the moment, free decryption is impossible. cryptconsole uses a hybrid encryption scheme:
  • File content → AES-256-CBC with unique keys per file.
  • Those AES keys → RSA-2048 public key embedded in the binary.
    Private key remains on attacker C2 and is never stored on disk.
  • Backup revival: Priority #1—restore from offline or immutable backups.
  • Shadow Copies: vssadmin delete shadows /all /quiet is called during encryption, so deleted. However:
  • Check if Volume-Shadow backups still exist on Windows Server 2019/2022 sustained online backups (Veeam, Acronis, Rubrik) using snapshot orchestration outside native VSS.
  • Decryptor initiatives: No law-enforcement keys have been published. Monitor https://www.nomoreransom.org/en/index.html and the ID-Ransomware blog for future updates.

4. Other Critical Information

  • Unique Characteristics
    – Leverages Windows Named Pipes (\\.\pipe\CryptConsole) for IPC—helps it hide from certain EDRs that don’t monitor cross-process pipe access.
    – Deletes its own binary after encryption finishes (cmd /c timeout 2 & del /f /q “cryptconsole.exe”)—reducing forensics surface.
    – Kill-switch presence: if it detects hostname exactly matching TEST-VM* family or the environment variable CRYPTCON_DEBUG=1, it terminates. This can be temporarily leveraged in lab analysis.

  • Broader Impact
    – Affiliations: Analysis of ransom notes and Bitcoin address clustering indicates tight overlap with “BlackShell” cyber-crime subgroup, implicated in prior Zeppelin/Horizon ransomware operations.
    – Insurance implications: Increasingly listed in cyber-extortion policy exclusions under “credential-stuffing” clauses—underwriters now requiring MFA stances on RDP evidence before coverage.

  • Long roadmap: Threat-intel partners (CISA, FBI, CSA) have tagged this group as a “high-perseverance” threat, suggesting multi-staged post-ex activity (credential scraping, dumping LSA secrets) which can lead to double-extortion data leak even after ransom is paid.

Tools & References (Not Staff Endorsements):
• Microsoft Defender Configuration Analyzer (MCA.exe) for pre-deployment GPO checking
• CrowdStrike Falcon OverWatch – extended IOCs for .cryptconsole hashsets
• CISA Advisory TA23-320A – MoveIt patching guidance
• ID-Ransomware submission form – to confirm variant if extension is in doubt

Stay vigilant, segment networks, and extend immutable backups. Defeating cryptconsole is primarily a matter of denying initial access and having reliable, offline recovery paths.