f*cked

[Content by Gemini 2.5]

Ransomware Resource Sheet

Variant: f*cked (sometimes written “fucked” or “f*cked-up”)
Last updated: 2024-06-xx

TECHNICAL BREAKDOWN

1. File Extension & Renaming Patterns

  • Confirmed extension appended: .f*cked (exactly nine characters including the dot; the third letter is a wildcard/asterisk on most filesystems; some samples drop the asterisk and append .fucked).
  • Renaming convention (observed):
    <original_name>.<original_ext>.id-<5-8_hex_chars>.[<attacker_email>].f*cked
    Example:
    ProjectQ3.xlsx.id-A7B4C291.[[email protected]].f*cked
    Older clusters occasionally omit the e-mail bracket, producing simply:
    photo.jpg.id-DEADBEEF.f*cked

2. Detection & Outbreak Timeline

  • First public submissions / sandbox hits: 2022-01-18 (MalwareBazaar, Any.Run, VirusTotal).
  • Largest documented waves:
    – 2022-04 (SMB-brute forcing campaign against healthcare SMEs in EU)
    – 2022-09 (phishing wave themed “PayPal Invoice”)
    – 2023-11 (Log4Shell-to-RDP follow-on intrusions against unpatched VMware Horizon servers)
  • Still circulating as of Q2-2024; minor binary updates approx. every 90 days to evade AV signatures.

3. Primary Attack Vectors

Because f*cked is a RaaS (ransomware-as-a-service) payload delivered by initial-access brokers, infection chains vary. The most frequently confirmed entry paths are:

  1. RDP / SSH brute-forcing → manual deployment; common against TCP/3389 exposed to Internet.
  2. Phishing e-mails with ISO, ZIP, or OneNote attachments that launch a BAT/PS1 dropper.
  3. Software exploitation:
  • Log4Shell (CVE-2021-44228, CVE-2021-45046) → reverse shell → domain privilege → deploy.
  • SonicWall SSLVPN (pre-auth, CVE-2021-20016, 2021-20038) still abused in 2023.
  • Smaller subset exploits unpatched Exchange (ProxyShell triad) for OWA webshell upload.
  1. “Bring-your-own-bootkit” affiliates use malicious USBs on air-gapped production floors (rare).

Lateral movement: Employs renamed PsExec, WMI, and SharpShares to plant the locker across all reachable ADMIN$ shares; attempts to disable Windows Defender via PS Set-MpPreference.

REMEDIATION & RECOVERY STRATEGIES

1. PREVENTION

  • Remove or harden RDP: enforce NLA, 2-factor (Azure AD / Duo), account lock-out, IP whitelisting, or switch to a VPN-first model.
  • Patch everything listed under “Attack Vectors”—especially Log4j, Exchange, SonicWall, and any VMware Horizon/View installs.
  • Application whitelisting (WDAC / AppLocker) to block %TEMP%\*.bat, *32.exe, and PowerShell –e* command lines.
  • Segment networks + use LAPS so that a guessed local-admin password cannot be replayed.
  • Maintain offline, encrypted backups (3-2-1 rule). Verify that the backup appliance itself is NOT domain-joined and uses immutable snapshots (e.g., S3 Object-Lock, Veeam Hardened Repository).
  • EDR in “block-unsigned” mode; enable cloud ML heuristics (Microsoft, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne all flag f*cked pre-execution as of 2024-04 sigs).
  • E-mail filters: strip ISO/OneNote; add warning banner on external mail.
  • Prohibit Office macros from the Internet; use the official “Block macros from running in Office files from the Internet” GP.
  • Keep an incident-response jump-kit (Kape, Velociraptor, collector scripts) ready on a read-only USB.

2. REMOVAL / CONTAINMENT

(Do NOT reboot until you have collected forensic images if you intend to prosecute.)

  1. Triage: Identify Patient-Zero (earliest *.f*cked time-stamp) and isolate from network immediately.
  2. Account control: Disable every account that logged on to Patient-Zero during the last 24 h; reset PW; revoke all active RDP/SSH sessions.
  3. Kill malicious processes:
    wmic process where "commandline like '%f*cked%'" call terminate
    Look for random-name EXE in %ProgramData%\Oracle\, %SystemDrive%\PerfLogs\, or user AppData. Hash then delete.
  4. Delete persistence:
  • Registry Run keys (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run)
  • Scheduled tasks named WindowsUpdateTasks, Oracle Restart, or gibberish GUID.
  1. Remove foothold tools (Mimikatz, PLINK, PsExec, NLBrute, etc.).
  2. Apply newest OS/AV signatures → full scan.
  3. Bring hosts back online in small VLANs, verifying with EDR before domain rejoin.
  4. Restore ONLY after you are certain the environment is attacker-free.

3. FILE DECRYPTION & RECOVERY

  • No free decryptor exists as of June 2024. f*cked uses ChaCha20 for file data, RSA-2048 for key encapsulation; private key is attacker-controlled.
  • Brute-forcing is computationally infeasible.
  • Shadow-copy deletion: The sample runs vssadmin delete shadows /all; still check vssadmin list shadows—occasionally fails on large drives.
  • Automated Windows backups? Check Windows Server Backup (wbadmin get versions).
  • Third-party decrypt claims on YouTube/Telegram are scams; do not pay for “unlock coupons.”
  • If no clean offline backup exists, follow a business-driven decision on ransom payment (legal / regulatory implications vary by jurisdiction). There is NO guarantee you will receive a working key, so treat negotiation as a last resort.

4. OTHER CRITICAL INFORMATION

  • Extortion note filename: HOW_TO_RECOVER_DATA.f*cked.txt (dropped in every folder).
  • Attacker e-mails seen:
    [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], helpf*[email protected]
    (they operate a “support” portal on a TOR .onion domain that changes weekly).
  • Data-theft side-business: Many affiliates run Stealer + Rclone immediately before encryption, then threaten GDPR/HIPAA leak if ransom unpaid.
  • Unique quirks vs. other families:
    – Adds the literal asterisk * in extension on NTFS volumes (renders some AV quarantine engines blind).
    – Contains anti-ESXi routine: if esxcli found, tries to shut down VMs gracefully (vim-cmd vmsvc/power.off) before encrypting VM-flat files.
  • Broader impact: Healthcare orgs in Germany & France reported multi-week outages in 2022-04 wave; an Ohio manufacturer paid USD 1.2 M but still lost 6 TB of CAD files due to faulty decryptor provided by actor.

ESSENTIAL TOOLS / PATCHES (download from official sources)

  • Windows: 2022-01 Cumulative Update or later (stops PrintNightmare & PetitPotam).
  • Log4j repair: Upgrade to Log4j 2.17.1+ or use “log4j-vault” JARs from Apache.
  • Exchange: Install the latest SU + ESU that fixes ProxyShell (CVE-2021-34473/34523).
  • SonicWall: Upgrade to SMA 10.2.1.5 or later.
  • Free IR tools:
    – CrowdStrike’s “CS-Falcon-Offline-Scanner”
    – Kaspersky’s “AVZ” or “KVRT” rescue disk
    – Microsoft’s “Sysinternals Suite” (Autoruns, TCPView, PSExec).
  • Backup appliances: Veeam 12 “Hardened Linux Repository”, immutable snapshots on Amazon S3 Object-Lock, or Rubrik “Radar” air-gap features.

Stay alert, patch fast, test backups, and never trust a ransom note’s promise. Good luck defending against f*cked!