Custom Ransomware: Static Code Analysis

Описание: Disclaimer:
The content presented here is intended solely for cybersecurity education, defensive research, red‑team simulation, and historical case‑study analysis. Nothing in this material is designed, intended, or authorized to support illegal, destructive, or disruptive activity of any kind. All demonstrations, proof‑of‑concepts, or simulations must be executed only inside a fully controlled, isolated lab environment owned by the practitioner.

To the best of publicly available knowledge and my personal recollection, the United States government has never officially endorsed, authorized, or operationalized tactics such as hoax bomb threats, coercive misinformation operations, destructive wiper deployments, or similar destabilizing actions described in comparative case studies herein. Any reference to such tactics is made strictly for the purposes of threat intelligence analysis and does not imply U.S. participation or approval.

Several foreign state‑aligned threat actors, however, have been publicly attributed—by international security firms, CERT organizations, and government advisories—to major offensive cyber operations. Examples include:

Pakistan (ISI):
Well known for at least a decade of creating hoax bomb threats against their adversaries to cause confusion and cloak actual kinetic attacks.

North Korea (DPRK):
Implicated in financially and operationally disruptive attacks such as WannaCry (2017), which spread globally and caused extensive economic damage.

Iran:
Attributed to multiple destructive campaigns involving wipers and ICS‑targeting malware against regional adversaries, including incidents affecting Saudi Arabia’s industrial and energy sectors.

Russia (SVR / APT29):
Publicly linked to the SolarWinds supply‑chain compromise, among other sophisticated long‑term cyber‑espionage operations.

My earlier book, Ultimate Cyberwarfare for Evasive Cyber Tactics, drew heavily on case studies modeled after SVR‑style tradecraft, a fact I have repeatedly discussed in interviews and podcasts.
These analyses remain strictly observational and are intended to help defenders understand advanced adversary behavior.

All geopolitical references are derived from publicly available threat‑intelligence reporting and are used purely for educational and analytical purposes. They do not advocate replication of any offensive action and should be interpreted solely as context for understanding modern cybersecurity threats.

Hybrid Warfare & Cyber Intro

0:03–0:30 – Introduction to first hybrid warfare lesson and rationale for open-sourcing lower-tier ransomware.

0:34–1:17 – Cyber report overview: no anonymous web defacements, OT/ICS system training, Triton report discussion.

1:46–2:09 – Using ransomware as a tool for ideological disruption; examples of encoding ransom notes.

Ransomware Source Code & Mechanics

2:16–3:11 – Overview of source code, generating and dropping ransom notes.

3:19–4:11 – XOR decoding, encoding ransom notes, maintaining Windows system stability, preventing encryption of critical files (executables, scripts, COM objects, shortcuts, installer files).

5:03–6:26 – Session ID generation, static machine key, using preferred random number generators.

6:33–7:40 – Hex key creation, storing session data, sending to C2 server.

7:27–9:52 – Cloudflare worker setup, host reconnaissance: internal/external IP, MAC address, Windows version, RAM, virtualization detection.

Text Encoding & HTTP Handling

9:46–10:38 – Multibyte, UTF-8, UTF-16 little-endian Windows text formatting; handling potential bugs.

10:59–12:12 – String formatting functions: splitting/joining URLs, forming POST requests to Cloudflare worker, HTTPS/TLS explanation.

12:26–14:53 – Sending session data, success/failure handling (HTTP 200, zero/one flags), debugging tips.

Hex Keys & DLL / Reflective Injection

15:00–16:39 – Hexadecimal key generation wrapper; DLL risks and usage for L-bin or reflective DLL injection (SRDI).

16:43–17:07 – Ransom note logic recap, scanning overview.

Threading & Encryption

17:10–19:06 – Encryption process: creating up to 500 threads, iterating through drives C:–Z:, recursive directory scanning, handling protected extensions, deleting original files.

19:20–20:01 – Shadow copy deletion: creating 64 threads to prevent key recovery.

Payload Limitations & Forensics

20:08–21:51 – Payload simplicity and potential improvements (RSA/AES hybrid approach), ensuring unrecoverable files, bypassing wear leveling on SSDs.

21:51 – Walkthrough setup for ransomware execution demonstration.