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2 MIN READ

News



RA RANSOMWARE GROUP EMERGES WITH CUSTOM SPIN ON BABUK

The freshly minted ransomware gang is customizing leaked Babuk source code to go
after cyber targets in the US and South Korea — and it's expanding its
operations quickly.
Tara Seals
Managing Editor, News, Dark Reading
May 15, 2023
Source: JLStock via Shutterstock
PDF


A newly discovered ransomware gang dubbed RA Group is ramping up its
cyberattacks — the latest in a line of threat actors leveraging the leaked Babuk
source code. The group distinguishes itself from the rest of the Babuk pack,
however, with a highly customized approach.



According to an analysis from Cisco Talos this week, RA Group opened shop on
April 22 and has been rapidly expanding its operations ever since. So far, it's
gone after organizations in the US and South Korea in the manufacturing, wealth
management, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries.

By way of background, the full source code for the Babuk ransomware was leaked
online in September 2021, and since then several new threat actors have used it
to go into the ransomware business. In particular, several have used it to
develop lockers for VMware ESXi hypervisors — over the past year, 10 different
ransomware families have gone that route.

Others have customized the code in other ways, taking advantage of the fact that
it is built to exploit several known vulnerabilities, including those found in
Microsoft Exchange, Struts, WordPress, Atlassian Confluence, Oracle WebLogic
Server, SolarWinds Orion, Liferay, and others.



"By reusing code written by others and leaked, these groups are reducing their
development time significantly and possibly even incorporating features they
would otherwise have been unable to create themselves," Erich Kron, security
awareness advocate at KnowBe4, said in an emailed comment. 

He added, "In the last few years, especially after ransomware-as-a-service
(RaaS) offerings became popular, it's become very clear that you do not have to
be a technical marvel to play in the cybercrime and extortion game. Simply using
other people's code, through a subscription or through leaks such as this, with
minor modifications can get just about anyone equipped to carry out attacks."


RA GROUP'S UNIQUE TAKE ON BABUK

In RA Group's case, it's using a typical double-extortion model in which it
threatens to leak exfiltrated data if the victim doesn't pay the ransom;
however, according to the ransom note, victims have just three days to pay up.

That's not the only tweak to known playbooks the group is employing. "In their
leak site, RA Group discloses the name of the victim's organization, a list of
their exfiltrated data and the total size, and the victim’s official URL, which
is typical among other ransomware groups’ leak sites," according to Cisco Talos'
analysis of the ransomware group. But in a twist, the "RA Group is also selling
the victim’s exfiltrated data on their leak site by hosting the victims’ leaked
data on a secured Tor site."



Despite the RA Group's spin on ransomware, the basics remain effective when it
comes to defending against the threat: Organizations should make sure their
environments are patched and up to date, continually monitor their networks for
any signs of malicious activity (and ensure their security tools are updated
with the latest indicators of compromise), and ensure they have effective backup
and recovery procedures in place in the event of a successful attack.

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