Cactus Ransomware Group Targets CIE Automotive

Cactus ransomware group has announced an attack against CIE Automotive. The group has not disclosed any information about the information they obtained. CIE Automotive is an industrial group specialised in supplying components and subassemblies for the automotive market and it has presence in 4 continents and 15 countries.

Cactus's Operation Tactics

Cactus has been in operation since at least March 2023. Cactus has been observed employing known vulnerabilities within VPN appliances to initiate an initial breach. Once gaining entry to the network, Cactus operators engage in activities such as enumerating local and network user accounts and identifying accessible endpoints. They then proceed to generate new user accounts and utilize custom scripts for the automated rollout and activation of the ransomware encryptor through scheduled tasks.

Unique Characteristics of the Ransomware

It is noteworthy that the ransomware encryptor utilized by Cactus exhibits a unique characteristic – it necessitates a decryption key for the execution of the binary, likely implemented to evade detection by anti-virus software. This decryption key is concealed within a file containing random text named ntuser.dat, which is loaded through a scheduled task.