The Cactus Ransomware Gang's Attack on MINEMAN Systems

The Cactus ransomware gang has attacked MINEMAN Systems. MINEMAN Systems is an integrated commodities management solutions provider headquartered in South Melbourne, Victoria. Mining companies use MINEMAN to sell metals. MINEMAN Systems operates around the world, and is widely used in the mining sector, allowing companies to easily connect with one another. MINEMAN Systems has been in business for over 20 years. Cactus posted MINEMAN Systems to its data leak site on September 5th but provided no further details.

Cactus's Operations

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.

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.