The FBI first became aware of RagnarLocker in April 2020 and subsequently produced a FLASH to disseminate known indicators of compromise (IOCs) at that time. This FLASH provides updated and additional IOCs to supplement that report. As of January 2022, the FBI has identified at least 52 entities across 10 critical infrastructure sectors affected by RagnarLocker ransomware, including entities in the critical manufacturing, energy, financial services, government, and information technology sectors. RagnarLocker ransomware actors work as part of a ransomware family, frequently changing obfuscation techniques to avoid detection and prevention.
RagnarLocker is identified by the extension “.RGNR_,” where is a hash of the computer’s NETBIOS name. The actors, identifying themselves as “RAGNAR_LOCKER,” leave a .txt ransom note, with instructions on how to pay the ransom and decrypt the data. RagnarLocker uses VMProtect, UPX, and custom packing algorithms and deploys within an attacker’s custom Windows XP virtual machine on a target’s site.
Ragnar Locker uses Windows API GetLocaleInfoW to identify the location of the infected machine. If the victim location is identified as “Azerbaijani,” “Armenian,” “Belorussian,” “Kazakh,” “Kyrgyz,” “Moldavian,” “Tajik,” “Russian,” “Turkmen,” “Uzbek,” “Ukrainian,” or “Georgian,” the process terminates.
RagnarLocker checks for current infections to prevent multiple transform encryption of the data, potentially corrupting it. The binary gathers the unique machine GUID, operating system product name, and user name currently running the process. This data is sent through a custom hashing algorithm to generate a unique identifier: – — .
RagnarLocker identifies all attached hard drives using Windows APIs: CreateFileW, DeviceIoControl, GetLogicalDrives, and SetVolumeMountPointA. The ransomware assigns a drive letter to any volumes not assigned a logical drive letter and makes them accessible. These newly attached volumes are later encrypted during the final stage of the binary.
RagnarLocker iterates through all running services and terminates services commonly used by managed service providers to remotely administer networks.
