A newly identified ransomware operation named Payload has emerged as a growing cyber threat targeting both Windows and VMware ESXi environments. The group is actively conducting double-extortion attacks that involve data exfiltration followed by encryption and public leak threats. Early activity indicates that mid-to-large organizations across multiple sectors are already being impacted globally. Technical analysis of the Payload ransomware reveals significant code reuse from the Babuk ransomware family, particularly in its cryptographic implementation. The Windows variant uses Curve25519 Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) for secure key exchange and ChaCha20 for file encryption. Unique per-file encryption keys and nonces are generated using Windows CryptGenRandom APIs and wiped from memory after use, making forensic recovery difficult. The ransomware demonstrates strong dual-platform capability. A feature-rich Windows PE binary compiled with Microsoft Visual C++ targets enterprise endpoints, while a lightweight stripped ELF variant is designed specifically for VMware ESXi hypervisors. The ESXi build encrypts virtual machine disks by parsing inventory data and leveraging threaded execution for faster impact across virtualized environments. Researchers observed detection challenges, as several security engines initially misclassified Payload as Babuk due to structural similarities. Despite this overlap, there is currently no confirmed evidence of a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) infrastructure such as affiliate panels or public builders.
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