Description

During the second half of 2022 and the early part of 2023, SentinelLabs found at least nine more Babuk-based ransomware variants that target VMware ESXi machines in the wild. Early in 2021, the Babuk ransomware operation first surfaced and started double-extorting enterprises. When the source code for the Babuk ransomware gang was made public in September 2021 by a Russian-speaking hacker website, it contained VMware ESXi, NAS, Windows, and certain encryptors and decryptors created specifically for the gang's victims. SentinelLabs noticed a spike in the habit of threat actors with little resources using this Babuk builder to develop ESXi and Linux ransomware. Play, Mario, Conti POC, REvil (also known as Revix), Rorschach (also known as BabLock), Lock4, Cylance ransomware, Dataf Locker, and RTM Locker are just a few of the new ransomware families that are anticipated to begin using Babuk-based ESXi encryptors in the second half of 2022. Researchers said that several threat actors were able to target Linux computers with their own unique ransomware strains using Babuk's disclosed constructor, even though they lacked the technical know-how to do so. Furthermore, the Babuk ransomware operation is no longer active due to unwanted attention from US law enforcement when it attacked Washington DC's Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in April 2021, causing the group members to split, with the admin launching the Ramp cybercrime forum and other core members relaunching the Babuk V2 ransomware.