Ethical Hacking News
A recent ransomware incident highlights the importance of utilizing multiple data sources during an investigation. Despite limited visibility into the compromised environment, Huntress analysts were able to derive significant information about the threat actor's activities. This case underscores the value of piecing together breadcrumbs from various locations and adopting a pinhole view of the incident to uncover valuable insights.
The Qilin ransomware infection highlights challenges in gathering visibility into compromised environments.Relying on multiple data sources is crucial for unraveling complexities of cybercrimes.Limited visibility can occur due to factors such as incomplete or delayed deployment of security agents.Investigations require piecing together various clues from logs, antivirus detections, and other sources.The use of multiple data sources provides a more accurate picture of the threat actor's activities.
In recent times, cybersecurity experts have encountered numerous challenges while investigating cybercrimes. One such incident that caught the attention of Huntress Labs is the Qilin ransomware infection. The incident highlights the difficulties in gathering visibility into a compromised environment and the importance of utilizing multiple data sources to unravel the complexities of a cybercrime.
A big part of a security analyst's everyday role is piecing together breadcrumbs, whether it's through logs, antivirus detections, or other clues, that help them understand how an attacker achieved initial access and what they did after. However, there are cases where external factors limit visibility. The Huntress agent may not be deployed across all endpoints, or the targeted organization might install the Huntress agent after a compromise has already occurred.
In the case of the Qilin ransomware infection, these challenges were more pronounced than usual. On October 11, an organization installed the Huntress agent post-incident, and initially on one endpoint. This limited visibility into the broader environment's infrastructure, making it essential to look beyond the keyhole and instead rely on a pinhole view of the incident.
The investigation began with the managed antivirus (MAV) alerts that tripped after the ransom note was dropped. Analysts at Huntress Labs started tasking files from the endpoint, beginning with a specific subset of the Windows Event Logs (WEL). The logs revealed that on 8 October 2025, the threat actor accessed the endpoint and installed Total Software Deployment Service, as well as a rogue instance of the ScreenConnect RMM, which pointed to IP address 94.156.232[.]40.
Searching VirusTotal for the IP address provided valuable insights into the nature of the threat actor's actions. Further analysis revealed that LogMeIn was apparently legitimately installed on the endpoint on August 20th from the file %user%\Downloads\LogMeIn.msi, only to be compromised by a rogue ScreenConnect instance a month later.
The timeline of activity also suggested that the threat actor had disabled Windows Defender at 2025-10-11 01:34:21 UTC, resulting in the Windows Defender status being reported as SECURITY_PRODUCT_STATE_SNOOZED. The subsequent events led to multiple Windows Defender detections for attempts to create ransom notes and remediation failures.
The investigation ultimately revealed that the threat actor was interested in determining IP addresses, domains, and usernames associated with RDP accesses to the endpoint. However, their plans were thwarted by the error message "Error Message = File C:\WINDOWS\systemtemp\ScreenConnect\22.10.10924.8404\Files\r.ps1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system."
Despite these setbacks, Huntress analysts were able to obtain hashes for the s.exe and ss.exe files from data sources on the Windows 11 endpoint. The Program Compatibility Assistant (PCA) logs indicated that both files failed to execute, with the PCA resolve indicating a result of 0.
The case highlights the importance of utilizing multiple data sources during an investigation. By piecing together breadcrumbs from various locations, analysts were able to derive a great deal of information regarding the incident. The value of relying on these data sources cannot be overstated, as they provide a much more accurate picture of the threat actor's activities and serve as a foundation for making informed decisions and remediations.
In conclusion, the Qilin ransomware incident underscores the challenges faced by security analysts in gathering visibility into compromised environments. However, it also showcases the power of using multiple data sources to unravel the complexities of a cybercrime. By adopting a pinhole view of the incident, investigators can uncover valuable insights that might otherwise remain hidden.
Related Information:
https://www.ethicalhackingnews.com/articles/A-Pinhole-View-into-Cybercrime-Unraveling-the-Qilin-Ransomware-Incident-ehn.shtml
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/piecing-together-the-puzzle-a-qilin-ransomware-investigation/
Published: Sat Nov 22 13:10:54 2025 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
