Ethical Hacking News
A new ransomware family called GodDamn has been identified, leveraging the PoisonX kernel driver as part of its evasion strategy. This attack marks an escalation in defensive evasion capabilities by the Hyadina group, indicating a continued development of their ransomware and capabilities. As cybersecurity professionals, it is essential to stay informed about emerging threats like GodDamn ransomware and maintain robust endpoint defenses to counter these sophisticated attacks.
The GodDamn ransomware family has been tracking by cybersecurity researchers for its innovative evasion tactics, including the use of the PoisonX kernel driver. The attackers rebranded the Beast ransomware as GodDamn, which is believed to be a rebranding of the Monster ransomware. The GodDamn ransomware operation used AnyDesk for remote access and a NirSoft-based credential harvesting toolkit to extract sensitive data. The PoisonX driver was signed by Microsoft, indicating an unusual level of sophistication on the part of its developers. The attackers' reliance on vulnerable drivers is a hallmark of their approach, allowing them to neutralize security software or strip away essential rights from security products. The attack sequence employed by GodDamn ransomware involved using PsExec for lateral movement and setting up AnyDesk as an auto-start Windows service.
In recent months, cybersecurity researchers have been tracking a new ransomware family called GodDamn, which has garnered significant attention for its innovative evasion tactics. The malicious actors behind this ransomware have leveraged the PoisonX kernel driver to neutralize security software as part of their defense evasion strategy, marking an escalation in the sophistication of their attacks.
According to a report published by the Threat Hunter Team from Symantec, the GodDamn ransomware was first publicly spotted in the wild on May 21, 2026. It is assessed to be a rebrand of the Beast ransomware, which in turn was an enhanced version of Monster, a Delphi-based ransomware that surfaced in March 2022. Broadcom's cybersecurity arm has traced the developer behind these ransomware families under the moniker Hyadina.
The GodDamn ransomware operation employed AnyDesk for remote access and utilized a NirSoft-based credential harvesting toolkit to extract sensitive data from common web browsers, Windows Credential Manager, cached domain credentials, VNC sessions, email clients, Wi-Fi profiles, and live network traffic. Additionally, the attackers used a user-mode defense evasion tool disguised as a Symantec product ("symantec.exe") along with the PoisonX kernel driver ("g11.sys") to disable endpoint defenses in what is known as a bring your own vulnerable driver (BYOVD) attack.
The PoisonX driver stands out for being a malicious driver that was successfully signed by Microsoft, indicating an unusual level of sophistication on the part of its developers. It has been adopted by the operators of The Gentlemen ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) scheme in its custom GentleKiller tool to impair system defenses prior to executing the encryptor.
The attackers' reliance on vulnerable drivers is a hallmark of their approach, as Broadcom notes that "vulnerable drivers are the attacker's most reliable route in." By exploiting this vulnerability, the attackers can load a flawed but validly signed driver onto the target machine and have it automatically loaded by Windows. This allows them to neutralize security software or strip away essential rights from security products, rendering them ineffective.
The attack sequence employed by GodDamn ransomware is also noteworthy for its use of PsExec to facilitate lateral movement and setting up AnyDesk on each reachable host, registering it as an auto-start Windows service to survive reboots. In some instances, the entire AnyDesk setup was handled by a pre-staged PowerShell script, indicating the use of a reusable installer to streamline the process.
The deployment sequence, which involved terminating the running AnyDesk process, waiting briefly, and then rebooting the machine, was repeated across at least 10 hosts within the targeted organization by the end of June 2. This indicates a high level of organization and coordination among the attackers.
CYFIRMA's report on GodDamn ransomware noted that its use of the PoisonX malicious driver component represents an escalation in defensive evasion capability by this group, signifying that Hyadina is actively developing its ransomware and capabilities. This development highlights the ongoing cat-and-mouse game between cybersecurity professionals and sophisticated attackers.
In conclusion, the case of GodDamn ransomware serves as a stark reminder of the evolving threat landscape in the world of cybersecurity. As attackers continually adapt and refine their tactics, it falls to security experts to remain vigilant and develop effective countermeasures. The innovative use of the PoisonX driver by GodDamn ransomware underscores the importance of staying informed about emerging threats and maintaining robust endpoint defenses.
Related Information:
https://www.ethicalhackingnews.com/articles/Unveiling-the-Sophisticated-Evasion-Tactics-of-GodDamn-Ransomware-A-Case-Study-on-Defense-Evasion-via-PoisonX-Driver-ehn.shtml
https://thehackernews.com/2026/07/goddamn-ransomware-uses-poisonx-driver.html
Published: Thu Jul 9 07:49:22 2026 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
