Feds Share Threat Intelligence on Play Ransomware Operation
A joint cybersecurity advisory has been issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD’s ACSC) about Play ransomware, aka Playcrypt. Play ransomware is believed to be a closed group rather than a ransomware-as-a-service operation and has been active since June 2022. The Play ransomware group engages in double extortion tactics, exfiltrating sensitive data before encrypting files. The stolen data is used as leverage to get victims to pay the ransom. Victims are required to contact the group via email to find out how much they must pay to prevent the release of stolen data on the group’s data leak site and to obtain the keys to decrypt data.
From June 2022 until October 2023, the Play ransomware group is known to have conducted at least 300 attacks on organizations around the world, including critical infrastructure in the United States. An analysis of the operation by Trend Micro in July 2023 found that 13.9% of victims of Play ransomware attacks were in the healthcare sector, with most attacks conducted on organizations in the United States. The group uses a variety of methods to gain initial access to victims’ networks, including abusing valid accounts and exploiting vulnerabilities in public-facing applications. The group has previously exploited vulnerabilities in FortiOS (CVE-2018-13379 and CVE-2020-12812) and the ProxyNotShell vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange (CVE-2022-41040 and CVE-2022-41082), and in some attacks has used Remote Desktop Protocol and VPNs for initial access. Once initial access has been gained, the group uses tools such as Cobalt Strike, PsExec, and SystemBC for file execution and lateral movement, Mimikatz for credential theft, and WinSCP for data exfiltration.
The cybersecurity alert includes details of the MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques used by the group, Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) from attacks as recent as October 2023, and recommended mitigations for hardening defenses. These include implementing multifactor authentication, keeping software, operating systems, and firmware up to date, segmenting networks to hamper attempts at lateral movement, filtering network traffic, disabling unused ports, and regularly conducting reviews of logs of systems activity and audits of user accounts.
