Individual skill
investigating-ransomware-attack-artifacts
Identify, collect, and analyze ransomware attack artifacts to determine the variant, initial access vector, encryption scope, and recovery options.
internal/tools/skills/data/digital-forensics/investigating-ransomware-attack-artifacts/SKILL.md
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- Last checked
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- cybersecurity Repository topic
- security Repository topic
- bug-bounty Repository topic
- automation Repository topic
- autonomous-pentesting Repository topic
- ai-agent Repository topic
- ai-security Repository topic
- ethical-hacking Repository topic
- golang Repository topic
- penetration-testing Repository topic
- forensics Declared skill tag
- ransomware Declared skill tag
- malware-analysis Declared skill tag
- incident-response Declared skill tag
- encryption-recovery Declared skill tag
- evidence-collection Declared skill tag
- engineering Derived category
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# Investigating Ransomware Attack Artifacts
## When to Use
- Immediately after discovering ransomware encryption on systems
- When performing forensic analysis to understand the full scope of a ransomware incident
- For identifying the ransomware variant and determining if decryption is possible
- When tracing the attack chain from initial access to encryption
- For documenting evidence to support law enforcement and insurance claims
## Detection Gaps & Validation
- **Variant ID by extension alone is unreliable.** Affiliates and copycats reuse extensions and note names, and many families append random or per-victim extensions. Confirm the family from **multiple signals** — ransom note layout + an encrypted sample submitted to ID Ransomware/No More Ransom + binary hash — never the extension by itself.
- **Shadow-copy deletion: look for the act, not just the absence.** Search Prefetch/4688/Sysmon for `vssadmin delete shadows`, `wmic shadowcopy delete`, `wbadmin delete`, and `bcdedit /set recoveryenabled no`. Missing VSS plus the deletion command is the proof; missing VSS alone is ambiguous.
- **Keys are volatile.** AES/RSA key material may only exist in RAM — if the host was rebooted before imaging, memory key recovery is off the table. This is why "do not power off" precedes triage.
- **Intermittent/partial encryption** (LockBit, BlackCat, Play) leaves portions of files intact and recoverable; do not assume total loss without inspecting file structure.