Executive Summary

DBSE Threat Intelligence has identified a new ransomware family, designated “CryptoViper,” that has been actively targeting manufacturing companies across India since August 2025. This ransomware employs advanced evasion techniques and has successfully compromised at least 15 organizations in the past month.

Threat Actor Profile

• Name: CryptoViper Group
• First Observed: August 2025
• Primary Target: Manufacturing sector in India
• Motivation: Financial gain
• Sophistication: Medium to High

Attack Methodology

Initial Access

The threat actor primarily gains initial access through:

• Exploitation of unpatched VPN appliances
• Credential stuffing attacks against remote access portals
• Supply chain compromise through third-party software

Persistence

Once inside the network, CryptoViper establishes persistence by:

• Creating scheduled tasks with legitimate-looking names
• Installing backdoors in system directories
• Modifying existing services to include malicious payloads

Lateral Movement

The group employs living-off-the-land techniques for lateral movement:

• WMI and PowerShell for remote execution
• SMB protocol exploitation
• Credential harvesting using Mimikatz variants

Technical Analysis

Ransomware Characteristics

• Encryption Algorithm: AES-256 with RSA-2048 key protection
• File Extensions: .cryptoviper, .viper, .encrypted
• Ransom Note: “README_DECRYPT.txt”
• Payment Method: Bitcoin and Monero

Evasion Techniques

• Process hollowing to hide malicious activities
• DLL side-loading for persistence
• Anti-analysis techniques to prevent reverse engineering
• Selective encryption to speed up the process

Infrastructure Analysis

Command and Control

• Primary C2: manufacturing-updates[.]net
• Backup C2: secure-industrial-portal[.]org
• TOR Hidden Service: crypto3viper7manufacturing.onion

Payment Infrastructure

• Bitcoin Wallet: 1CryptoViperManufacturing123ABC
• Monero Address: 4A1CryptoViperXMRAddress567DEF
• Negotiation Portal: vipertalks[.]onion

Victimology

Analysis of known victims reveals the following patterns:

• Geography: Primarily Indian manufacturing companies
• Sector Focus: Automotive, textile, and electronics manufacturing
• Company Size: Small to medium enterprises (50-500 employees)
• Common Vulnerabilities: Unpatched systems, weak remote access security

Indicators of Compromise

File Hashes

• SHA-256: d1e2f3456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abc
• SHA-256: e2f3456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcd1
• MD5: f3456789abcdef0123456789abcdef01

Network Indicators

• manufacturing-updates[.]net
• secure-industrial-portal[.]org
• 45.123.456.789
• 67.890.123.456

YARA Rules

rule CryptoViper_Ransomware {
    meta:
        author = "DBSE Threat Intelligence"
        date = "2025-09-20"
        description = "Detects CryptoViper ransomware samples"

    strings:
        $s1 = "cryptoviper" nocase
        $s2 = "README_DECRYPT.txt"
        $s3 = "Your files have been encrypted"
        $s4 = { 48 89 E5 48 83 EC 20 C7 45 FC }

    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5A4D and 
        filesize < 5MB and 
        2 of ($s*)
}

Mitigation Recommendations

Immediate Actions

1. Block all identified IoCs at network perimeters
2. Search for indicators across the environment
3. Review and update VPN security configurations
4. Implement additional monitoring for manufacturing systems

Long-term Strategies

• Implement network segmentation for OT/IT systems
• Deploy advanced endpoint detection and response solutions
• Conduct regular penetration testing
• Enhance backup and recovery procedures

Attribution Assessment

Based on our analysis, CryptoViper appears to be a financially-motivated threat group with moderate technical capabilities. While we have not definitively linked this group to any known threat actors, the techniques and infrastructure overlap suggest possible connections to the broader ransomware-as-a-service ecosystem.