SASE Week 2023 On-Demand! Explore sessions.

  • Security Service Edge Products

    Protect against advanced and cloud-enabled threats and safeguard data across all vectors.

  • Borderless SD-WAN

    Confidently provide secure, high-performance access to every remote user, device, site, and cloud.

The platform of the future is Netskope

Intelligent Security Service Edge (SSE), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), Cloud Firewall, Next Generation Secure Web Gateway (SWG), and Private Access for ZTNA built natively into a single solution to help every business on its journey to Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture.

Go to Products Overview
Netskope video
Borderless SD-WAN: Ushering in the New Era of Borderless Enterprise

Netskope Borderless SD-WAN offers an architecture that converges zero trust principles and assured application performance to provide unprecedented secure, high-performance connectivity for every site, cloud, remote user, and IoT device.

Read the article
Borderless SD-WAN
  • NewEdge

    NewEdge is the world’s largest, highest-performing security private cloud.

  • Cloud Security Platform

    Unrivaled visibility and real-time data and threat protection on the world's largest security private cloud.

  • Technology Partners & Integrations

    Netskope partners with the strongest companies in enterprise technology.

Embrace a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture

Netskope NewEdge is the world’s largest, highest-performing security private cloud and provides customers with unparalleled service coverage, performance and resilience.

Learn about NewEdge
NewEdge
Your Network of Tomorrow

Plan your path toward a faster, more secure, and more resilient network designed for the applications and users that you support.

Get the white paper
Your Network of Tomorrow
Netskope Cloud Exchange

The Netskope Cloud Exchange (CE) provides customers with powerful integration tools to leverage investments across their security posture.

Learn about Cloud Exchange
Netskope video
Make the move to market-leading cloud security services with minimal latency and high reliability.

Learn about NewEdge
Lighted highway through mountainside switchbacks
Safely enable the use of generative AI applications with application access control, real-time user coaching, and best-in-class data protection.

Learn how we secure generative AI use
Safely Enable ChatGPT and Generative AI
Zero trust solutions for SSE and SASE deployments

Learn about Zero Trust
Boat driving through open sea
Netskope enables a safe, cloud-smart, and fast journey to adopt cloud services, apps, and public cloud infrastructure.

Learn about Industry Solutions
Wind turbines along cliffside
  • Resources

    Learn more about how Netskope can help you secure your journey to the cloud.

  • Blog

    Learn how Netskope enables security and networking transformation through security service edge (SSE).

  • Events & Workshops

    Stay ahead of the latest security trends and connect with your peers.

  • Security Defined

    Everything you need to know in our cybersecurity encyclopedia.

Security Visionaries Podcast

Unveiling the Under-reported Aspects of AI
Emily Wearmouth sits down with Neil Thacker, EMEA CISO, Yihua Liao, Head of Netskope AI Labs, and Suzanne Oliver, Director of IP Strategy at Scintilla, to discuss the topics in the realm of AI that they each wish people were discussing more.

Play the podcast
Unveiling the Under-reported Aspects of AI Social card
Latest Blogs

How Netskope can enable the Zero Trust and SASE journey through security service edge (SSE) capabilities.

Read the blog
Sunrise and cloudy sky
SASE Week 2023: Your SASE journey starts now!

Replay sessions from the fourth annual SASE Week.

Explore sessions
SASE Week 2023
What is Security Service Edge?

Explore the security side of SASE, the future of network and protection in the cloud.

Learn about Security Service Edge
Four-way roundabout
  • Our Customers

    Netskope serves more than 2,000 customers worldwide including more than 25 of the Fortune 100

  • Customer Solutions

    We are here for you and with you every step of the way, ensuring your success with Netskope.

  • Netskope Community

    Learn from other network, data, and security professionals.

  • Training and Certification

    Netskope training will help you become a cloud security expert.

We help our customers to be Ready for Anything

See our Customers
Woman smiling with glasses looking out window
Netskope’s talented and experienced Professional Services team provides a prescriptive approach to your successful implementation.

Learn about Professional Services
Netskope Professional Services
The Netskope Community can help you and your team get more value out of products and practices.

Go to the Netskope Community
The Netskope Community
Secure your digital transformation journey and make the most of your cloud, web, and private applications with Netskope training.

Learn about Training and Certifications
Group of young professionals working
  • Company

    We help you stay ahead of cloud, data, and network security challenges.

  • Why Netskope

    Cloud transformation and work from anywhere have changed how security needs to work.

  • Leadership

    Our leadership team is fiercely committed to doing everything it takes to make our customers successful.

  • Partners

    We partner with security leaders to help you secure your journey to the cloud.

Supporting sustainability through data security

Netskope is proud to participate in Vision 2045: an initiative aimed to raise awareness on private industry’s role in sustainability.

Find out more
Supporting Sustainability Through Data Security
Highest in Execution. Furthest in Vision.

Netskope recognized as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Security Service Edge.

Get the report
Netskope recognized as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Security Service Edge.
Thinkers, builders, dreamers, innovators. Together, we deliver cutting-edge cloud security solutions to help our customers protect their data and people.

Meet our team
Group of hikers scaling a snowy mountain
Netskope’s partner-centric go-to-market strategy enables our partners to maximize their growth and profitability while transforming enterprise security.

Learn about Netskope Partners
Group of diverse young professionals smiling

Netskope Threat Coverage: Prestige Ransomware

Nov 18 2022

Summary

In October 2022, a novel ransomware named Prestige was found targeting logistics and transportation sectors in Ukraine and Poland. According to Microsoft, victims affected by Prestige overlap with previous victims targeted by HermeticWiper, spotted in February 2022. 

The research also shows that the attackers deployed the ransomware within an hour between all victims, abusing highly privileged domain credentials to deploy the payload. Prestige also appeared among the top five ransomware families blocked by Netskope in October 2022.

In November 2022, a new research linked Prestige ransomware with a Russian-based threat actor known as IRIDIUM, which overlaps with Sandworm, another threat group that is linked to destructive attacks since the war started in Ukraine. In this blog post, we will show how Prestige ransomware works.

Analysis 

The sample we analyzed was likely compiled on October 7, 2022 and it’s written in C/C++.

Screenshot of Prestige ransomware binary details.
Prestige ransomware binary details.

Once executed, Prestige creates its ransom note named “README” in the “C:\Users\Public” folder. The note is also created in folders where there are files encrypted by this ransomware.

Example of part of the routine that creates Prestige ransom note.
Part of the routine that creates Prestige ransom note.

Prestige then modifies the Windows registry to make notepad open the ransom note every time an “.enc” file is opened, using the following commands:

  • C:\Windows\System32\reg.exe add HKCR\.enc /ve /t REG_SZ /d enc /f
  • C:\Windows\System32\reg.exe add HKCR\enc\shell\open\command /ve /t REG_SZ /d \”C:\Windows\Notepad.exe C:\Users\Public\README\” /f
Example of Prestige registering the “.enc” extension via Windows Registry.
Prestige registering the “.enc” extension via Windows Registry.

Prestige tries to stop the MSSQL Windows service to avoid issues during the encryption of the files, by running the following command:

  • C:\Windows\System32\net.exe stop MSSQLSERVER
Screenshot of Prestige stopping MSSQL service
Prestige stopping MSSQL service

Then, the ransomware starts the encryption process by searching files with specific extensions, which can be found below.

.1cd, .7z, .abk, .accdb, .accdc, .accde, .accdr, .alz, .apk, .apng, .arc, .asd, .asf, .asm, .asx, .avhd, .avi, .avif, .bac, .backup, .bak, .bak2, .bak3, .bh, .bkp, .bkup, .bkz, .bmp, .btr, .bz, .bz2, .bzip, .bzip2, .c, .cab, .cer, .cf, .cfu, .cpp, .crt, .css, .db, .db-wal, .db3, .dbf, .der, .dmg, .dmp, .doc, .docm, .docx, .dot, .dotm, .dotx, .dpx, .dsk, .dt, .dump, .dz, .ecf, .edb, .epf, .exb, .ged, .gif, .gpg, .gzi, .gzip, .hdd, .img, .iso, .jar, .java, .jpeg, .jpg, .js, .json, .kdb, .key, .lz, .lz4, .lzh, .lzma, .mdmr, .mkv, .mov, .mp3, .mp4, .mpeg, .myd, .nude, .nvram, .oab, .odf, .ods, .old, .ott, .ovf, .p12, .pac, .pdf, .pem, .pfl, .pfx, .php, .pkg, .png, .pot, .potm, .potx, .pps, .ppsm, .ppsx, .ppt, .pptm, .pptx, .prf, .pvm, .py, .qcow, .qcow2, .r0, .rar, .raw, .rz, .s7z, .sdb, .sdc, .sdd, .sdf, .sfx, .skey, .sldm, .sldx, .sql, .sqlite, .svd, .svg, .tar, .taz, .tbz, .tbz2, .tg, .tib, .tiff, .trn, .txt, .txz, .tz, .vb, .vbox, .vbox-old, .vbox-prev, .vdi, .vdx, .vhd, .vhdx, .vmc, .vmdk, .vmem, .vmsd, .vmsn, .vmss, .vmx, .vmxf, .vsd, .vsdx, .vss, .vst, .vsx, .vtx, .wav, .wbk, .webp, .wmdb, .wmv, .xar, .xlm, .xls, .xlsb, .xlsm, .xlsx, .xlt, .xltm, .xltx, .xlw, .xz, .z, .zbf, .zip, .zipx, .zl, .zpi, .zz

Screenshot of part of the targeted extensions by Prestige.
Part of the targeted extensions by Prestige.

This ransomware skips the encryption process in the  folders “C:\Windows” and “C:\ProgramData\Microsoft“.

Screenshot of paths that Prestige ignores the encryption process.
Paths that Prestige ignores the encryption process.

Prestige encrypts the files with AES using the Crypto++ library. The malware then uses RSA to protect the key, which is a common behavior among ransomware.

Screenshot of public RSA key used by the ransomware we analyzed.
Public RSA key used by the ransomware we analyzed.

Furthermore, Prestige abuses both wbadmin and vssadmin utilities to delete backup and volume shadow copies on the system, using the following commands:

  • C:\Windows\System32\wbadmin.exe delete catalog -quiet
  • C:\Windows\System32\vssadmin.exe delete shadows /all /quiet
Screenshot of Prestige executing commands to delete backups and volume shadow copies.
Prestige executing commands to delete backups and volume shadow copies.

As previously mentioned, Prestige adds the “.enc” extension to encrypted files. If the victim tries to open any of these files, then the ransom note is displayed via Notepad.

Unlike other ransomware groups, like BlackCat or LockBit, Prestige doesn’t provide a website hosted on the deep web as a contact point. Instead, they ask the victim to send an email to a Proton address, along with an ID for identification.

Conclusion

As the war in Ukraine continues to develop, we should expect more threats like the Prestige ransomware targeting Ukrainian citizens and allies. Because the attackers behind this threat were found to be abusing highly privileged credentials, we strongly recommend organizations to revisit password policies and enable MFA to mitigate abuse in compromised accounts. 

Furthermore, ransomware groups often use Living-off-the-Land techniques to carry out attacks, such as abusing PsExec or WMI. Thus, we recommend blocking process creation sourced from these tools, as well as using tools like SIGMA to monitor possible Living-off-the-Land abuse. Using a secure web gateway is also strongly recommended to be able to identify and block web traffic related to threats like Prestige in real time.

Protection

Netskope Threat Labs is actively monitoring this campaign and has ensured coverage for all known threat indicators and payloads. 

  • Netskope Threat Protection
    • Win32.Ransomware.Prestige
  • Netskope Advanced Threat Protection provides proactive coverage against this threat.
    • Gen.Malware.Detect.By.StHeur indicates a sample that was detected using static analysis
    • Gen.Malware.Detect.By.Sandbox indicates a sample that was detected by our cloud sandbox

IOCs

All the IOCs related to this campaign and a Yara rule can be found in our GitHub repository.

author image
Gustavo Palazolo
Gustavo Palazolo is an expert in malware analysis, reverse engineering and security research, working many years in projects related to electronic fraud protection. He is currently working on the Netskope Research Team, discovering and analyzing new malware threats.

Stay informed!

Subscribe for the latest from the Netskope Blog