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Summary
LockBit (a.k.a. ABCD) emerged in September 2019 and became one of the most relevant RaaS (Ransomware-as-a-Service) groups among others like REvil, BlackMatter, Night Sky, Maze, Conti and Netwalker. The group targets many organizations around the world with a double-extortion scheme, where the attackers steal sensitive data and threaten to leak everything if the ransom is not paid.
The LockBit group was recently the target of two important events. The first one was a DDoS attack that took their websites down for a couple of days. And the second was a leak of the LockBit 3.0 (a.k.a LockBit Black) ransomware builder, which allows anyone to generate the necessary files to build LockBit payloads, such as the encryptor and decryptor. This blog will cover both the timeline and the details of this leak.
Timeline
In June 2021, the RaaS group announced LockBit 2.0, which included a redesigned leak website and code improvements, such as automatically encrypting Windows domains using Active Directory group policies. LockBit was also actively trying to recruit insiders that could help them breach and infect corporate networks.
In June 2022, LockBit announced a 3.0 version (a.k.a. LockBit Black) becoming the first RaaS group to offer a bug bounty program, paying security researchers between $1,000 up to $1 million for security vulnerabilities found in the website or in the ransomware software. They also announced a payment for any “brilliant ideas” that could aid the group to improve their operation.
Furthermore, the third version also introduced code in the website that was indicating a new extortion model, where people would be able to buy stolen data leaked on their website. This new version also included code improvements, such as new anti-analysis features.
In August 2022, LockBit suffered a DDoS attack that shut down their websites for an entire weekend, supposedly in response to an attack made against the Entrust company, according to a message left in DDoS HTTPS requests. In the same month, LockBit announced improvements in their defenses against DDoS attacks, such as using unique links in the ransom notes for the victims. Also, they announced that they were taking the operation to a triple extortion method, by performing DDoS attacks against victims who refuse to pay the ransom on top of leaking or selling the stolen data.
In September 2022, a newly registered Twitter account claimed that their team was able to hack LockBit servers and find the LockBit 3.0 ransomware builder, sharing a download link to the files. It was found later that this leak was not the result of an attack, but leaked by a developer who was disappointed with LockBit leadership.
Netskope Threat Labs confirmed that the files leaked by this Twitter account are indeed the builder of LockBit 3.0, as we will show later in this post. LockBit 3.0 remains active despite this leak, as we can still observe recent activ