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Home > Cybersecurity > VMware ESXi servers are being targeted by a new ransomware

VMware ESXi servers are being targeted by a new ransomware

A new ransomware named Cheerscrypt is currently targeting the VMware ESXi servers; encrypting and exfiltering the files.


Rusen Gobel Rusen Gobel
May 26, 2022
2 min read
VMware ESXi servers are being targeted by a new ransomware

Trend Micro security analysts have discovered a new Linux-based ransomware that targets the VMware ESXi devices. Currently, the threat actors behind those attacks are unknown. However, some speculations point out the threat actors might be related to or a rebranding of the NightSky ransomware gang.

Starts with killing VM processes

After compromising a target VMware ESXi server, the threat actors run the command line “./chrscrypt /path/xxx/yyy” to specify the path to be encrypted. Then the infection routine begins. The first step of the infection routine is terminating the VM processes by utilizing ESXCLI by implementing the following command line:

esxcli vm process kill –type=force –world-id=$(esxcli vm process list|grep ‘World ID’|awk ‘{print $3}’)

This step is required to make sure that the VMware-related files are encrypted. The files that have been encrypted are renamed get “.Cheers” extension; which is actually done before the encryption process starts. This means if the ransomware fails to rename a file with the new extension, it will now proceed into encrypting the file as well. It is very strange behavior for ransomware. After the target files are encrypted, it creates the ransom note named “How to Restore Your Files.txt”, then follows up with statistics of the process.

Cheerscrpt statistics.

« Cheerscrypt’s executable file contains the public key of a matching key pair with the private key being held by the malicious actor. The ransomware uses SOSEMANUK stream cipher to encrypt files and ECDH to generate the SOSEMANUK key. For each file to encrypt, it generates an ECDH public-private key pair on the machine through Linux’s /dev/urandom. It then uses its embedded public key and the generated private key to create a secret key that will be used as a SOSEMANUK key. After encrypting the file, it will append the generated public key to it. Since the generated private key is not saved, one cannot use the embedded public key with the generated private key to produce the secret key. Therefore, decryption is only possible if the malicious actor’s private key is known »

The threat actors behind the Cheerscrypt ransomware also exfilter the data from target systems in addition to encrypting them. That means the gang threatens the victims by publishing their sensitive data as well; simply a double-extortion scheme.

See more Cybersecurity News


Tags: Trend Micro
Rusen Gobel

Rusen Gobel

Rusen Gobel is a news editor at Cloud7 News. With more than 10 years of experience, Rusen worked as a hardware and software news editor for technology sites such as Shiftdelete, Teknokolis, Hardware Plus, BT Haber. In addition, Rusen publishes consumer product reviews on his YouTube channel. While consumer electronics has been his main focus for years, now Rusen is more interested in WordPress and software development. He had contributed different web application projects in his professional career. Rusen had graduated from Istanbul University, department of Computer Engineering. Rusen has a very high passion for learning and writing for every kind of technology. That's why he has been working as a tech editor for more than ten years on several different technology magazines and online news portals.

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