Microsoft introduced on Wednesday that it has disrupted a Vanilla Tempest marketing campaign whose purpose was the deployment of Rhysida ransomware.
Vanilla Tempest, often known as Vice Spider and Vice Society, has been round since not less than 2021, primarily identified for its ransomware assaults on the training and healthcare sectors.
Vice Society had its personal leak web site till 2023, disappearing at across the time when the infamous Rhysida ransomware emerged. The menace group has been identified to deploy numerous file encryptors in its assaults, together with BlackCat, Quantum Locker, and Zeppelin, however not too long ago it has primarily used Rhysida ransomware.
Microsoft stated it disrupted a Vanilla Tempest marketing campaign in early October by revoking greater than 200 certificates utilized by the cybercriminals to signal their malware.
In response to the tech large, the hackers signed pretend Microsoft Groups setup recordsdata designed to put in a backdoor named Oyster, which in flip would allow them to deploy Rhysida ransomware.
The pretend Groups installers had been delivered by means of web sites hosted on domains reminiscent of ‘teams-download.buzz’ and ‘teams-install.run’. Victims had been seemingly lured to those websites by means of search engine optimization poisoning.
When victims ran the pretend Groups setup recordsdata, they executed a loader that downloaded a signed model of the Oyster backdoor, which has been utilized by Vanilla Tempest since not less than June 2025. The cybercriminals began signing the backdoor in early September.
“To fraudulently signal the pretend installers and post-compromise instruments, Vanilla Tempest was noticed utilizing Trusted Signing, in addition to SSL[.]com, DigiCert, and GlobalSign code signing providers,” Microsoft stated.Commercial. Scroll to proceed studying.
Microsoft’s actions make the malware distributed by Vanilla Tempest simpler to detect and block, and the fast affect on the cybercrime operation could also be vital, however the menace actors will seemingly re-arm with new certificates and barely modified ways.
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