Incident Report – March 2024

Event

Acme Corp was compromised by a ransomware attack. The point of the initial compromise has not been confirmed. The COO was on‑site on Saturday and noticed the ACME‑Host machine actively running unauthorized applications from the bad actors. The ACME‑Host machine runs a vendor inventory service. The COO contacted IT immediately and promptly disconnected the network access to the server.

Response

On‑Premises Response

Saturday

Disconnected all public network access and re‑configured remote access for IT personnel
Started the backup‑restoration process for the ACME‑Host server
Started identification, detection, and analysis of the affected endpoints
Local restore of user PCs to check the status of available restore points

Sunday

Setup access between warehouse and front‑office network switches
Disabled SSL‑VPN access, disabled RDP access
Cleaned up Active Directory
Restored affected servers
Ran a malware scan on affected servers – discovered the trojan inserted by the bad actor
Tested restore points across devices to verify an uninfected state
Identification and analysis of malware on ACME‑Host

Monday

Eradication of ransomware – wiped affected endpoints and reinstalled OS
Restoration of network access

Tuesday

Eradication & recovery – set up network access for sanitized PCs and provided requested utilities
Bitdefender policy assessment with Bitdefender Labs

Wednesday

Eradication & recovery – continued network setup for sanitized PCs
Information gathering from ACME‑Host

Thursday & Friday

Eradication & recovery – ongoing network setup for sanitized PCs and utility provisioning

Remote Response

Bitdefender Antimalware team contacted – Saturday
Bitdefender system logs collected & sent to analysis team – Saturday & Sunday
Bitdefender system logs collected from ACME‑Host server – Monday
Bitdefender meetings with product managers & IT – Monday – Thursday
Third‑party vendor contacted to restore the database and functionality
Triage of user machines that could not be sanitized on‑premises

Conclusion – What We Know

The attack vector was 8Base, a newer ransomware variant derived from the Phobos family.
The initial compromise occurred via a Trojan found on the server.
Encrypted files carry the “.8base” extension.
The malware corrupted Windows restore points, forcing a complete system wipe.
Off‑site backups allowed all critical servers to be restored within 48 hours of the initial compromise, with no critical data loss.

Incident Report – March 2024