SYMBOLCOMMON_NAMEaka. SYNONYMS
win.hunters_international (Back to overview)

Hunters International

Actor(s): Storm-0501

VTCollection    

Emerging in Q3 2023 as a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) operation, Hunters International has established itself as a distinct yet controversial threat actor in the cybercrime ecosystem. While initial analysis revealed a code overlap with the dismantled Hive ransomware, the group claims independence, asserting it purchased Hive’s source code rather than directly rebranding. This operational lineage enables advanced double-extortion campaigns prioritizing data exfiltration over encryption, with confirmed theft of medical records, financial data, and proprietary business information. The group's ransomware is written in Rust, a programming language favored for its resilience to reverse engineering and cross-platform compatibility.

References
2025-03-05Trend MicroTrendmicro
Water Ouroboros
Hunters International SharpRhino
2023-10-20Twitter (@rivitna2)rivitna
Tweet on first ITW appearance of Hunters International Ransomware
Hunters International
Yara Rules
[TLP:WHITE] win_hunters_international_auto (20260504 | Detects win.hunters_international.)
rule win_hunters_international_auto {

    meta:
        author = "Felix Bilstein - yara-signator at cocacoding dot com"
        date = "2026-05-04"
        version = "1"
        description = "Detects win.hunters_international."
        info = "autogenerated rule brought to you by yara-signator"
        tool = "yara-signator v0.6.0"
        signator_config = "callsandjumps;datarefs;binvalue"
        malpedia_reference = "https://malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de/details/win.hunters_international"
        malpedia_rule_date = "20260422"
        malpedia_hash = "a182e35da64e6d71cb55f125c4d4225196523f14"
        malpedia_version = "20260504"
        malpedia_license = "CC BY-SA 4.0"
        malpedia_sharing = "TLP:WHITE"

    /* DISCLAIMER
     * The strings used in this rule have been automatically selected from the
     * disassembly of memory dumps and unpacked files, using YARA-Signator.
     * The code and documentation is published here:
     * https://github.com/fxb-cocacoding/yara-signator
     * As Malpedia is used as data source, please note that for a given
     * number of families, only single samples are documented.
     * This likely impacts the degree of generalization these rules will offer.
     * Take the described generation method also into consideration when you
     * apply the rules in your use cases and assign them confidence levels.
     */


    strings:
        $sequence_0 = { 750f c70100000000 c641041f c6410810 }
            // n = 4, score = 400
            //   750f                 | xor                 edx, edx
            //   c70100000000         | ret                 
            //   c641041f             | jne                 0x16d
            //   c6410810             | mov                 eax, dword ptr [esp]

        $sequence_1 = { 89d0 241f 3c1f 750f c70100000000 c641041f c6410810 }
            // n = 7, score = 400
            //   89d0                 | and                 edi, ebx
            //   241f                 | mov                 ebx, dword ptr [esp]
            //   3c1f                 | mov                 edi, ecx
            //   750f                 | shl                 edx, 7
            //   c70100000000         | shr                 edi, 3
            //   c641041f             | and                 edi, 0x7f
            //   c6410810             | movzx               edx, byte ptr [edx + edi + 0x486100]

        $sequence_2 = { 3c1f 750f c70100000000 c641041f c6410810 }
            // n = 5, score = 400
            //   3c1f                 | mov                 edx, dword ptr [esi + 0x54]
            //   750f                 | movzx               ecx, al
            //   c70100000000         | cmp                 al, 4
            //   c641041f             | je                  0x275
            //   c6410810             | mov                 edx, dword ptr [esi + 0x74]

        $sequence_3 = { 5e c3 b840000000 c3 }
            // n = 4, score = 400
            //   5e                   | dec                 esp
            //   c3                   | lea                 eax, [0x15f21]
            //   b840000000           | pop                 esi
            //   c3                   | dec                 eax

        $sequence_4 = { 241f 3c1f 750f c70100000000 c641041f c6410810 }
            // n = 6, score = 400
            //   241f                 | and                 edx, edi
            //   3c1f                 | mov                 edi, dword ptr [esp + 8]
            //   750f                 | or                  edx, eax
            //   c70100000000         | xor                 esi, edx
            //   c641041f             | mov                 edx, 0xf0f0f0f
            //   c6410810             | mov                 dword ptr [esp + 0x20], esi

        $sequence_5 = { 241f 3c1f 750f c70100000000 c641041f c6410810 c3 }
            // n = 7, score = 400
            //   241f                 | shl                 ecx, 0x10
            //   3c1f                 | or                  edi, ecx
            //   750f                 | lea                 ecx, [esp + 0x90]
            //   c70100000000         | and                 edi, eax
            //   c641041f             | shr                 eax, 0x19
            //   c6410810             | movd                xmm0, eax
            //   c3                   | punpcklbw           xmm0, xmm0

        $sequence_6 = { 3c1f 750f c70100000000 c641041f c6410810 c3 }
            // n = 6, score = 400
            //   3c1f                 | je                  0x34d
            //   750f                 | lea                 ecx, [esi - 6]
            //   c70100000000         | movzx               ecx, cl
            //   c641041f             | dec                 esp
            //   c6410810             | lea                 eax, [ecx + 1]
            //   c3                   | cmp                 cl, 4

        $sequence_7 = { c70100000000 c641041f c6410810 c3 }
            // n = 4, score = 400
            //   c70100000000         | movups              xmm0, xmmword ptr [edi + 0x30]
            //   c641041f             | mov                 dword ptr [eax], 0
            //   c6410810             | push                eax
            //   c3                   | push                dword ptr [edx + 8]

        $sequence_8 = { 750f c70100000000 c641041f c6410810 c3 }
            // n = 5, score = 400
            //   750f                 | mov                 byte ptr [ebp], 3
            //   c70100000000         | mov                 eax, 1
            //   c641041f             | movups              xmm0, xmmword ptr [esp + 0xf0]
            //   c6410810             | jne                 0x1ba
            //   c3                   | mov                 dword ptr [eax + 4], 0

        $sequence_9 = { c3 b908000000 ba20010000 e8???????? }
            // n = 4, score = 400
            //   c3                   | dec                 ebp
            //   b908000000           | test                ebp, ebp
            //   ba20010000           | je                  0x2bc
            //   e8????????           |                     

    condition:
        7 of them and filesize < 1377280
}
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