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
2025-05-03 ⋅ Synacktiv ⋅ Theo Letailleur
Case Study: How Hunters International and its Affiliates Target Your Hypervisors
Hunters International SMOKEDHAM
2025-03-05 ⋅ Trend Micro ⋅ Trendmicro
Water Ouroboros
Hunters International SharpRhino
2023-10-20 ⋅ Twitter (@rivitna2) ⋅ rivitna
Tweet on first ITW appearance of Hunters International Ransomware
Hunters International
Yara Rules
[TLP:WHITE] win_hunters_international_auto (20260917 | Detects win.hunters_international.)
rule win_hunters_international_auto {

    meta:
        author = "Felix Bilstein - yara-signator at cocacoding dot com"
        date = "2026-09-17"
        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 = "20260916"
        malpedia_hash = "53a643781c18e08f4a50949af60172d837a0b6f6"
        malpedia_version = "20260917"
        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 = { 241f 3c1f 750f c70100000000 c641041f c6410810 }
            // n = 6, score = 400
            //   241f                 | xor                 ebx, ebp
            //   3c1f                 | mov                 ebp, edi
            //   750f                 | xor                 ebx, edi
            //   c70100000000         | mov                 edi, dword ptr [esp + 0x2c]
            //   c641041f             | and                 dword ptr [esp + 0x1c], ecx
            //   c6410810             | and                 edi, ecx

        $sequence_1 = { c70100000000 c641041f c6410810 c3 }
            // n = 4, score = 400
            //   c70100000000         | xorps               xmm0, xmm0
            //   c641041f             | movups              xmmword ptr [edi + 0xa8], xmm0
            //   c6410810             | dec                 eax
            //   c3                   | mov                 dword ptr [edi + 0xb8], eax

        $sequence_2 = { 750f c70100000000 c641041f c6410810 }
            // n = 4, score = 400
            //   750f                 | cmp                 dword ptr [ebp - 0x24], 6
            //   c70100000000         | jne                 0xb7
            //   c641041f             | mov                 eax, dword ptr [ebp - 0x20]
            //   c6410810             | jne                 0xc2

        $sequence_3 = { 3c1f 750f c70100000000 c641041f c6410810 }
            // n = 5, score = 400
            //   3c1f                 | cmp                 al, 4
            //   750f                 | jne                 0x1d8
            //   c70100000000         | lea                 ebp, [esp + 8]
            //   c641041f             | mov                 ecx, ebp
            //   c6410810             | cmp                 al, 4

        $sequence_4 = { 750f c70100000000 c641041f c6410810 c3 }
            // n = 5, score = 400
            //   750f                 | xor                 eax, eax
            //   c70100000000         | mov                 cl, 1
            //   c641041f             | mov                 bl, 5
            //   c6410810             | jne                 0x13
            //   c3                   | inc                 ecx

        $sequence_5 = { c3 b908000000 ba20010000 e8???????? }
            // n = 4, score = 400
            //   c3                   | mov                 eax, edx
            //   b908000000           | xor                 eax, 0xf5b0dbbf
            //   ba20010000           | rol                 eax, 7
            //   e8????????           |                     

        $sequence_6 = { 5e c3 b840000000 c3 }
            // n = 4, score = 400
            //   5e                   | ret                 
            //   c3                   | dec                 eax
            //   b840000000           | lea                 ecx, [0x67808]
            //   c3                   | dec                 esp

        $sequence_7 = { 3c1f 750f c70100000000 c641041f c6410810 c3 }
            // n = 6, score = 400
            //   3c1f                 | mov                 ecx, dword ptr [esi + 0x58]
            //   750f                 | test                edi, edi
            //   c70100000000         | cmp                 edi, dword ptr [ecx + 0x48]
            //   c641041f             | jne                 0x850
            //   c6410810             | xor                 eax, eax
            //   c3                   | cmp                 edi, dword ptr [ecx + 0x20]

        $sequence_8 = { 89d0 241f 3c1f 750f c70100000000 c641041f c6410810 }
            // n = 7, score = 400
            //   89d0                 | dec                 ebx
            //   241f                 | test                ebx, ebx
            //   3c1f                 | mov                 dword ptr [esp + 4], ebx
            //   750f                 | jne                 0x14d
            //   c70100000000         | mov                 edi, ecx
            //   c641041f             | mov                 ecx, dword ptr [ecx + 0xc]
            //   c6410810             | mov                 dword ptr [esp + 0x20], edx

        $sequence_9 = { 241f 3c1f 750f c70100000000 c641041f c6410810 c3 }
            // n = 7, score = 400
            //   241f                 | cmp                 byte ptr [edi + edx], 0
            //   3c1f                 | js                  0xcea
            //   750f                 | movdqa              xmm0, xmmword ptr [edi]
            //   c70100000000         | pmovmskb            ecx, xmm0
            //   c641041f             | bsf                 edx, ecx
            //   c6410810             | mov                 ecx, dword ptr [esp + 8]
            //   c3                   | and                 edx, ebx

    condition:
        7 of them and filesize < 1377280
}
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