VS98-Compiled WannaCryptor Payload Showing Classic Worm Behavior


Zero‑Dwell Threat Intelligence Report

A narrative, executive‑ready view into the malware’s behavior, exposure, and reliable defenses.
Generated: 2025-12-04 08:25:38 UTC

Executive Overview — What We’re Dealing With

This specimen has persisted long enough to matter. Human experts classified it as Malware, and the telemetry confirms a capable, evasive Trojan with real impact potential.

File
n4mqotx.exe
Type
Win32 Executable MS Visual C++ (generic)
SHA‑1
73a54cd5e83fd89b4308db69e064825ee81ed955
MD5
615cbeb5db153681cc005f1e242bb7a5
First Seen
2025-12-01 14:09:03.728296
Last Analysis
2025-12-01 21:28:47.054872
Dwell Time
0 days, 7 hours, 33 minutes

Extended Dwell Time Impact

For 7+ hours, this malware remained undetected — a several-hour window that allowed the adversary to complete initial compromise and begin early-stage persistence establishment.

Comparative Context

Industry studies report a median dwell time closer to 21–24 days. This case represents rapid detection and containment within hours rather than days.

Timeline

Time (UTC) Event Elapsed
2025-11-17 10:38:07 UTC First VirusTotal submission
2025-12-03 21:11:32 UTC Latest analysis snapshot 16 days, 10 hours, 33 minutes
2025-12-04 08:25:38 UTC Report generation time 16 days, 21 hours, 47 minutes

Why It Matters

Every additional day of dwell time is not just an abstract number — it is attacker opportunity. Each day equates to more time for lateral movement, stealth persistence, and intelligence gathering.

Global Detection Posture — Who Caught It, Who Missed It

VirusTotal engines: 73. Detected as malicious: 66. Missed: 7. Coverage: 90.4%.

Detected Vendors

  • Xcitium
  • +65 additional vendors (names not provided)

List includes Xcitium plus an additional 65 vendors per the provided summary.

Missed Vendors

  • Acronis
  • CMC
  • Google
  • google_safebrowsing
  • SUPERAntiSpyware
  • TACHYON
  • tehtris

Why it matters: if any endpoint relies solely on a missed engine, this malware can operate with zero alerts. Prevention‑first controls close that gap regardless of signature lag.

Behavioral Storyline — How the Malware Operates

Intensive file system activity (49.43% of behavior) indicates data harvesting, file encryption, or dropper behavior. The threat is actively searching for and manipulating files across the system.

Behavior Categories (weighted)

Weight values represent the frequency and intensity of malware interactions with specific system components. Higher weights indicate more aggressive targeting of that category. Each operation (registry access, file modification, network connection, etc.) contributes to the category’s total weight, providing a quantitative measure of the malware’s behavioral focus.

Category Weight Percentage
File System 47801 49.43%
System 28690 29.67%
Process 12414 12.84%
Registry 6072 6.28%
Misc 576 0.60%
Device 415 0.43%
Threading 204 0.21%
Com 201 0.21%
Synchronization 112 0.12%
Services 103 0.11%
Network 67 0.07%
Crypto 36 0.04%
Hooking 11 0.01%

MITRE ATT&CK Mapping

  • T1016 – get socket status
  • T1083 – get file size
  • T1543.003 – persist via Windows service
  • T1569.002 – persist via Windows service
  • T1543.003 – modify service
  • T1569.002 – modify service
  • T1082 – get number of processors
  • T1027.005 – contain obfuscated stackstrings
  • T1543.003 – start service
  • T1543.003 – create service
  • T1569.002 – create service
  • T1129 – link function at runtime on Windows

Following the Trail — Network & DNS Activity

Outbound activity leans on reputable infrastructure (e.g., CDNs, cloud endpoints) to blend in. TLS sessions and
HTTP calls show routine beaconing and IP‑lookup behavior that can masquerade as normal browsing.

Contacted Domains

Domain IP Country ASN/Org
www.aieov.com 13.248.169.48 United States Amazon Technologies Inc.
www.iuqerfsodp9ifjaposdfjhgosurijfaewrwergwea.com 104.16.166.228 United States Cloudflare, Inc.

Observed IPs

IP Country ASN/Org
224.0.0.252
8.8.4.4 United States Google LLC
8.8.8.8 United States Google LLC

DNS Queries

Request Type
5isohu.com A
www.iuqerfsodp9ifjaposdfjhgosurijfaewrwergwea.com A
www.aieov.com A

Contacted IPs

IP Country ASN/Org
224.0.0.252
8.8.4.4 United States Google LLC
8.8.8.8 United States Google LLC

Port Distribution

Port Count Protocols
137 1 udp
5355 9 udp
53 56 udp

UDP Packets

Source IP Dest IP Sport Dport Time Proto
192.168.56.14 192.168.56.255 137 137 3.0794870853424072 udp
192.168.56.14 224.0.0.252 50710 5355 22.837537050247192 udp
192.168.56.14 224.0.0.252 51209 5355 3.009584903717041 udp
192.168.56.14 224.0.0.252 52556 5355 331.3057510852814 udp
192.168.56.14 224.0.0.252 53401 5355 5.429121971130371 udp
192.168.56.14 224.0.0.252 53449 5355 316.37412905693054 udp
192.168.56.14 224.0.0.252 55094 5355 5.562995910644531 udp
192.168.56.14 224.0.0.252 55848 5355 3.0102379322052 udp
192.168.56.14 224.0.0.252 64452 5355 333.8603301048279 udp
192.168.56.14 224.0.0.252 65283 5355 336.42222905158997 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 49916 53 52.42184805870056 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 50180 53 99.59350490570068 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 50870 53 287.01545906066895 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 50914 53 210.31405305862427 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 51262 53 272.6566231250763 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 51614 53 333.9841470718384 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 52815 53 7.9995551109313965 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 54579 53 23.812801122665405 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 54683 53 146.8748550415039 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 55827 53 224.67230010032654 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 55914 53 81.23438596725464 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 56399 53 128.51597499847412 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 56716 53 530.6561141014099 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 56864 53 348.35984206199646 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 57742 53 319.624920129776 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 59068 53 305.2654359340668 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 59212 53 362.71854996681213 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 60117 53 37.734230041503906 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 60713 53 239.03167700767517 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 62022 53 113.96887397766113 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 62112 53 23.343696117401123 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 62548 53 175.71873903274536 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 62800 53 257.2918269634247 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 62997 53 516.3028070926666 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 63205 53 161.29713702201843 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 64753 53 66.82787990570068 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 65148 53 9.431798934936523 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.4.4 65271 53 377.07814502716064 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 49916 53 51.43532395362854 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 50180 53 98.60712909698486 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 50870 53 286.0156600475311 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 50914 53 209.3230791091919 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 51262 53 271.65666007995605 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 51614 53 332.98513293266296 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 52815 53 8.98488712310791 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 54579 53 22.826606035232544 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 54683 53 145.87915992736816 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 55827 53 223.67210793495178 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 55914 53 80.24486708641052 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 56399 53 127.53077292442322 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 56716 53 529.6573181152344 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 56864 53 347.37236404418945 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 57742 53 318.62588810920715 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 59068 53 304.26576590538025 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 59212 53 361.71887707710266 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 60117 53 36.73506999015808 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 60713 53 238.03167009353638 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 62022 53 112.97808599472046 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 62112 53 22.34397602081299 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 62548 53 174.72225093841553 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 62800 53 256.28192591667175 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 62997 53 515.3041388988495 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 63205 53 160.2988579273224 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 64753 53 65.83167910575867 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 65148 53 10.421701908111572 udp
192.168.56.14 8.8.8.8 65271 53 376.07815289497375 udp

Hunting tip: alert on unknown binaries initiating TLS to IP‑lookup services or unusual CDN endpoints — especially early in execution.

What To Do Now — Practical Defense Playbook

  • Contain unknowns: block first‑run binaries by default — signatures catch up, containment works now.
  • EDR controls: alert on keyboard hooks, screen capture APIs, VM/sandbox checks, and command‑shell launches.
  • Registry watch: flag queries/sets under policy paths (e.g., …\FipsAlgorithmPolicy\*).
  • Network rules: inspect outbound TLS to IP‑lookup services and unexpected CDN endpoints.
  • Hunt broadly: sweep endpoints for the indicators above and quarantine positives immediately.

Dwell time equals attacker opportunity. Reducing execution privileges and egress shrinks that window even when vendors disagree.

Scroll to Top