WannaCry Ransomware Worm Leveraging CVE-2017-0147 For Propagation


Zero‑Dwell Threat Intelligence Report

A narrative, executive‑ready view into the malware’s behavior, exposure, and reliable defenses.
Generated: 2025-12-04 08:24:55 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
451m4si.exe
Type
Win32 Executable MS Visual C++ (generic)
SHA‑1
44c267fda7b064e73a1b5b0b2aed66177f243fa2
MD5
8500f29df843d0d7205db4fd581e7ba3
First Seen
2025-12-01 14:07:32.665598
Last Analysis
2025-12-01 21:28:46.616835
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
2025-11-11 00:32:42 UTC First VirusTotal submission
2025-12-03 21:11:10 UTC Latest analysis snapshot 22 days, 20 hours, 38 minutes
2025-12-04 08:24:55 UTC Report generation time 23 days, 7 hours, 52 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: 72. Detected as malicious: 65. Missed: 7. Coverage: 90.3%.

Detected Vendors

  • Xcitium
  • +64 additional vendors (names not provided)

List includes Xcitium plus an additional 64 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

This threat shows heavy registry manipulation (44.27% of total behavior), indicating persistent backdoor installation, configuration tampering, or system policy modification attempts. The malware likely establishes persistence mechanisms and modifies security settings to maintain long-term access.

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
Registry 116 44.27%
System 100 38.17%
Threading 17 6.49%
Network 9 3.44%
File System 8 3.05%
Services 6 2.29%
Process 5 1.91%
Crypto 1 0.38%

MITRE ATT&CK Mapping

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

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.msftncsi.com 23.200.3.27 United States Akamai Technologies, Inc.
www.aieov.com 13.248.169.48 United States Amazon Technologies Inc.

Observed IPs

IP Country ASN/Org
224.0.0.252
239.255.255.250
8.8.4.4 United States Google LLC
8.8.8.8 United States Google LLC

DNS Queries

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

Contacted IPs

IP Country ASN/Org
224.0.0.252
239.255.255.250
8.8.4.4 United States Google LLC
8.8.8.8 United States Google LLC

Port Distribution

Port Count Protocols
137 1 udp
138 1 udp
5355 5 udp
53 10 udp
3702 1 udp

UDP Packets

Source IP Dest IP Sport Dport Time Proto
192.168.56.11 192.168.56.255 137 137 7.293710947036743 udp
192.168.56.11 192.168.56.255 138 138 13.293085098266602 udp
192.168.56.11 224.0.0.252 49563 5355 7.2218170166015625 udp
192.168.56.11 224.0.0.252 54650 5355 7.223717927932739 udp
192.168.56.11 224.0.0.252 55601 5355 7.77789306640625 udp
192.168.56.11 224.0.0.252 60205 5355 7.232243061065674 udp
192.168.56.11 224.0.0.252 62798 5355 9.782684087753296 udp
192.168.56.11 239.255.255.250 62184 3702 7.229140996932983 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 51690 53 10.339463949203491 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 51899 53 9.793497085571289 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 56213 53 40.0903799533844 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 59770 53 54.74604797363281 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.4.4 63439 53 25.699410915374756 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 51690 53 11.32474398612976 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 51899 53 10.79331111907959 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 56213 53 39.09055304527283 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 59770 53 53.746861934661865 udp
192.168.56.11 8.8.8.8 63439 53 24.699700117111206 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.

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