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MITRE ATT&CK® Malware

S0449: Maze

Maze ransomware, previously known as "ChaCha", was discovered in May 2019. In addition to encrypting files on victim machines for impact, Maze operators conduct information stealing campaigns prior to encryption and post the information online to extort affected companies.[1][2][3]

EnterpriseS0449MalwareObject v1.2Modified
Glexia's Take · Automated analysis

Security context for executives and security teams

Automation confidenceMedium

S0449: Maze describes [Maze](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0449) ransomware, previously known as "ChaCha", was discovered in May 2019. In addition to encrypting files on victim machines for impact, [Maze](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0449) operators conduct information stealing campaigns prior to encryption and post the information online to extort affected companies.(Citation: FireEye Maze May 2020)(Citation: McAfee Maze March 2020)(Citation: Sophos Maze VM September 2020)

Executive priority

S0449: Maze is an official MITRE ATT&CK software. Glexia treats it as defensive behavior context for prioritizing monitoring, control validation, and response planning without using the object by itself as an attribution claim.

Technical view

Security teams should validate S0449: Maze by reviewing the official ATT&CK relationships, mapped tactics (the mapped ATT&CK tactic context), supported platforms (Windows), and available local telemetry before making detection or mitigation decisions.

Likely telemetry

  • Official ATT&CK relationships and object metadata
  • Network, endpoint, and security-tool telemetry

Detection direction

  • Validate whether S0449: Maze appears in your detection coverage and tabletop scenarios.
  • Use the object to align executive risk language with SOC, incident response, and detection engineering work.
  • Do not treat ATT&CK relationship context as attribution without corroborating evidence.

Mitigation priorities

  • Map the object to existing controls and identify missing telemetry or response ownership.
  • Prioritize mitigations that reduce exposure on the listed platforms and tactics.
  • Review adjacent ATT&CK relationships before changing policy, detections, or reporting language.
Additional notes and limits

Baseline Glexia take generated from the official MITRE ATT&CK STIX object, source hash, tactics, platforms, and detection fields. It is safe to replace with a richer model-generated take for the same source hash later.

This baseline take is source-grounded and schema-validated, but it does not include environment-specific telemetry, incident evidence, or threat-intelligence corroboration.

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Official MITRE ATT&CK definition

Maze

Maze ransomware, previously known as "ChaCha", was discovered in May 2019. In addition to encrypting files on victim machines for impact, Maze operators conduct information stealing campaigns prior to encryption and post the information online to extort affected companies.[1][2][3]

View the same entry on attack.mitre.org (MITRE-hosted reference; in-page links above use the Glexia ATT&CK library.)

Glexia analysis

How security teams should use this page

Treat this object as behavior context, not an attribution claim. Validate the related groups, software, data sources, and mitigations against official ATT&CK relationships and your own telemetry before making control-coverage decisions.

ATT&CK relationship table

Techniques used

This mirrors the MITRE pattern of making group, software, campaign, and technique relationships scannable. Relationship notes come from mirrored ATT&CK relationship text when available.

23 rows
DomainIDNameRelationship / procedure
EnterpriseT1486Data Encrypted for Impact

Maze has disrupted systems by encrypting files on targeted machines, claiming to decrypt files if a ransom payment is made. Maze has used the ChaCha algorithm, based on Salsa20, and an RSA algorithm to encrypt files.[1]

EnterpriseT1027.016Junk Code InsertionSub-technique

Maze has inserted large blocks of junk code, including some components to decrypt strings and other important information for later in the encryption process.[2]

EnterpriseT1082System Information Discovery

Maze has checked the language of the infected system using the "GetUSerDefaultUILanguage" function.[2]

EnterpriseT1547.001Registry Run Keys / Startup FolderSub-technique

Maze has created a file named "startup_vrun.bat" in the Startup folder of a virtual machine to establish persistence.[3]

EnterpriseT1036.004Masquerade Task or ServiceSub-technique

Maze operators have created scheduled tasks masquerading as "Windows Update Security", "Windows Update Security Patches", and "Google Chrome Security Update" designed to launch the ransomware.[3]

EnterpriseT1614.001System Language DiscoverySub-technique

Maze has checked the language of the machine with function GetUserDefaultUILanguage and terminated execution if the language matches with an entry in the predefined list.[2]

EnterpriseT1049System Network Connections Discovery

Maze has used the "WNetOpenEnumW", "WNetEnumResourceW”, “WNetCloseEnum” and “WNetAddConnection2W” functions to enumerate the network resources on the infected machine.[2]

EnterpriseT1564.006Run Virtual InstanceSub-technique

Maze operators have used VirtualBox and a Windows 7 virtual machine to run the ransomware; the virtual machine's configuration file mapped the shared network drives of the target company, presumably so Maze can encrypt files on the shared drives as well as the local machine.[3]

EnterpriseT1055.001Dynamic-link Library InjectionSub-technique

Maze has injected the malware DLL into a target process.[2][3]

EnterpriseT1529System Shutdown/Reboot

Maze has issued a shutdown command on a victim machine that, upon reboot, will run the ransomware within a VM.[3]

EnterpriseT1568Dynamic Resolution

Maze has forged POST strings with a random choice from a list of possibilities including "forum", "php", "view", etc. while making connection with the C2, hindering detection efforts.[2]

EnterpriseT1106Native API

Maze has used several Windows API functions throughout the encryption process including IsDebuggerPresent, TerminateProcess, Process32FirstW, among others.[2]

EnterpriseT1071.001Web ProtocolsSub-technique

Maze has communicated to hard-coded IP addresses via HTTP.[2]

EnterpriseT1059.003Windows Command ShellSub-technique

The Maze encryption process has used batch scripts with various commands.[1][3]

EnterpriseT1053.005Scheduled TaskSub-technique

Maze has created scheduled tasks using name variants such as "Windows Update Security", "Windows Update Security Patches", and "Google Chrome Security Update", to launch Maze at a specific time.[3]

EnterpriseT1685Disable or Modify Tools

Maze has disabled dynamic analysis and other security tools including IDA debugger, x32dbg, and OllyDbg.[2] It has also disabled Windows Defender's Real-Time Monitoring feature and attempted to disable endpoint protection services.[3]

EnterpriseT1047Windows Management Instrumentation

Maze has used WMI to attempt to delete the shadow volumes on a machine, and to connect a virtual machine to the network domain of the victim organization's network.[2][3]

EnterpriseT1057Process Discovery

Maze has gathered all of the running system processes.[2]

EnterpriseT1070Indicator Removal

Maze has used the “Wow64RevertWow64FsRedirection” function following attempts to delete the shadow volumes, in order to leave the system in the same state as it was prior to redirection.[2]

EnterpriseT1489Service Stop

Maze has stopped SQL services to ensure it can encrypt any database.[3]

EnterpriseT1027Obfuscated Files or Information

Maze has decrypted strings and other important information during the encryption process. Maze also calls certain functions dynamically to hinder analysis.[2]

EnterpriseT1218.007MsiexecSub-technique

Maze has delivered components for its ransomware attacks using MSI files, some of which have been executed from the command-line using msiexec.[3]

EnterpriseT1490Inhibit System Recovery

Maze has attempted to delete the shadow volumes of infected machines, once before and once after the encryption process.[2][3]

Associated objects

Groups, software, and campaigns

GroupEnterprise

G0037: FIN6

FIN6 is a cyber crime group that has stolen payment card data and sold it for profit on underground marketplaces. This group has aggressively targeted and compromised point of sale (PoS) systems in the hospitality and retail sectors.[1][2]

GroupEnterprise

G0046: FIN7

FIN7 is a financially-motivated threat group that has been active since 2013. FIN7 has targeted the retail, restaurant, hospitality, software, consulting, financial services, medical equipment, cloud services, media, food and beverage, transportation, pharmaceutical, and utilities industries in the United States. A portion of FIN7 was operated out of a front company called Combi Security and often used point-of-sale malware for targeting efforts. Since 2020, FIN7 shifted operations to big game hunting (BGH), including use of REvil ransomware and their own Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS), Darkside. FIN7 may be linked to the Carbanak Group, but multiple threat groups have been observed using Carbanak, leading these groups to be tracked separately.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

Relationship explorer

All related ATT&CK context

Change history

Object version and sync metadata

The fields below describe the current mirrored snapshot. When Glexia retains multiple ATT&CK source imports, you can open the table to compare the same object across releases (hashes and MITRE timestamps). For MITRE’s own release notes and roadmap, see ATT&CK resources — Updates.

ATT&CK release
19.2
Object version
1.2
Created
Modified
Raw hash
a09fb6c2b22deb20...
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases(2)
ReleaseBundle importedObject versionModifiedStatusRaw hash
19.21.2Current bundlea09fb6c2b22d…
19.11.2Older bundlea09fb6c2b22d…
Raw source

Mirrored ATT&CK source object

The raw object is retained through the mirrored ATT&CK source bundle and object hash. The raw endpoint returns the exact object from the mirrored bundle when available.

Source references

External references and citations

MITRE external references are preserved separately from Glexia analysis so citations remain traceable to their original source records.

  1. [1]
    FireEye Maze May 2020

    Kennelly, J., Goody, K., Shilko, J. (2020, May 7). Navigating the MAZE: Tactics, Techniques and Procedures Associated With MAZE Ransomware Incidents. Retrieved May 18, 2020.

    Open source URL
  2. [2]
    McAfee Maze March 2020

    Mundo, A. (2020, March 26). Ransomware Maze. Retrieved May 18, 2020.

    Open source URL
  3. [3]
    Sophos Maze VM September 2020

    Brandt, A., Mackenzie, P.. (2020, September 17). Maze Attackers Adopt Ragnar Locker Virtual Machine Technique. Retrieved October 9, 2020.

    Open source URL
  4. [4]
    mitre-attackS0449
    Open source URL
Source and licensing

Source: MITRE ATT&CK®. © 2026 The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation. MITRE ATT&CK and ATT&CK are registered trademarks of The MITRE Corporation. Glexia is not affiliated with or endorsed by MITRE.