S0576: MegaCortex
MegaCortex is ransomware that first appeared in May 2019. [1] MegaCortex has mainly targeted industrial organizations. [2][3]
Security context for executives and security teams
S0576: MegaCortex describes [MegaCortex](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0576) is ransomware that first appeared in May 2019. (Citation: IBM MegaCortex) [MegaCortex](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0576) has mainly targeted industrial organizations. (Citation: FireEye Ransomware Disrupt Industrial Production)(Citation: FireEye Financial Actors Moving into OT)
Executive priority
S0576: MegaCortex 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 S0576: MegaCortex 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 S0576: MegaCortex 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.
MegaCortex
MegaCortex is ransomware that first appeared in May 2019. [1] MegaCortex has mainly targeted industrial organizations. [2][3]
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.
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.
| Domain | ID | Name | Relationship / procedure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise | T1685 | Disable or Modify Tools | MegaCortex was used to kill endpoint security processes.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1218.011 | Rundll32Sub-technique | MegaCortex has used |
| Enterprise | T1497.001 | System ChecksSub-technique | MegaCortex has checked the number of CPUs in the system to avoid being run in a sandbox or emulator.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1588.003 | Code Signing CertificatesSub-technique | MegaCortex has used code signing certificates issued to fake companies to bypass security controls.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1531 | Account Access Removal | MegaCortex has changed user account passwords and logged users off the system.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1490 | Inhibit System Recovery | MegaCortex has deleted volume shadow copies using |
| Enterprise | T1083 | File and Directory Discovery | MegaCortex can parse the available drives and directories to determine which files to encrypt.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1055.001 | Dynamic-link Library InjectionSub-technique | MegaCortex loads |
| Enterprise | T1489 | Service Stop | MegaCortex can stop and disable services on the system.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1112 | Modify Registry | MegaCortex has added entries to the Registry for ransom contact information.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1561.001 | Disk Content WipeSub-technique | MegaCortex can wipe deleted data from all drives using |
| Enterprise | T1486 | Data Encrypted for Impact | MegaCortex has used the open-source library, Mbed Crypto, and generated AES keys to carry out the file encryption process.[1]Citationmbed-crypto |
| Enterprise | T1059.003 | Windows Command ShellSub-technique | MegaCortex has used |
| Enterprise | T1140 | Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information | MegaCortex has used a Base64 key to decode its components.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1106 | Native API | After escalating privileges, MegaCortex calls |
| Enterprise | T1134 | Access Token Manipulation | MegaCortex can enable |
All related ATT&CK context
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.
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases(3)
| Release | Bundle imported | Object version | Modified | Status | Raw hash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20.0 | 1.1 | Current bundle | 3316ed882e43… | ||
| 19.2 | 1.1 | Older bundle | 3316ed882e43… | ||
| 19.1 | 1.1 | Older bundle | 3316ed882e43… |
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.
External references and citations
MITRE external references are preserved separately from Glexia analysis so citations remain traceable to their original source records.
- [1]IBM MegaCortex
Del Fierro, C. Kessem, L.. (2020, January 8). From Mega to Giga: Cross-Version Comparison of Top MegaCortex Modifications. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
Open source URL - [2]FireEye Ransomware Disrupt Industrial Production
Zafra, D. Lunden, K. Brubaker, N. Kennelly, J.. (2020, February 24). Ransomware Against the Machine: How Adversaries are Learning to Disrupt Industrial Production by Targeting IT and OT. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
Open source URL - [3]FireEye Financial Actors Moving into OT
Brubaker, N. Zafra, D. K. Lunden, K. Proska, K. Hildebrandt, C.. (2020, July 15). Financially Motivated Actors Are Expanding Access Into OT: Analysis of Kill Lists That Include OT Processes Used With Seven Malware Families. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
Open source URL - [4]mitre-attackS0576Open source URL
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