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LockBit Developing Ransomware for Apple M1 Chips, Embedded Systems

June 22, 2023 – Published on Dark Reading

The LockBit gang is building ransomware for new architectures, forgoing Windows and potentially posing entirely new problems for their victims along the way.

Researchers describe having “stumbled on” a .ZIP file with a trove of LockBit malware samples inside. The samples appear to have derived from LockBit’s previous encryptor variations targeting VMWare ESXi hypervisors.

The samples targeted FreeBSD and Linux — a growing trend among ransomware actors — plus various embedded technologies, including instruction set architecture (ISA) firmware for CPUs, like ARM, MIPS, ESA/390, and PowerPC, as well as Apple M1, an ARM-based system-on-chip (SoC) used in Mac and iPad devices.

While the samples were clearly a work in progress, should they eventually make it to the wild, however, these new ransomware variants could prove useful to LockBit as it tries to stay relevant, says Jason Baker, threat intelligence analyst at GuidePoint Security. “In an increasingly crowded RaaS marketplace competing for talent and targets, this kind of differentiating behavior may ultimately benefit LockBit despite the additional costs and lower volume of targets.”

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