RansomHub

THREAT ACTOR PROFILE

RansomHub

RansomHub was one of the most active ransomware-as-a-service operations of 2024 and 2025, built on a rebrand of the Knight (formerly Cyclops) ransomware. It drew in affiliates from disrupted groups, hit critical-infrastructure sectors with double extortion, and popularized the EDRKillShifter tool for disabling endpoint protection.

Not attributed

Ransomware (critical infrastructure)

First seen

2024

Latest IOC

IP indicators

Hosts

SHA256 hashes

Posts

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Names and aliases

Group profile

Attack lifecycle

Malware and tooling

IOCs

Notable campaigns

NAMES AND ALIASES

RansomHub, rebranded from Knight

RansomHub grew out of an older ransomware family, which is why its code overlaps with Knight. The names below map to one entry among our ransomware actor profiles, so a Knight report and a RansomHub advisory read as one lineage.

GROUP PROFILE

A RaaS magnet for displaced affiliates

RansomHub appeared in 2024 as a ransomware-as-a-service platform and grew fast, partly by recruiting affiliates from operations that had been disrupted, including former ALPHV/BlackCat partners. It ran a double-extortion model against critical infrastructure.

Our record ties it to ransomware with suspected links to the ShadowSyndicate cluster. Many of its affiliates overlap with other brands, including BlackCat (ALPHV), which fed talent into RansomHub after its 2024 exit.

The operation stood out for tooling and reach. Its Go-based encryptor derived from Knight, it could restart endpoints in safe mode before encryption, and it pushed the EDRKillShifter tool that other groups later reused.

Facts:

Initial Access

Russian Federation · GRU

Initial Access

Russian Federation · GRU

Initial Access

Russian Federation · GRU

Initial Access

Russian Federation · GRU

Victims reported in our records and posts:

ATTACK LIFECYCLE

Broad access into EDR-killing and encryption

The stages below come from 2024 and 2025 RansomHub activity in posts we track on our IOC Hunter feed.

Initial Access

Spear-phishing remains the front door. In the 2026 campaign Hunt.io tracked as Operation Neusploit, APT28 sent convincing spear-phishing from already-compromised government accounts and abused a Microsoft Office security bypass (CVE-2026-21509) to kick off a fileless chain. A separate June 2026 cluster delivered the LameHug malware through spear-phishing ZIP archives using double-extension lures.

Initial Access

MALWARE AND TOOLING

EDRKillShifter and a shared affiliate toolkit

Initial Access

CVES EXPLOITED

Zerologon and file-transfer flaws

CVE-2026-21509

A Microsoft Office security bypass used to open the fileless chain in Operation Neusploit, and again in the PixyNetLoader intrusion chain. Both campaigns paired the exploit with spear-phishing from compromised accounts rather than mass exploitation.

CVE-2026-21509

RansomHub

IOCS FROM HUNT.IO PLATFORM

Latest IOCs

We currently track - IP indicators, - hosts, and - SHA256 hashes for Akira across - intelligence posts, with the most recent indicator dated -. The sample below is limited to indicators from the latest posts. It is not the full set.

Showing a sample of recent indicators

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RansomHub

IOC set, full IP, host and hash history.

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Showing a sample of recent indicators

Get the complete

RansomHub

IOC set, full IP, host and hash history.

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NOTABLE CAMPAIGNS

EDR killers and SocGholish access

The reporting tracks a fast-growing RaaS and the tooling it made popular.

PixyNetLoader tracking

A clustering of roughly 90 loader samples across four sub-families from 2024 to 2026, with steganography and cloud C2, also linking to related APT28 tooling such as SlimAgent and Graphite.

PixyNetLoader tracking

A clustering of roughly 90 loader samples across four sub-families from 2024 to 2026, with steganography and cloud C2, also linking to related APT28 tooling such as SlimAgent and Graphite.

PixyNetLoader tracking

A clustering of roughly 90 loader samples across four sub-families from 2024 to 2026, with steganography and cloud C2, also linking to related APT28 tooling such as SlimAgent and Graphite.

PixyNetLoader tracking

A clustering of roughly 90 loader samples across four sub-families from 2024 to 2026, with steganography and cloud C2, also linking to related APT28 tooling such as SlimAgent and Graphite.