Ukrainian Targets Hit by Hermetic Wiper, New Datawiper Malware | Qualys
Summary: HermeticWiper, a data wiper deployed beginning February 23, 2022, targeted hundreds of Ukrainian government websites and destroys a system's master boot record to render it unusable. The malware was signed with a code-signing certificate issued to Hermetica Digital Ltd., a Cyprus videogame design business with no links to Russia that says it never applied for a certificate, and activity has since been found in Latvia and Lithuania.
Why it matters: The wiper's destructive driver was loaded using an expired but legitimate certificate from Chengdu YIWO Tech Development, a Chinese data recovery firm, showing that trusted signing chains can carry the payload that rewrites the MBR and leaves systems showing "Missing operating system."
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