Since mhyprot2.sys can be integrated into any malware, we are continuing investigations to determine the scope of the driver.

The threat actor aimed to deploy ransomware within the victim’s device and then spread the infection. This ransomware was simply the first instance of malicious activity we noted. Genshin Impact does not need to be installed on a victim’s device for this to work the use of this driver is independent of the game.

As a result, commands from kernel mode killed the endpoint protection processes.Īs of this writing, the code signing for mhyprot2.sys is still valid. Analyzing the sequence, we found that a code-signed driver called “ mhyprot2.sys”, which provides the anti-cheat functions for Genshin Impact as a device driver, was being abused to bypass privileges.

Security teams and defenders should note that mhyprot2.sys can be integrated into any malware.ĭuring the last week of July 2022, a ransomware infection was triggered in a user environment that had endpoint protection properly configured. The driver is currently being abused by a ransomware actor to kill antivirus processes and services for mass-deploying ransomware. Such is the case of mhyprot2.sys, a vulnerable anti-cheat driver for the popular role-playing game Genshin Impact. However, when a legitimate driver is used as a rootkit, that’s a different story. These rootkits are usually signed with stolen certificates or are falsely validated. There have already been reports on code-signed rootkits like Netfilter, FiveSys, and Fire Chili.

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