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WannaCry, also known as WannaCryptor and WCrypt, is a Windows ransomware family that caused a global outbreak in May 2017. It encrypts victim files and presents a ransom demand through a graphical decryptor component. The malware is notable for combining ransomware functionality with worm-like propagation, allowing rapid self-spread across vulnerable networks.
The outbreak is widely associated with the Lazarus Group, a North Korea-aligned threat actor. Early attribution was supported by code overlaps between pre-release WannaCry variants and earlier Lazarus malware, and subsequent reporting has consistently linked the operation to Lazarus. The campaign disrupted organizations worldwide, including critical healthcare environments and other enterprise networks.
WannaCry spread primarily by exploiting the SMB vulnerability addressed by CVE-2017-0144 using the EternalBlue exploit, enabling unauthenticated remote compromise of unpatched Windows systems. Reporting also indicates that some earlier related variants used SMB brute-forcing prior to the major outbreak. Once inside an environment, the malware could propagate aggressively to additional vulnerable hosts, making it both a ransomware incident and a large-scale network worm event.
Known development history includes beta and pre-outbreak variants observed before May 2017, indicating testing and evolution prior to the global campaign. WannaCry is therefore best understood as a ransomware family with worm capabilities, tied to one of the most consequential disruptive cyber incidents of the 2010s.
Mallory pivots from this family to the IOCs, detections, and named campaigns that touch your stack, and pages you when something new lands.
2 CVEs Mallory has correlated with this family across public research and vendor advisories. Each row links to the full Mallory page for that vulnerability.
attackers infecting unpatched Windows webservers with a malicious cryptocurrency miner... exploited a known vulnerability in Microsoft IIS 6.0 to covertly install the miner... ESET customers are protected against any attempts to exploit the CVE-2017-7269 vulnerability... There are two IP addresses that we identified as the source of brute-force scans for the CVE-2017-7269 vulnerability... It is a vulnerability in the WebDAV service that is part of Microsoft IIS version 6.0
On 12 May 2017 much of the world was shaken when the Lazarus Group launched its large-scale ransomware cyber attack, WannaCryptor.D (a.k.a. WannaCry, WCrypt). The malware was spread using an exploit called EternalBlue...
1 distinct threat actor attributed by public researchers. Open in Mallory to see the full evidence chain and overlapping campaigns.
Tracking Ransomware End-to-end Cerber Locky WannaCryptor
5 distinct techniques documented for this family, organized by ATT&CK tactic.
6 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
Ransomware cited as historical background on Lazarus rather than part of the WinorDLL64/Wslink activity described here.
Lazarus-attributed ransomware outbreak referenced as part of the group’s historical toolset/operations.
Ransomware worm used in widespread global attacks; multiple references discuss its spread, variants, decryption, and links to Lazarus.
Referenced only as a comparison point for destructive malware outbreaks and patching urgency; not part of the cryptomining campaign itself.
Match every observed IP, domain, and hash against your live telemetry.
Named campaigns wielding this family, with evidence pinned to each claim.
CVEs this family uses for access and lateral movement.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Every documented technique, ranked by evidence weight.
Reddit, Mastodon, and CTI community discussion around this family.