Description Summary
BlackSuit ransomware is a direct evolution of (and rebrand from) Royal ransomware, first observed in mid-2023. It shares significant code overlap with Royal and continues the same operational tradecraft — partial encryption, data theft for double extortion, and targeting of large-revenue organizations. BlackSuit has both Windows and Linux/ESXi variants.
Threat Actor
Same actor cluster as Royal (former Conti Team 1).
Technical Indicators
Encryption Extension
.blacksuit
Encryption Algorithm
AES-256 + RSA
Ransom Note Name
README.BlackSuit.txt
Targeted Industries
Critical manufacturing, Education, Healthcare, Government facilities
First Seen
May 2023
Last Seen
Active until July 2025 — SEIZED (Operation Checkmate); successor: Chaos
Geographical Location
United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Europe
MITRE ATT&CK Matrix
| Tactic | TTP | Technique Name |
|---|---|---|
| Initial Access x 3 | T1566 | Phishing |
| T1190 | Exploit Public-Facing Application | |
| T1078 | Valid Accounts | |
| Execution x 1 | T1059 | Command and Scripting Interpreter |
| Execution Persistence x 1 | T1053 | Scheduled Task/Job |
| Defense Evasion x 2 | T1562.001 | Disable or Modify Tools |
| T1070.004 | File Deletion | |
| Discovery x 2 | T1083 | File and Directory Discovery |
| T1082 | System Information Discovery | |
| Lateral Movement x 2 | T1021.001 | Remote Services: RDP |
| T1021.002 | SMB/Windows Admin Shares | |
| Exfiltration x 2 | T1041 | Exfiltration Over C2 Channel |
| T1567.002 | Exfiltration to Cloud Storage | |
| Impact x 4 | T1486 | Data Encrypted for Impact |
| T1490 | Inhibit System Recovery | |
| T1489 | Service Stop | |
| T1486 | Partial Encryption (configurable %) |