Ghost
aka Cring, Crypt3r, Phantom, Strike, Hello, Wickrme
A financially motivated ransomware group whose operators officials say are located in China. It exploits unpatched VPN, Exchange and ColdFusion flaws against schools, hospitals, local governments and manufacturers.
- Alert level
- 4/ 5
- Reports & advisories (90 days)
- 5
- Known exploited CVEs
- 7
- Personal data leaked (disclosed)
- None confirmed
Attribution
- Assessed as financially motivated actors located in China — US FBI, CISA and MS-ISAC
Exploited vulnerabilities and targeted products
CVE-2018-13379 CVE-2010-2861 CVE-2009-3960 CVE-2019-0604 CVE-2021-34473 CVE-2021-34523 CVE-2021-31207
If you run any of these products, first make sure they are updated to a fixed version.
How they attack
Entry
Exploiting internet-facing devices
Like finding a broken lock on the company's front gate (VPN or firewall) and walking in.
Goal
Double extortion: encrypt and leak
Like locking your safe and also taking copies of the papers inside, threatening to publish them unless you pay.
Recent articles
- Pillow: Argument Injection in Ghostscript call, potentially leading into RCE
- Pillow: EPS load(scale) lets Ghostscript render past the decompression bomb limit
- GhostAction Attackers Plant Credential Stealer Disguised as Font in 94 GitHub Repositories
- 韓国の銀行狙ったサイバー攻撃、犯人は「中国在住の26歳」か Claudeで作られた“履歴書”から浮上
- Nominate Someone for the 2026 Malcolm Tredinnick Memorial Prize
- Unbound 1.16.2 released
- Routinator 0.8.0 ‘Strikes and Gutters, Ups and Downs’ released
Sources
Attributions are quoted as assessed by governments and security vendors. VulnPulse does not make attributions itself.
Leak counts only add up figures disclosed by the affected companies or authorities, never the attackers' own claims. We do not list victim names or link to leak sites.
The alert level is calculated automatically from reports and advisories in the last 90 days, known exploited vulnerabilities, and whether the group has targeted Japan.
Updated 2026-10-23 · daily