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Ghost is an overloaded malware name used in multiple distinct contexts, including a ransomware variant, a ransomware group branding, and a separate npm-based malware campaign. High-confidence reporting ties the name to ransomware activity affecting a California water and wastewater facility in 2021, where a Ghost ransomware variant encrypted systems including SCADA-related servers. More recent reporting also uses Ghost or GhostLocker for a ransomware operation associated with GhostSec that evolved from hacktivist roots into ransomware and double-extortion activity, including rapid exploitation of newly disclosed vulnerabilities in unpatched internet-facing systems and exfiltration prior to extortion. Separately, the name Ghost has been applied to a 2026 malicious npm supply-chain campaign targeting developers with trojanized packages masquerading as useful tools. In that campaign, deceptive installation output and social engineering were used to obtain sudo credentials and deploy a remote access trojan that searched for cryptocurrency wallets and sensitive personal data, with some variants supporting broader data theft. Because these references describe materially different malware or operations sharing the same name, Ghost should be treated as an ambiguous designation rather than a single well-defined malware family.
Mallory pivots from this family to the IOCs, detections, and named campaigns that touch your stack, and pages you when something new lands.
1 CVE Mallory has correlated with this family across public research and vendor advisories. Each row links to the full Mallory page for that vulnerability.
Fortinet Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) VPN is vulnerable to unauthenticated directory traversal... Multiple malware campaigns have taken advantage of this vulnerability. The most notable being Cring ransomware (also known as Crypt3, Ghost, Phantom, and Vjszy1lo).
1 distinct threat actor attributed by public researchers. Open in Mallory to see the full evidence chain and overlapping campaigns.
APT27 (aka Lucky Mouse, Emissary Panda, Iron Tiger, ZipToken, Group 35, TEMP.Hippo, TG 3390, Bronze Union) ... Examples of associated tools: Ghost, ASPXSpy, ZxShell RAT, HyperBro, PlugX RAT, Windows Credential Editor, FoundCore, China Chopper...
1 distinct technique documented for this family, organized by ATT&CK tactic.
2 indicators attributed across vendor reports, sandbox runs, and researcher write-ups. Full values are available in Mallory.
IPs, domains, and DNS infrastructure linked to this family.
Other indicator types observed in public reporting.
9 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
A malicious npm supply-chain campaign first seen in early February 2026 that uses fake npm install logs and sudo prompts to trick developers into installing a remote access trojan that steals cryptocurrency wallets and sensitive personal data.
A campaign involving malicious npm packages that use fake installation logs and sudo password prompts to deploy information-stealing malware and a final-stage remote access trojan, including theft of cryptocurrency wallets and broader data exfiltration.
Ghost (GhostLocker) is a RaaS platform developed by GhostSec, supporting Windows, Linux, and VMware. It uses double extortion, advanced encryption, and a web-based builder, and is part of a collaborative cybercriminal alliance.
Backdoor used by UTG-Q-015 for persistent access and C2 in targeted environments.
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.