Cerberimposter ransomware group
Cerberimposter is one of the extortion operations we watch continuously. This page covers what is known about the group and the current state of its leak site.
Who they are
Cerber Imposer is a post-2019 rebrand of the Cerber ransomware family, resurfacing in late 2021 with updated targeting of enterprise environments. Unlike its classic counterpart, Cerber Imposer utilizes the .locked file extension and includes a unique recovery note named __$$RECOVERY_README$$__.html. It does not reuse the original Cerber codebase; instead it borrows branding while operating under new cryptographic implementations and deployment tactics. Threat actors have leveraged known remote code execution vulnerabilities in Atlassian Confluence (CVE-2021-26084) and GitLab (CVE-2021-22205) to deliver this ransomware. The rebranded variant has compromised servers in the U.S., Germany, China, and Russia, indicating a broader scope of targeting than originally seen with early Cerber campaigns.
Current status
Cerberimposter's leak site is not answering. Sites go dark for infrastructure trouble, a deliberate quiet period, or a takedown, and a good number return weeks later under the same name, so the entry stays on the list either way.
Which organisations this group has named, and when, is part of the SINON platform rather than this page. Create an account to search it, or to be told automatically if a name you care about turns up.
Sectors targeted
This group does not state an industry on its site, so we have nothing reliable to report. Most crews are opportunistic rather than sector-specific in any case — they hit what they can reach.
Watching for your name
If Cerberimposter posts your company, a supplier or a subsidiary, you want to hear it from us rather than from a journalist. SINON checks these sites continuously and alerts on the names you give it.
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