Source Code of the 2020 Variant of HelloKitty Ransomware Leaked on Cybercrime Forum

The source code for the first version of the HelloKitty ransomware has been leaked on a Russian-speaking cybercrime forum. The threat actor, known as 'kapuchin0', claims to be developing a more powerful encryptor. The leaked code includes a Microsoft Visual Studio project for creating the ransomware. The HelloKitty gang, active since January 2021, has been launching DDoS attacks and employing a double extortion model. They demand ransom payments in Bitcoin and use various techniques to breach networks. The availability of the source code may enable other threat actors to create their own versions of the ransomware.