The Evolution of Chaos Ransomware: Faster, Smarter, and More Dangerous www.fortinet.com/blog/thre…

In 2025, Chaos ransomware resurfaced with a C++ variant. We believe this marks the first time it was not written in .NET. Beyond encryption and ransom demands, it adds destructive extortion tactics and clipboard hijacking for cryptocurrency theft. This evolution underscores Chaos’s shift toward more aggressive methods, amplifying both its operational impact and the financial risk it poses to victims.

This blog provides a comprehensive technical analysis of Chaos-C++, covering its execution flow, encryption process, and clipboard hijacking mechanism. In addition, we will compare different behaviors between Chaos’s earlier variants.