Panzer Ransomware Recovery: What's Recoverable

Panzer is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation whose leak site went live on 5 August 2026. In September 2026 it posted 18 victims (ransomware.live data), with France and Germany named most often; reported victims include a university in Germany, a Portuguese public statistics body and an Italian furniture maker. As with every leak site, the listings are the group's own claims and are not verified.

Panzer recruits affiliates who carry out the attacks, and, according to reports on its affiliate programme, pays them 80% of the ransom. It offers encryptors for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and VMware ESXi, so a single intrusion can reach file servers, Linux database servers and the virtualisation hosts. Data is stolen before encryption and published if the victim does not pay.

Researchers have reported a possible link between Panzer and a newer brand called Galago, whose leak site appeared in September 2026; the link is not confirmed. As of September 2026 no verified Panzer samples or indicators had been published.

Because Panzer targets ESXi, the most damaging case is a host whose virtual machines and Veeam backups were encrypted in the same night. Whether those files can be recovered depends on how much of each one was encrypted, which has not been published for Panzer and has to be measured on the files themselves. Large -flat.vmdk disks and backup files are often only partly encrypted.

Isolate the affected systems, but do not wipe, reinstall or "clean" anything yet, and do not run decryptors found online on your only copy. Keep the ransom note, a few encrypted files and, if you have them, unencrypted copies of the same files from before the attack: comparing the two shows exactly how the files were encrypted.

Then establish what is recoverable before deciding anything else: how much of each database, virtual disk and backup file was encrypted, and what the untouched parts still hold. Large files are often only partly encrypted, and that is where recovery without the key comes from.