Chimera Ransomware

Posted: September 24, 2015

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Ranking:	14,913
Threat Level:	10/10
Infected PCs:	61

First Seen:	September 23, 2015
Last Seen:	September 1, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The Chimera Ransomware is a file encryptor that blocks your access to your files so that the Chimera Ransomware can force you to pay a cash ransom. Although the symptoms of the Chimera Ransomware attacks are very high in visibility, third parties rely on the difficulty of casual file decryption encouraging their victims to pay ransoms promptly. Nevertheless, there are no guarantees of receiving a decryption key after rewarding con artists for their behavior, and malware experts advise using anti-malware products to remove the Chimera Ransomware, as a preferable resolution.

The Many Heads of Ransomware in Action

The creation of many, new variants of ransomware over the past few years isn't necessarily an indication that the strategy is failing at being profitable. However, con artists may prefer developing variants of their file encryptors for specific regions, such as one can see with the Chimera Ransomware. The Chimera Ransomware tailors its pop-up ransom messages to German and English-speaking PC users. As a result, its distribution is estimated to be targeting North Americans and German residents, although not necessarily exclusively.

Besides its poly-linguist capabilities, the Chimera Ransomware also implements attacks that malware experts long have noted as being standard to most ransomware campaigns. The Chimera Ransomware scans for files of specific formats on the infected machine and implements a simple encryption routine, which makes the files unavailable for reading by compatible software. The Chimera Ransomware also appends a '.crypt' extension to these files for easy identification.

The Chimera Ransomware's ransom message (a simple HTML pop-up) delivers approximately the same message to both audiences: demanding BitCoin transfers to an address in exchange for the decryption key that restores your files. Another interesting inclusion is a link to a third-party cloud storage page that hosts additional instructions, pointing to the Chimera Ransomware's perpetrators being happy to use commercial resources for their campaign.

Slaying a File Blocker with No Loss of Files

Perhaps ironically, the Chimera Ransomware's attacks can be stopped by using the same kind of Cloud storage services the Chimera Ransomware exploits to host your files in a safe location. Alternate methods of file recovery include using USB or DVD-based backups or retrieving freeware decryptor tools for reversing the damage to your files. In all cases, paying the ransom requested by the Chimera Ransomware is an uncertain means of reacquiring any lost data that you should discount as a plausible option. Likewise, visiting Web links distributed by threat authors is a potential danger to the further safety of your machine and should be avoided, if possible.

There are unconfirmed reports of the Chimera Ransomware's including a self-deletion function used only after the Chimera Ransomware encrypts any files on the hard drive. Regardless of whether you believe the Chimera Ransomware has uninstalled itself or not, any PC compromised by this threat should be scanned by at least one brand of dedicated anti-malware product. Deleting the Chimera Ransomware, much like Bellerophon's killing of the mythic beast of the same name, may require using more than one attempt at extermination.

Aliases

MSIL9.RN [AVG]MSIL/LXY.BIV!tr [Fortinet]Trojan.MSIL.Injector [Ikarus]Trj/CI.A [Panda]Artemis!60FABD1A2509 [McAfee]Trojan:Win32/Dynamer!ac [Microsoft]Trojan[Spy]/Win32.Selltim [Antiy-AVL]Troj/Ransom-BIV [Sophos]BehavesLike.Win32.BackdoorNJRat.dm [McAfee-GW-Edition]TROJ_GEN.R00XC0RIM15 [TrendMicro]Trojan.Encoder.1980 [DrWeb]Trojan-Spy.Win32.Selltim.sl [Kaspersky]Win32:Malware-gen [Avast]Suspicious.Cloud.2 [Symantec]Trojan ( 004cfc921 ) [K7AntiVirus]
More aliases (25)

Technical Details

File System Modifications

Tutorials: If you wish to learn how to remove malware components manually, you can read the tutorials on how to find malware, kill unwanted processes, remove malicious DLLs and delete other harmful files. Always be sure to back up your PC before making any changes.

The following files were created in the system:

C:\Users\<username>\Downloads\The-MALWARE-Repo-master\The-MALWARE-Repo-master\Spyware\HawkEye.exe

File name: HawkEye.exe
Size: 237.56 KB (237568 bytes)
MD5: 60fabd1a2509b59831876d5e2aa71a6b
Detection count: 28
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: C:\Users\<username>\Downloads\The-MALWARE-Repo-master\The-MALWARE-Repo-master\Spyware\HawkEye.exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: September 1, 2023