Jhon Woddy Ransomware

Posted: January 23, 2017

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.

Threat Level:	10/10
Infected PCs:	41

First Seen:	January 23, 2017
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The 'Jhon Woddy' Ransomware is a clone of the DNRansomware (AKA DoNotOpen Ransomware), a Trojan that encrypts your files with the AES and asks for Bitcoin payments to restore them. Due to poor decryption functionality, malware experts strongly discourage paying any fees, especially for PC users who could restore their content through backups. Any anti-malware programs that are effective against past versions of this threat also may delete the 'Jhon Woddy' Ransomware without its encryption attack succeeding in the first place.

The New Fad for Script Kiddies

Although some Trojan families guard their code jealously, making it available to threat actors paying fees for the privilege, others are widely-circulated for free, such as Hidden Tear. In either case, the result is a series of nearly identical threats, such as the DNRansomware and the 'Jhon Woddy' Ransomware almost inevitably. The latter is a clone of the DNRansomware, including that Trojan's ransom details, which makes it likely that the same group of people is administering the 'Jhon Woddy' Ransomware, as well.

The 'Jhon Woddy' Ransomware uses the AES encryption for locking your files, with content such as text documents, images, spreadsheets or movies being at an especially high risk. With a successful lock-down, the 'Jhon Woddy' Ransomware appends the extension '.killedxxx' (the same one in use by some versions of the DNRansomware) to their names, helping the victim identify which content it's blocking. The 'Jhon Woddy' Ransomware also displays a pop-up that may block access to the desktop or other applications and demands 0.1 Bitcoin in return for what malware analysts verify as being a non-working decryptor.

The Trojan's threat actors also are recycling a social engineering tactic between the 'Jhon Woddy' Ransomware and its relative: claiming that the ransom is for poor computer science students in Iraq. Given the semi-publicly available nature of the 'Jhon Woddy' Ransomware's code in the con artist underground, the assertion's veracity is highly dubious.

The Penalty of Having a Tender Heart

Victims who assume that the 'Jhon Woddy' Ransomware is telling the truth and transfer the Bitcoin ransom to recover their files will discover, as malware experts did, that the decryptor is non-functional and can't reverse the encoding damages. Meanwhile, the relative affordability of the 'Jhon Woddy' Ransomware's 0.1 Bitcoin ransom makes it most likely that the Trojan is installing itself through vectors targeting recreational PC owners, such as torrents or freeware bundles. However, spam, such as an e-mail attachment with embedded threat-installing macros, also is a common delivery mechanism for threats of this classification.

The 'Jhon Woddy' Ransomware has no unusual code obfuscation or protective features that would prevent most anti-malware solutions from identifying it. Scanning potentially corrupted files before opening them, enabling visible extensions and disabling unwanted browser features can maximize the opportunities for removing the 'Jhon Woddy' Ransomware before any encryption can occur. So far, malware experts only are seeing this campaign targeting English speakers, much like the DNRansomware.

'Skids,' as they're often known, are rarely capable of launching large scale or well-organized campaigns. However, for the typical PC owner, such a differentiation may be moot since all it takes is a single Trojan like the DNRansomware to turn every file that they value into the digital equivalent of garbage.

Jhon Woddy Ransomware

Threat Metric

The New Fad for Script Kiddies

The Penalty of Having a Tender Heart

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