LockLock Ransomware
Posted: September 14, 2016
Threat Metric
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: | 61 |
| First Seen: | September 14, 2016 |
|---|---|
| OS(es) Affected: | Windows |
The LockLock Ransomware is a Trojan that blocks your files by encoding them with a cipher, with its modifications detectable from additional changes in the extension tags. The LockLock Ransomware campaign uses ransom messages for soliciting payments in return for decryption help, although this threat does belong to a family that is often easy for members of the PC security sector to decode. Even if you do choose to pay the threat actor's fee, your anti-malware software should always be trusted with deleting the LockLock Ransomware to limit any ongoing damages.
When an Open Source is a Little Too Open
Previously found on GitHub, EDA2 is an open-source code project created and distributed strictly for educational purposes of benefit to the PC security sector. However, con artists lost little time in turning EDA2 and an associated project, Hidden Tear, into variants of threatening software. Although EDA2 no longer is publicly hosted, malware analysts see new Trojans using its code almost every week. Most recently, the Trojan in question is the LockLock Ransomware.
The LockLock Ransomware's current campaign appears to be targeting PC users in China through unknown infection vectors, though casual attempts at spreading similar threats often use e-mail attachments as the lynchpins of their attacks. The Trojan encodes your files and creates ransom messages, ostensibly for buying back your encoded data. The symptoms that malware analysts can verify are:
- The LockLock Ransomware encrypts your non-system files with an AES 256-bit algorithm. Related programs may no longer open them or interpret their contents, although the damage is potentially reversible with a decryptor.
- While encrypting the data, the LockLock Ransomware also inserts its custom extension ('.the LockLock') at the end of each name.
- The Trojan uses two methods of displaying a ransom note: by hijacking your desktop background and replacing its image with a warning message, and by creating Notepad TXT files. Current versions of the LockLock Ransomware use themes referencing the hacker-activist organization called Anonymous, although malware analysts can find no verifiable links between the two entities.
The infection blocks data with the purpose of soliciting a ransom payment from victims following its instructions. After taking the money, the threat actor may or may not provide any decryption assistance.
Knock-Knocking on the LockLock Ransomware's Data Lockdown
EDA2 Trojans like the LockLock Ransomware, the SeginChile Ransomware or the CryptoShocker Ransomware are often relatively vulnerable to the decryption efforts spearheaded by various entities in the PC sector. PC users who are unable to restore their content should consider looking for help from reputable security researchers as a preferable option to paying this Trojan's ransom. Non-local backups also offer a recovery strategy that malware analysts endorse regularly for being robust and rarely targeted by most Trojans, including the LockLock Ransomware.
Most of the LockLock Ransomware's symptoms are visible only after the completion of its payload. You can prevent the encryption from occurring by defending your PC from many of the most well-documented infection vectors, including network accounts with weak passwords, unsafe RDP settings, and disguised e-mail attachments. Detecting and removing the LockLock Ransomware through your anti-malware tools usually only should be necessary after most common-sense security protocols fail.
Con artists show little shame in reusing code that has been thoroughly analyzed by the PC security industry at large. While this results in a proliferation of threats like the LockLock Ransomware, it also makes it easier than otherwise to protect yourself with preexisting Web safety standards.
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