Mischa Ransomware

Posted: May 12, 2016

Threat Metric

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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.

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% 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:	11,686
Threat Level:	10/10
Infected PCs:	993

First Seen:	May 12, 2016
Last Seen:	September 5, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The Mischa Ransomware is a Trojan that holds the contents of your PC and local network hostage through encoding any files with an encryption algorithm. While the Mischa Ransomware is a newly-authored threat without public decryption tools yet available, researchers don't encourage paying any ransoms that this threat's messages may demand. Protect your data with appropriately thorough backup strategies, and have your anti-malware programs remove the Mischa Ransomware from any individual machines.

The Mischief of the Mischa Ransomware in the Cloud

The benefits of using network technology for increased work efficiency are multitudinous, but not without their drawbacks and negative security implications. PC owners in general and workers in public institutions throughout Europe, in particular, may find that their ease of network access comes with new problems, such as Mischa Ransomware infections. Although this threat includes a standard encryption-based ransoming payload, malware experts also saw it expressing attack capabilities reaching out through to any local network-connected PCs.

The Mischa Ransomware campaigns target institutions within Europe currently, such as Switzerland and Austria. The original installation uses targeted e-mail spam in local languages with the message content most likely crafted especially for each victim. Instead of including a file attachment, the message includes a link to a German cloud service, Magentacloud.de. The link points to a JPG and a fake PDF (in reality, an executable), with the second installing the Mischa Ransomware.

The Mischa Ransomware's payload uses standard data-encrypting attacks for barricading the user from accessing their files and identifies the affected content with the addition of a 'cRh8' text string. Lastly, the Mischa Ransomware loads a ransom message explaining the circumstances of the attack and asking the victim to use the Tor Browser for processing a fee that will restore any data.

The Mischa Ransomware seems designed for compromising multiple network environments' worths of PCs explicitly, and even can reboot a server to continue encrypting new content. As a result, a single Mischa Ransomware infection can impact the entirety of a government branch, business or NGO entity's local data.

A Forecast for Your Files that You can Appreciate

The Mischa Ransomware may be a new Trojan, but its developers have shown a minimum of interest in concealing their identities. This threat's operations most likely base themselves within Russia's borders and have a reasonable likelihood of being a successor or supplement to the Petya Ransomware, which shares many of its elements. Ransom payments should be avoided at all costs ordinarily for the innate unreliability of such transactions, but, as usual, sufficiently protected backups can let any victims restore their content and ignore the original encryption routine.

Malware researchers endorse using recommended network security protocols, such as complex alphanumeric passwords, for crimping the impact of a Mischa Ransomware attack. Alternately, the original infection also can be prevented by verifying your file downloads before opening them. Particularly alert PC owners also can note the use of the 'hxxp' Web address exploit in the Mischa Ransomware's e-mail messages, which subvert your browser's security features by disguising the URL.

Even though the Mischa Ransomware's content uses relatively well-tailored social engineering tactics, the Trojan still is heavily reliant on prior methods of bypassing your security. Taking five seconds to double-check the safety of an e-mail could save you the ordeal of having to delete the Mischa Ransomware through basic anti-malware practices without any promise of preserving your old data.

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>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\Petya_and_Mischa.exe

File name: Petya_and_Mischa.exe
Size: 899.58 KB (899584 bytes)
MD5: 8a241cfcc23dc740e1fadc7f2df3965e
Detection count: 9
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\Petya_and_Mischa.exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: May 3, 2023