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Vegclass Ransomware

Posted: May 11, 2016

Threat Metric

Threat Level: 10/10
Infected PCs: 881
First Seen: May 11, 2016
Last Seen: January 8, 2020
OS(es) Affected: Windows


The Vegclass@aol.com Ransomware is a Trojan that restricts access to your content, such as work files or entertainment media. The Vegclass@aol.com Ransomware threat also delivers instructions on a recommended solution, which typically con artists use for negotiating ransom fees. Since the resolution method endorsed by the Vegclass@aol.com Ransomware involves transactions with the same people responsible for the attack, malware experts recommend using conventional anti-malware methods to remove the Vegclass@aol.com Ransomware instead of paying any requested money.

A Trojan not Exactly in a Class of Its Own

For many con artists, the most difficult part of cybercrime isn't the moral ambiguity of the act, or even administrating the campaign, but the actual design of the necessary threat. The Vegclass@aol.com Ransomware is a new showcase of just how little effort threat authors can put into their Trojans, as long as there are general-purpose ransomware kits available for creating new versions of the same essential bundle of code. Current evidence suggests that the Vegclass@aol.com Ransomware, and others with similar symptoms, are being produced through a kit based on the Rakhni family.

In spite of its uncreative origins, the Vegclass@aol.com Ransomware still includes a payload capable of causing substantial harm to the stored data of an unprotected PC. This threat searches your hard drives for files of particular formats (Word documents, images, and spreadsheets are some examples) to encrypt. The following encryption process, which occurs without any symptoms of being ongoing, modifies the internal data of each file and prevents your programs from opening them. The Vegclass@aol.com Ransomware also adds a new format string (.XTBL) and its e-mail address, using a style virtually identical to the Ecovector Ransomware.

The Vegclass@aol.com Ransomware also shares something else with the Ecovector Ransomware: its ransom note. Other than a change to the provided e-mail address, the Vegclass@aol.com Ransomware's desktop image-based ransom is identical to that of the other Trojan. Since these threats are being deployed so closely to one another, malware researchers suspect that the baseline Trojan kit used to generate them is being rented out to multiple entities, who may use wholly different tactics of spreading their infections.

Escaping the One-Way Road to a Data Ransom

The Vegclass@aol.com Ransomware's message implies that contacting its e-mail address will put the victim into the hands of a technical support team that can help undo the encryption attack. The real motivation is forcing you to pay a ransom without any legal protection guaranteeing that they will render a decryption service to you in return. Whenever alternative solutions are available, malware experts recommend using them to recover your data, rather than trusting a con artist to honor an agreement.

Once its initial attack finishes, the Vegclass@aol.com Ransomware delivers relatively obvious symptoms in the form of its changes to file names and desktop images. In response to a Vegclass@aol.com Ransomware infection, always reboot your PC and use Safe Mode (or an external device) while loading your OS. Then scan your PC with anti-malware products capable of removing the Vegclass@aol.com Ransomware, as well as the threats that delivered it to your PC. As usual, malware experts have seen no default, self-installing features bundling themselves within the Vegclass@aol.com Ransomware as an individual program.

PC users with durable data protection strategies are likely to suffer minimal harm from an adequately removed Vegclass@aol.com Ransomware infection. However, those who are unprepared for suffering potential attacks against locally-stored data will, as always, have to exercise more aggressive care against spam attachments, misrepresented Web links and other infection vectors.

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:



%SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\setap23.exe File name: setap23.exe
Size: 271.14 KB (271149 bytes)
MD5: 65076308420a2ec88b78e3a89363ffbc
Detection count: 136
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 24, 2016
%SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\setap_c.exe File name: setap_c.exe
Size: 320.63 KB (320639 bytes)
MD5: e24c47ea6734e54abea20f0572e471f1
Detection count: 117
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 24, 2016
%SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\Payload222.exe File name: Payload222.exe
Size: 373.79 KB (373799 bytes)
MD5: bd3799e4b3b800e69f35983062aecc2f
Detection count: 117
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 24, 2016
%SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\Payload_c.exe File name: Payload_c.exe
Size: 283.31 KB (283319 bytes)
MD5: 9c06ee54141742ad86af69ad56411e56
Detection count: 84
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 30, 2016
%SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Payload_c.exe File name: Payload_c.exe
Size: 296.21 KB (296216 bytes)
MD5: dd868b858d3bfd81a181ab4a8ce5c763
Detection count: 59
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 24, 2016
%SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Payload (1).exe File name: Payload (1).exe
Size: 178.17 KB (178176 bytes)
MD5: 6e43a6671c30a5e724f4435df355fdac
Detection count: 50
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Local
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 24, 2016
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Payload.exe File name: Payload.exe
Size: 178.17 KB (178176 bytes)
MD5: 67c18e418a9d5911df5ac6fbae346054
Detection count: 47
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %LOCALAPPDATA%
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 24, 2016
%SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\Payload2.exe File name: Payload2.exe
Size: 301.23 KB (301236 bytes)
MD5: 95bc62c8951ef6368c66dae01c4f3cad
Detection count: 35
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 24, 2016
%SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\Payload22.exe File name: Payload22.exe
Size: 355.48 KB (355485 bytes)
MD5: 1d080db77da3b953f3ee5b412585800e
Detection count: 16
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 26, 2016
%SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\Payload27.exe File name: Payload27.exe
Size: 452.87 KB (452879 bytes)
MD5: 441472d28358781aa2c92af4a98082fd
Detection count: 16
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 30, 2016
%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\Payload2.exe File name: Payload2.exe
Size: 369.66 KB (369664 bytes)
MD5: b36fd1368b77721bd7484dd6d458f736
Detection count: 10
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %USERPROFILE%\Desktop
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 23, 2016
%SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Payload5.exe File name: Payload5.exe
Size: 431.07 KB (431072 bytes)
MD5: 0e572e3d801e6d0d496e32caee1b4051
Detection count: 5
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Local
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 24, 2016
%SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\Payload_c.exe File name: Payload_c.exe
Size: 408.06 KB (408064 bytes)
MD5: c50af907d224a9fb880a845c7b44e5d9
Detection count: 5
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 23, 2016
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