Xorist-Frozen Ransomware

The Xorist-Frozen Ransomware is part of the Xorist Ransomware family, which locks the victim's files by encrypting them with a simple, XOR cipher. This variant's file-locking feature also may damage the operating system and prevent your PC from booting correctly. Have your anti-malware products delete the Xorist-Frozen Ransomware on sight, and use backups or free decryptors for all your data recovery needs.

Windows Gets a Touch of Frostbite

By Trojan years, the Xorist Ransomware is old, but threat actors continue being interested in abusing it for locking files and delivering ransom demands for returning them to their owners. the Xorist-Frozen Ransomware is a present-year followup of older versions of the same family, from the 2016's XRat Ransomware to the 2017's Zixer2 Ransomware, the AAC Ransomware, and the Blocked2 Ransomware. Malware experts are verifying attacks by the Xorist-Frozen Ransomware's unknown admins, who are compromising business networks and server-related infrastructure.

The Xorist-Frozen Ransomware's means of infection are still theoretical, but almost certainly include some form of forged e-mail attachments or embedded Web links for triggering drive-by-download attacks, or Remote Desktop exploits from threat actors who are brute-forcing their way onto each network. The Xorist-Frozen Ransomware, like most custom-edited versions of the Xorist Ransomware, scans the PC for a variety of files that it can block with an encryption attack using XOR (one of the less secure, data-enciphering algorithms). This attack suppresses symptoms and has no UI for the victim, who only may notice it after the Xorist-Frozen Ransomware takes their files hostage.

A particularly odd aspect of the Xorist-Frozen Ransomware's payload is that its encryption also may target essential Windows components, which can prevent the OS from booting. Most threat actors avoid doing this level of system damage, which interferes with any attempted ransom transactions, and this change may be a bug or oversight by the Xorist-Frozen Ransomware's admins. The majority of other members of this Trojan's family, as per malware experts' old analyses, don't interfere with the boot-up process.

Thawing out an Operating System and Everything on It

As a business server-targeting threat, the Xorist-Frozen Ransomware is at the most risk of attacking users via e-mail, such as fake delivery messages with PDF attachments, or network login-based vectors, such as breaking a non-secure password. Following traditional password-managing strategies (such as using long strings with mixed alphanumeric characters) can block many brute-force attacks by different threat actors. Malware researchers also remind all readers to be especially cautious around e-mail messages that request your opening an attachment or following a custom link, especially if the source has a traditional theme of a drive-by-download attack, such as that of a delivery company or in-office equipment.

The Xorist-Frozen Ransomware doesn't use a very secure method for locking the hostage data. Any users should be capable of decrypting and unlocking their files, in full, by using the free, Xorist Ransomware-based decryptors that the PC security sector hosts. Although the Xorist-Frozen Ransomware does offer a Bitcoin-based ransoming method for restoring your media, malware experts always recommend ignoring this solution, especially if the user has yet to test the freeware equivalents. Most anti-malware applications also experience few or no impediments to removing the Xorist-Frozen Ransomware, and other Xorist Ransomware variations.

Thanks to some less than usual changes in how it attacks data, the Xorist-Frozen Ransomware may necessitate the victim's rebooting via a recovery USB drive, DVD or CD. This problem may make recovering more troublesome than is typical, but it should do nothing for encouraging you to pay an unearned ransom to the Trojan's authors.