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Extortion Virus Code Cracked
Billosaur writes "BBC News is reporting that the password to the dreaded Archiveus virus has been discovered and is now available to anyone who needs it. Archiveus is a 'ransomware' virus, which combines files from the My Documents folder on Windows machines and exchanges them for a single, password-protected file, which it will not unlock unless a password is given. The user would normally be required to pay the extortionist money in order to receive the password, but apparently the virus writer made one small, critical error in coding: placing the password in the code. BTW, the 30-digit password locking the files is mf2lro8sw03ufvnsq034jfowr18f3cszc20vmw."
I was just looking for that. Thanks!
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
We are all now victims of a DMCA lawsuit!
Get your Unix fortune now!
These days even the virus authors don't know anything about writing secure software :(
That's the combination to my luggage!
"A REAL computer has ONE speed and the only powersaving it permits is when you pull the power leads out of the back!"
Hmm...
It also works for new Windows XP Professional installs.
Strange.
Another consultant who stuck it out.
"We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."
heh, is this strings to the rescue?
:)
one of the best programs evar
sad robot making broken music
Maybe they meant 30 as in "any number that is greater than 29 and less than 40". You know, thirty. Thirty-ish. Mostly thirty. About thirty. Close to forty, but not quite. Good enough for government work. In Soviet Russia, YOU are 30. 30) Profit! 38 is the new 30.
Actually I didn't see any fingers or toes in the password at all.
Everything you know is wrong, Just forget the words and sing along.
1) Write ransom virus ....
2) Release
3)
4) Profit!
Wait - that actually works I think
I thought it was a good idea
The virus writers could have used a GPL-based crypt library, but realized that there would be legal issues involved, requiring them to open-source the whole virus.
There are 0x40000000 types of people: those who understand 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point, and those who don't.
today's Sesame Street program has been brought to you by:
mf2lro8sw03ufvnsq034jfowr18f3cszc20vm and w
Confucius say: "Man who associates with smarter men than himself is smarter than the men he associates with."
How'd that guy find out my root password!?
Creative misinterpretation is your friend.
Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ayw !w !
Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay
mf2lro8sw03ufvnsq034jfowr18f3cszc20vmw!
Even though the sound of it Is something quite atrocious
If you say it loud enough
You'll always sound precocious
mf2lro8sw03ufvnsq034jfowr18f3cszc20vm
Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay
Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay
Because I was afraid to speak
When I was just a lad My father gave me nose a tweak And told me I was bad
But then one day I learned a word That saved me aching nose
The biggest word I ever heard And this is how it goes:
Oh, mf2lro8sw03ufvnsq034jfowr18f3cszc20vmw!
Even though the sound of it
Is something quite atrocious
If you say it loud enough
You'll always sound precocious
mf2lro8sw03ufvnsq034jfowr18f3cszc20vm
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Douglas Adams made one....
"What do you get when you multiply six by nine?" "Forty-two".
Work it out in base 13.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
No, no. You have to pay the virus researchers to find out which eight characters to ignore. Thank god for the virus researchers, otherwise the virus ransomers would really have us, huh?
A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
I was confused by that as well. I presume plaintext, since storing a hash and comparing a hash generated from user input seems standard practice... at least in the non-virus writting community.
Ya think the writter had a PHB leaning on him to meet deadline?
A Human Right
You mean tredecimal Duodecimal?
You called?
"Results 1 - 10 of about 69 for mf2lro8sw03ufvnsq034jfowr18f3cszc20vmw. (0.17 seconds)"
Nuff said.
Or worse, a virus writer could just use a randomized one-time pad which makes the files unrecoverable, claim he has the password, and just make off with the dough!
(Mod me down to hide my post if you think I'm giving virus writers too many ideas.)
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
As a loyal slashdot member, I had not bothered to read the article before posting.
That goes without saying, good sir.
I actually did go back and read it
You what??? As an even more loyal slashdot member, I *still* have not read the article :-)
you'll never guess how the ransom is paid. The victims are asked to go buy drugs at one of three online "pharmacies". Curious, eh?
Very. So this virus is... advertising? Wow.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
(for exceptionally high values of 30.)
The CIA won't have a problem taking down an online pharmacy or two, they really hate it when people interfere with their drug trade anyway.
You know why computer programmers get Thanksgiving and Christmas confused? Cuz OCT 31 == DEC 25.
Click here or here.