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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."
Odd how that "30 digit password" has 38 characters, 13 of which are digits.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
You are absolutely wrong. PKI was designed with the purpose of preventing man-in-the-middle attacks. The virus writer would include the public key in the virus with an associated encryption algorithm. The problem arised with decryption. In order to decrypt a file you would need an associated private key. Now if this key is available inside the virus it would be just as easy to find as the password within the article.
In fact the whole idea of cryptography revolves around the encryption algorithm telling you nothing about a method to decrypt the data it encrypts (At least without a certain key). These are called trapdoor one-way functions.
The most realistic way I can think of writing such a virus would be to provide and encryption algo in the virus and then provide a decryption program when the intended victim has paid you the money. Now aren't you glad I'm not writing viruses?