Badly-Coded Ransomware Locks User Files and Throws Away Encryption Key (softpedia.com)

An anonymous reader writes: A new ransomware family was not tested by its developer and is encrypting user files and then throwing away the encryption key because of an error in its programming. The ransomware author wanted to cut down costs by using a static encryption key for all users, but the ransomware kept generating random keys which it did not store anywhere. The only way to recover files is if users had a previous backup. You can detect it by the ransom message which has the same ID:qDgx5Bs8H

Comments

Like the old viruses

[Anonymous Coward]

So it's like the old fashion viruses that actually cause damage to your system then.

This would have never happened.

[Anonymous Coward]

If the author decided on an open source project, the community could have found and developed a fix during beta testing.

DUMB

[jez9999]

Disasters Usually Motivate Backups

Re:Usually the case

[radarskiy]

This is why we can't have nice hostages.

Ummmm... about that linux "ransomware"

[StevenMaurer]

Now that we've decided to help bug-fix ransomware, anyone consider its usability?

"Once launched with administrator privileges, the Trojan loads into the memory of its process files containing cybercriminals' demands:"

In other words, it probably goes something like this:

% tar -xf "ransomware-dontrunme-whatareyouanidiot?.tar"
% cd ransomware-dontrunme
% ./configure > /dev/null 2>&1
% make > /dev/null 2>&1
% make install > /dev/null 2>&1
%./runransomware
Error: Permission denied. Please run as root.
% sudo ./runransomware
Password:
Segfault in libc.so. Please reinstall.

Followed by much sighing, and trying to google what the problem is.

See, this is the problem with the Linux desktop. Even installing malware is just too darned complicated.

Re:Just asking......

[Anonymous Coward]

You're really one tough old guy, JustAnotherOldGuy.
If you choked on your bagel tomorrow, I wouldn't give a shit