GOG Ransomware

Posted: January 4, 2017

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Threat Level:	8/10
Infected PCs:	12

First Seen:	January 4, 2017
Last Seen:	December 19, 2019
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The GOG Ransomware's authors have taken their time to make their ransomware seem as unique as possible by implementing a unique ransom note, setting up Tor payment pages, as well as including code that replaces the wallpaper of their victim automatically with a ransom message that resembles the one used by all variants of .locky File Extension' Ransomware strongly. However, as much as they try to hide it, there's no way to fool the malware researchers who've identified the GOG Ransomware as nothing more than a piece of crypto-threat built upon the infamous HiddenTear open-source project. The HiddenTear project was meant to be used for educational purposes, but tens of cybercrooks have already taken advantage of it to set-up their own crypto-threats such as the Hackerman Ransomware,/a>, the KratosCrypt Ransomware, the Guster Ransomware, and many others.

Locky Wannabe is Just another HiddenTear Variant

Victims of the GOG Ransomware may not notice any changes at first, but this is just because the ransomware is programmed to carry out its entire encryption routine before revealing its presence. The authors have included a large number of file extensions that the GOG Ransomware should target, and they've also changed the unique file extension used to mark the encrypted files to '.l0cked' (this means that if the original file was called 'invoice.xlsx,' it will become 'invoice.xlsx.l0cked' once it has been encrypted). The GOG Ransomware also creates two new files on the user's desktop – 'random.jpg,' which is set as the desktop wallpaper and 'DecryptFile.txt,' which contains a copy of the ransom note included in the wallpaper.

The ransom message tells victims that their files have been encrypted securely, and the only way out of the situation is to follow the instructions presented in the ransom message. According to it, victims must download the Tor browser and visit the website seen in the ransom note. The page there prompts them to enter their e-mail addresses, as well as victim ID that can be found in the 'DecryptFile.txt' file. According to the payment page, victims must pay a ransom fee of 0.3 Bitcoins in time or the price will be doubled. Paying the ransom fee or meeting the attacker's demands is completely out of the question, and we advise users to utilize an anti-malware utility that can help them get rid of the corrupted software immediately. The data encrypted by the GOG Ransomware can be restored by using a free HiddenTear decryption tool.

GOG Ransomware

Threat Metric

Locky Wannabe is Just another HiddenTear Variant

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