Karo Ransomware

Posted: June 29, 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:	10/10
Infected PCs:	68

First Seen:	June 29, 2017
Last Seen:	April 6, 2021
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The Karo Ransomware is an EDA2-based Trojan that locks your files until you agree to pay its ransom over a TOR website. Malware experts are seeing these attacks targeting business networks via e-mails, and users should monitor any unusual messages or attachments for potential exploits. Although the Trojan's encryption is unbreakable currently, anti-malware products can block its installation or uninstall the Karo Ransomware safely.

A Charge to Your Credit Card that Gets out of Hand

E-mail still is a preferred delivery method for con artists who want to take others' files and hold them hostage for profit. One of the last known campaigns malware experts can verify is a series of attacks using the Karo Ransomware, which is installing itself under the pretense of being an alert about a Mastercard payment. Although the attached file is a document, not a program executable, it includes an embedded, macro-based exploit for installing the Karo Ransomware, once the victim enables it.

The Karo Ransomware further disguises itself with a fake 'svchost.exe' name (which is a default part of Windows) while it encrypts the contents of your PC. Along with encoding documents, pictures, and similar media with an AES cipher, the Karo Ransomware adds the '.ipygh' extensions to all their names swaps out the desktop's background and places an HTML message on your desktop. The note limits itself to advising you to use the TOR Web browser to navigate to the threat actor's ransoming website with a configurable field for the URL.

Once at this site, the user may be asked to pay a cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, or another cash-value transaction, in return for getting the code for unblocking their files. However, most attacks using file-encrypting threats like the Karo Ransomware traffic in ransom methods that you can't refund even if you don't receive any decryption services.

Canceling the Worst Kind of Charges

Side features of the Karo Ransomware provide additional details on the entities its threat actors are intent on extorting. Although many file-encoding threats will terminate basic utilities like the Task Manager, the Karo Ransomware includes an auto-termination functionality for programs specific to managing Web servers and databases, such as Microsoft's SQL Server. Unfortunately, the Karo Ransomware's encryption method is relatively secure against third-party deciphering. Potentially, users could try to restore a default backup of the key that the Trojan saves to '%APPDATA%\aes' location, similar to other versions of EDA2.

Backups always are safer recovery solutions for damaged content than paying a threat actor who may or may not abide by any agreements. Since Windows default backups are at high-risk of deletion, malware experts encourage using backups that you save to another device or cloud service whenever possible. Updating your anti-malware protection also may be crucial to deleting the Karo Ransomware in time, which is evading many brands of threat detection successfully.

A lot of peril can come out of a little document, especially one that, like the Karo Ransomware's delivery vehicles, includes embedded exploits. If you're asked to enable extra word-processing features, the chances are higher than you'd think that the content is more than just some text.

Technical Details

File System Modifications

Tutorials: If you wish to learn how to remove malware components manually, you can read the tutorials on how to find malware, kill unwanted processes, remove malicious DLLs and delete other harmful files. Always be sure to back up your PC before making any changes.

The following files were created in the system:

dir\svchost.exe

File name: svchost.exe
Size: 720.89 KB (720896 bytes)
MD5: 4e2273bca8389e2b57077e5e8cbd6f5f
Detection count: 90
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: dir
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: June 30, 2017

dir\svchost.exe

File name: svchost.exe
Size: 608.76 KB (608768 bytes)
MD5: 6409545619c0bc92ff486a73407279ce
Detection count: 80
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: dir
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 17, 2022

C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\hacken\Ransomware tool pack\Ransomware tool pack\ransomware virus\RANSOMWARE1122\a9053a3a52113698143a2b9801509c68d0d8b4b8208da453f0974547df0931bc.exe

File name: a9053a3a52113698143a2b9801509c68d0d8b4b8208da453f0974547df0931bc.exe
Size: 720.38 KB (720384 bytes)
MD5: 43478841baa4b8754f75516220e33ac3
Detection count: 19
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\hacken\Ransomware tool pack\Ransomware tool pack\ransomware virus\RANSOMWARE1122\a9053a3a52113698143a2b9801509c68d0d8b4b8208da453f0974547df0931bc.exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: September 24, 2022

C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\hacken\Ransomware tool pack\Ransomware tool pack\ransomware virus\RANSOMWARE1122\72716d15ea7d118b8c99dbcb15114188abe468718c876ac52b0779161ef7e821.exe

File name: 72716d15ea7d118b8c99dbcb15114188abe468718c876ac52b0779161ef7e821.exe
Size: 720.38 KB (720384 bytes)
MD5: d7c62a22cc1a832ba2ce0bfd1c4f9e9c
Detection count: 19
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\hacken\Ransomware tool pack\Ransomware tool pack\ransomware virus\RANSOMWARE1122\72716d15ea7d118b8c99dbcb15114188abe468718c876ac52b0779161ef7e821.exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: September 24, 2022