Trojan.Encoder.6491

Posted: October 13, 2016

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:	5

First Seen:	October 13, 2016
Last Seen:	January 21, 2022
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The Trojan.Encoder.6491 is the first ransomware written in Go, a programming language developed and maintained by Google. Naturally, the Go language is not meant to be used for harmful purposes nor should its name be associated with threats. However, con artists have decided to explore this new field by developing and releasing the Trojan.Encoder.6491, a piece of crypto threat that uses the AES-256 encryption to lock over 140 different types of files found on the computers of its victims.

The sample that malware researchers discovered was found in a file called 'Windows_Security.exe.' This may mean that the authors of the Trojan.Encoder.6491 are attempting to spread their ransomware with the help of fake security updates and fake Windows utilities. We advise users never to download Windows tools & utilities unless they are hosted on a reputable and well-known website.

As soon as a victims execute the Trojan.Encoder.6491 payload on their computers, the threat will start doing what it does best – encrypting files and preventing the user from accessing their contents. The Trojan.Encoder.6491 uses the AES-256 encryption, and it also renames all locked files by encoding their original name with the base64 encoding. The threat also appends the '.enc' extension to all encrypted files (e.g. 'document.txt' may become ''ZG9jdW1lbnQNCg==.enc'). The '.enc' file extension appears to be quite popular among ransomware authors, as we have already identified other crypto malware variants that use this extension to mark encrypted files – the CryptoHasYou Ransomware and the Jager Ransomware. However, neither of them is linked to the Trojan.Encoder.6491.

The ransom note that the Trojan.Encoder.6491 leaves behind tells users that they have 72 hours to pay the ransom fee of $25 or their decryption key will be destroyed permanently. The ransom fee must be paid via Bitcoins, and the ransomware operators have left behind a Bitcoin wallet address to which the payments should be forwarded. Although the price is not large, we advise victims of the Trojan.Encoder.6491 not to pay any money, since making the payment doesn't guarantee that the cyber crooks will fulfill their end of the deal. On the plus side, there is a legitimate decryption tool available, but it requires the purchase of a commercial anti-virus product license, which comes at a similar price as the ransom fee. It is very likely that independent anti-malware experts may release a free decryption utility in the near future, and that's why victims of the Trojan.Encoder.6491 should make sure to save their encrypted data until such a tool becomes available.

Trojan.Encoder.6491

Threat Metric

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