Mac KeRanger Ransomware May Turn Out to Be an Inferior Linux.Encoder Malware

The news is abuzz about a Ransomware threat, KeRanger, hitting Apple Mac computers through a corrupted application. After the initial hype of the very first type of Ransomware threat infiltrating Mac computers, which are thought to be unsusceptible to most malicious software, researchers from Bitdefender claim that KeRanger is a revised variant of the Linux.Encoder malware.

While KeRanger has been confirmed only to infect about 6,500 Mac computers, the potential forthcoming dangers of other similar threats that target Mac computers have yet to be seen. The discovery of Bitdefender verifying KeRanger as being a reprised version of the Linux.Encoder malware comes as a big shock to the computer security community.

At the time of an outbreak of Linux.Encoder it specifically targeted Linux servers but the underlying data from the threat shows that it was built from an open-source ransomware project.

First discovered by Dr.Web, Linux.Encoder is part of the ransomware family of malware first coming onto the scene back in November of 2015. At the time of its outbreak, Linux.Encoder was known to infiltrate Linux systems where it would encrypt files specific to Web services and source code repositories.

BitDefender was the first company to decode or decrypt Linux.Encoder's encryption and put the ransomware creators to shame by publicizing previous iterations of the Linux.Encoder threat, which were utter failures in the eyes of computer security experts. Moreover, predecessor variations of Linux.Encoder in the form of ransomware were even bigger failures as the encryption methods were ousted and later exploited proving its ineffectiveness.

The transition of Linux.Encoder becoming KeRanger took place when either the Linux.Encoder developer made a choice to expand the code to support Mac systems or licensed it out another cybercriminal group who specialize in the exploitation of Mac OS X computers.

Ransomware threats are nothing to take for granted. In light of the latest ransomware threats to attack Windows-based PCs, future Mac OS X variations could be just as destructive in leaving computer users with only a few viable choices for a resolution. However, if we learn anything from Linux.Encoder being a basis of the KeRanger ransomware threat, Mac OS X system could very well remain as the most secure computer platform. Such a theory will ring especially true when compared to Windows PCs and the onslaught of recent ransomware threats, which have no mercy on damaging files to the point that some computer users count all data as a complete loss.

While there is an apparent ineffectiveness of Linux.Encoder, the transition to Mac ransomware has proven to wreak havoc among those who were unfortunate enough to obtain the spreading agent, which was uncovered as a corrupted version of the Transmission application. In retrospect, we assume that because BitDefender was able to decipher the encryption of Linux.Encoder that we may see reprise from the threat of future Mac ransomware threats if they prove to be just as much of a lightweight.