'.0ff File Extension' Ransomware

Posted: November 23, 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:	9

First Seen:	November 23, 2016
Last Seen:	July 22, 2019
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The '.0ff File Extension' Ransomware is a member of the Filecoder family of file-encrypting Trojans. Its attacks can modify and block your files by enciphering their contents, with other symptoms including various formats of text messages soliciting ransom money. Backup strategies can alleviate the need for decrypting the above data, and anti-malware programs can remove the '.0ff File Extension' Ransomware at any point of the infection.

A Trojan Coming Back out of Retirement

Activity in Trojan campaigns can be inconsistent sometimes, either due to questionable methods of distribution or changes in the threat actor's administrative actions. Even though many Trojans earn media attention from sustained spikes of activity that proceed to fall off completely, others, like the '.0ff File Extension' Ransomware, may vanish for a time, only to appear again months or years later. This stasis period doesn't seem to have been caused by any significant updates to the '.0ff File Extension' Ransomware, which is using many of the same components previously detected by the cyber security industry one year ago.

Malware researchers began to find signs of renewed activity in November, possibly as a result of new e-mail spam, exploit kit-based drive-by-downloads or hacked RDP systems. The '.0ff File Extension' Ransomware's installation may self-terminate the program in well-protected machines, such as virtual environments, to prevent its analysis. In cases where the Trojan is allowed to complete its payload, the '.0ff File Extension' Ransomware scans local, network-mapped and removable drives for certain files and encodes them with a (currently uncracked) encryption algorithm.

Although the victim can ascertain the file damage quickly by looking for data using the '.0ff' extension that the '.0ff File Extension' Ransomware inserts into the names, they're unusable without a decryption procedure. The '.0ff File Extension' Ransomware then drops a Notepad file containing its ransom message asking you to use Bitmessage to initiate communications with the threat actors. Malware experts failed to find any further information about fees in demand for the decryption service, although an extorted sum often starts at several hundred dollars, at a minimum.

Pulling an Old Trojan '0ff' of Your Files

While it can be tempting to assume that a Trojan that's no longer in news headlines is no longer a problem, the '.0ff File Extension' Ransomware and threats like it testify as to the continuing efficacy of even out of date threat campaigns. Standards for protection against its most probable distribution tactics include many of the steps malware experts suggest habitually for all PC users, including maintaining your backups, keeping to a rotation of passwords, and monitoring browser settings for potentially exploitable features. Fully reversing the file damage the '.0ff File Extension' Ransomware causes may not be possible, which places additional importance on preventing an infection.

Due to its age, most anti-malware products should have few or no issues with identifying and removing the '.0ff File Extension' Ransomware, which is detectable as being a variant of FileCoder typically. While the above constitutes the majority of this threat's activities, malware analysts also note some minor network activity that may benefit the threat actors controlling the '.0ff File Extension' Ransomware. Use Safe Mode or alternate system boot-up options for disabling this threat before you scan your computer.

'Old but not yet dead' is the rallying cry of Trojans like the '.0ff File Extension' Ransomware, which you shouldn't underestimate for the potential harm they're capable of causing.

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:

file.exe

File name: file.exe
Size: 2.05 MB (2057974 bytes)
MD5: 217c23371f1d91e81beac74a759be045
Detection count: 5
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file