BlackFireEye Ransomware

The BlackFireEye Ransomware is a file-locker Trojan that can block media on your computer by encrypting it. Any victims also may find new extensions on their filenames and ransoming instructions, which the BlackFireEye Ransomware may deliver via hijacking the desktop, creating pop-ups, or dropping text messages. Avoid the ransoming demands until after trying all other recovery methods, and keep anti-malware programs in place for deleting the BlackFireEye Ransomware as soon as possible.

Under the Eye of a Prison Warden for Files

A new threat actor is developing a file-locking Trojan that some sources are reporting as being a probable variant of the Arescrypt Ransomware, a GitHub-hosted, open-source project. This update, the BlackFireEye Ransomware, is including significant changes to the ransoming components, which points to its author planning on distributing it soon in a live campaign that may be attacking either recreational PC users or business networks. No freeware solutions for unlocking any files are available to the public currently.

The BlackFireEye Ransomware includes no self-distributing features, such as copying itself to new drives and may take advantage of other threats, such as Trojan droppers, for installing itself. Like many file-locking Trojans, the BlackFireEye Ransomware modifies the Registry for guaranteeing that it can launch automatically after the installation routine and the delivery of its payload. The latter, an encryption feature that can encompass file formats such as text documents, JPG or BMP pictures, Excel spreadsheets, and other media, blocks all of the affected files along with inserting '.jes' extensions (which, as per malware experts' analyses, is unique to the BlackFireEye Ransomware campaign) in their names.

The BlackFireEye Ransomware campaign is in its earliest stages and may be subject to other changes, but malware researchers are verifying that it's dropping a new ransoming message for selling the file unlocker. This note includes the 'brand name' of the Trojan, offers a limited sample of the decryption feature, and tells the user how to pay in Bitcoins or ZCash for total data recovery. The BlackFireEye Ransomware may display this message in a pop-up with an interactive user interface, along with creating text messages or changing the desktop's wallpaper.

Putting Out the Fire in a Trojan's Gaze

The BlackFireEye Ransomware can endanger multiple PCs by encrypting any unprotected network shares, in addition to local drives, and isolating a compromised machine should be one of the first steps any victims take for protecting their files. Some key examples of infection strategies with this genre of threat that malware researchers are noting as very prolific include:

• Spam e-mail attachments can disguise themselves as being documents such as billing notices, news articles or fax machine alerts. They may use inappropriate filenames or embed unsafe content, such as a Word DOC macro, for delivering the file-locker Trojan.
• Brute-force attacks can compromise an unprotected network by cracking its login credentials, which is typical for login combinations that use a default, short, or very commonplace string ('admin1' or 'password123').
• To a lesser extent, some Trojans of this category also use browser-based exploit kits or questionable file-sharing resources, such as torrents, for installing themselves.

The BlackFireEye Ransomware is compatible with Windows systems only, but for users working in that environment, can harm different formats of data arbitrarily and permanently. Malware experts advise storing secure backups on other devices for their protection, due to a lack of decryption options for this Trojan. Otherwise, having anti-malware products for blocking and deleting the BlackFireEye Ransomware on sight are any victim's best defenses.

It's not difficult to see why criminals are coming up with new variants on the well-explored theme of non-consensual, file-locking software. As long as users aren't keeping their files safe by backing them up, or abiding by bare-minimum security standards online, the BlackFireEye Ransomware's potential payout dwarfs its initial investment.