Bubble Ransomware

The Bubble Ransomware is a Trojan that encrypts your files to force you into paying a ransom for unlocking them. Various forms of backups are the simplest way of keeping your data safe or recovering it afterward, and paying the threat actor's fee should be avoided if at all possible. Because this Trojan uses exploits to launch itself and conducts attacks without any initial symptoms, you should use anti-malware programs for blocking it or removing the Bubble Ransomware after an infection.

Blowing Bubbles Full of Poison into Your Folders

A Trojan disguising itself as a PDF document is starting to lock random victims' files for undisclosed amounts of money, further showing that going by the name of a file is a quick way to open something unsafe. Malware experts have yet to place the Bubble Ransomware in a broader Trojan family, and it shows some symptoms that are semi-unique, both in how it encodes the user's content and how it asks for payment. Although its distribution exploits are awaiting a full analysis, threats using fake extensions are commonplace in e-mail spamming campaigns.

The Bubble Ransomware places an additional line in the Registry to let itself launch whenever Windows starts up. Its encryption attack, which uses a random, eight-character code, covers multiple, default Windows file locations, such as the MyMusic and MyPictures folders, in addition to the desktop. The detail-oriented threat actors also configured this feature to lock different formats, depending on the folder (for example, encrypting MPGs in MyMovies, and JPGs in MyPictures). The Bubble Ransomware adds '.bubble' extensions to everything that it locks.

The Bubble Ransomware also tries to upload the decryption key and system information to a C&C server, although it will store the former inside the Registry if it can't connect. After everything else, the Bubble Ransomware generates a Windows message box to show its ransoming demands, providing no meaningful information other than telling the victim to contact an e-mail address.

Popping a Dream Bubble of Unearned Fortunes

Threats with inaccurate extensions, icons, or filenames are typical to Trojans like the Bubble Ransomware, which don't self-propagate but can use exploit kits, e-mail attachments, or brute-force attacks for gaining system access. All of the Bubble Ransomware's visible symptoms limit themselves to launching after it locks your data with its cipher. However, the Trojan is decryptable, and malware experts recommend using free decryption programs on copies of your locked media if backups are unavailable. The Trojan also doesn't delete the Shadow Copies, which gives Windows users yet another method of restoring their content.

Roughly one out of four major brands of AV products are identifying the Bubble Ransomware as a threat to the computer. Updating threat databases can improve detection rates for new samples. Because of how its network access or the lack of it impacts its behavior, malware analysts also recommend disabling an infected PC's Internet connection ASAP, which could give you easy access to the decryption key. This Trojan has limited protection from being uninstalled by most anti-malware products, although deleting the Bubble Ransomware and restoring your locked media are two, separate processes requiring different software.

Even as old Trojan families like Hidden Tear expand their members, new, independent threats also are being caught, as a matter of course. With new Trojans like the Bubble Ransomware comes new infection methods, tactics, and extortion details, making it all the more useful that you protect your files with reasonable procedures like backing them up elsewhere.