CryptoShield Ransomware

Posted: February 1, 2017

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:	391

First Seen:	February 1, 2017
Last Seen:	February 1, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The CryptoShield Ransomware is a Trojan that blocks your files by encrypting them, which it uses to force you into paying a ransom to a remote attacker. While the CryptoShield Ransomware warns of a time limit for achieving data recovery in this way, malware experts encourage utilizing more reliable restoration options that don't require paying con artists traditionally. Browser-based anti-malware protection is essential for deleting the CryptoShield Ransomware before it can attack your PC and harm any files.

The Shield Between You and Your Files

Out-of-date Trojans may be the foundation for new campaigns to attack both professional business servers and recreational PC users alike, and sometimes involve resurrecting surprisingly old threats effectively. Although malware researchers can confirm the CryptoShield Ransomware campaign for dating itself to the current year, they also estimate that this Trojan is a clone of the CryptMix Ransomware (sometimes referred to as 'CryptoMix'), a Trojan last distributed in significant numbers in the middle of 2016. The changes to its ransom demands and encryption branding most likely are the reasons for this new release, which update the Trojan's payment processes and may interfere with old decryption solutions.

Unlike most Trojans of its kind, the CryptoShield Ransomware uses drive-by-download from exploit kits, such as the RIG EK, to install itself onto your computer. These website-hosted attacks infect your system after distracting you with pop-ups imitating a Windows UAC message. Browsers with outdated software or advanced content enabled (such as Flash, JavaScript and advertising networks) are particularly at risk.

After the installation, the CryptoShield Ransomware launches attacks that malware experts rate as being traditional for threats of this type:

The CryptoShield Ransomware encrypts your files, such as documents with a cipher still being identified. While other components of the Trojan claim to use an advanced type of RSA, the validity of this assertion is highly dubious and is a common point of deception in other Trojan attacks.
After having locked your files, the CryptoShield Ransomware erases local backups such as Windows SVC data that would let you restore them without decoding them.
The Trojan also contacts a Command & Control server for notifying a threat actor about the new installation.
The filenames of any encrypted content also experience another change: an ROT13 encryption conversion that swaps each character with the one that's thirteen past it in the alphabet. This change is in addition to the brand-new extension that the CryptoShield Ransomware appends ('.the CryptoShield').
Then, the CryptoShield Ransomware creates a ransom note that imitates similar messages from the campaign for the '.locky File Extension' Ransomware. In this file, con artists ask you to contact them by e-mail to make a payment within a time limit for decrypting your data.

Breaking Through a Con Artist's Defense of His Profits

Trojan updates like the CryptoShield Ransomware may be the result of threat actors trying to avoid past decryption tools that negate their extortion demands for free, as well as attempts at confusing victims by 'borrowing' the brands and messages of different attack campaigns. Maximizing your immunity to payloads from file-encrypting Trojans like the CryptoShield Ransomware always requires backing your data up to a location unassailable by threats of this type such as a password-protected server or a removable storage device. When possible, paying the ransom to recover your files always should be treated as a final resort after you exhaust all other choices.

Blocking untrustworthy advertising networks, disabling scripts from new websites and using anti-malware protection that monitors corrupted URL activity can terminate the exploit kit-based attacks that may be installing this threat. Because achieving full data recovery from a file-encrypting Trojan sometimes can be impossible, preventing the infection via deleting the CryptoShield Ransomware upon its introduction to your PC is even more heavily encouraged than with other categories of threatening software.

Particularly while you're browsing the Web, keeping your security options modernized is vital for eliminating the vulnerabilities that threat actors like the CryptoShield Ransomware's authors exploit with each new update to old threats.

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:

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\MicroSoftTMP\system32\adobe_1233452.exe

File name: adobe_1233452.exe
Size: 154.11 KB (154112 bytes)
MD5: 00ff5b36cc6b09fabfd371f1f2091522
Detection count: 42
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\MicroSoftTMP\system32
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: April 12, 2017

file.exe

File name: file.exe
Size: 121.34 KB (121344 bytes)
MD5: e0d52cc8793592184a854fde5afaf152
Detection count: 42
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: May 3, 2017

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Dati applicazioni\MicroSoftTMP\system32\conhost.exe

File name: conhost.exe
Size: 96.25 KB (96256 bytes)
MD5: fdde3778c52f5a2d4de67ef8c049f856
Detection count: 9
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Dati applicazioni\MicroSoftTMP\system32
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: April 12, 2017

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\MicroSoftTMP\system32\winlogon.exe

File name: winlogon.exe
Size: 96.76 KB (96768 bytes)
MD5: 9be2fea8003eef818fe399f537242fce
Detection count: 7
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\MicroSoftTMP\system32
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: April 12, 2017

More files

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

File name without path#_RESTORING_FILES_#.HTML#_RESTORING_FILES_#.TXT

Additional Information

The following directories were created:

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\MicroSoftTMP%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\MicroSoftWare

CryptoShield 2.0 Ransomware