CypherPy Ransomware

Posted: September 29, 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:	8

First Seen:	September 29, 2017
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The CypherPy Ransomware is a file-locking Trojan that encodes your media with an AES-based cipher. In addition to issues with opening content, other symptoms that users may see during a CypherPy Ransomware infection include changes to the names of their media, the appearance of ransom-themed text messages, or pop-ups that can block the entire screen. Malware experts recommend blocking and removing the CypherPy Ransomware preemptively with security programs that can prevent any data loss from occurring.

Serpentine Software with Cross-Compatible Fangs

It's not very frequent for con artists to bother with coding Trojans with compatibility for multiple operating systems, but the recently-detected skeleton code of a new threat is implying nothing less than that. The condensed, Python-based file shows a Trojan that can run inside of both Windows and Linux environments, with a payload that's well-adapted for blocking data and extorting money. While malware experts have found no live-environment attacks using the CypherPy Ransomware, the Trojan may be ready for deployment at any time.

The CypherPy Ransomware uses a Cipher Block Chaining or CBC mode variant of AES to encipher the media of the infected PC. Besides blocking the usual formats of files, such as PDF documents, movies, and compressed archives, the CypherPy Ransomware also attacks the program executable and content related to smartphones like 3G2. Current samples of the CypherPy Ransomware append '.crypt' extensions to these files as identifying tags for what content will not open.

Since all samples of the CypherPy Ransomware available for malware experts' analysis are works-in-progress, they can give very little information on the status of any demands it might make for decoding the files. However, the CypherPy Ransomware does use a copy-pasted assertion about 'military-grade encryption' to threaten its victims, which implies that its author intends to thwart free decryption attempts and collect money from the decryption solution he endorses, instead.

Loosening the Coils of a Python-Based Trojan

While it's not in a state that one would describe as being finished, the CypherPy Ransomware already exhibits cross-platform, file-blocking attacks that can damage software and more data types, such as pictures, before any of the symptoms of an infection become detectable. Malware experts also warn that updates to your security programs may be mandatory for identifying the CypherPy Ransomware, which is showing high success rates against current detection methods in use by most anti-virus vendors.

The most recent samples of the CypherPy Ransomware are using the 'prettyflypassword' password to block the user from decrypting and unlocking their files with the default module. Any users experiencing further difficulties with restoring their content should contact security researchers with backgrounds in file-locking Trojans for help, or revert to their last backup. Due to its particular compatibility with mobile phone environments, users should be careful on their phones equally, as well as their PCs, when dealing with potential infection vectors like email attachments. Updated anti-malware programs also may remove the CypherPy Ransomware before it can encrypt any data.

With so many data-encrypting attacks targeting the computer servers of both smaller and larger businesses, it can be easy to forget that other devices and operating systems also are vulnerable. The CypherPy Ransomware and Trojans very similar to it are only likely to become more common and problematic as threat actors gain more experience with abusing them.

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:

dir\name.py

File name: name.py
Size: 6.03 KB (6030 bytes)
MD5: dc8e87369f835f9a0d86906f74b42ae4
Detection count: 70
Mime Type: unknown/py
Path: dir
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: October 2, 2017