FileFuck Trojan

The FileFuck Trojan is a file-wiper Trojan that overwrites your files with irrelevant text data. Although this threat uses portions of the Hidden Tear's code, it doesn't lock documents or other media in a retrievable fashion, and decryption software will not help with recovering them. However, most anti-malware applications are identifying and removing the FileFuck Trojan accurately, and secure backups are always appropriate for restoring files in the aftermath of these attacks.

The Trojan that Screws Your Files as Hard as Possible

Nearly all Trojans that base themselves off of Hidden Tear, a demonstration of harmful encryption, do so with the intention of blocking files and making money off of selling the unlocker. While financial success may drive the bulk of the threatening software industry, sometimes, malware experts find samples of threats with less business-like motivations. The FileFuck Trojan is a valuable look at a Trojan that began life as a file-locking one and, then, evolved into something even worse than that.

Even though a great deal of its code is from Hidden Tear, the FileFuck Trojan doesn't contain a data-encrypting feature. The threat actor swaps that traditional attack out with a new one that uses a StreamWriter function for replacing the internal data of each file with a simple text string: a sentence that announces the destruction of your work, with additional insults and obscenities. Since it wipes the original data completely, the damaged copies may be unrecoverable, and finding a decryption tool, even one that's custom for Hidden Tear, can't help the victims.

The FileFuck Trojan also displays a pop-up interface, but the feature has nothing more than another announcement of the data loss, in multiple languages. The FileFuck Trojan's support for so many, different language options makes it unlikely that its author is developing the software for anything other than random distribution through methods like torrents. Since HT is a Windows application, non-Windows users shouldn't be at risk from the FileFuck Trojan's campaign.

Staying Abstinent with Your Media

Malware experts have yet to confirm whether or not the FileFuck Trojan removes the Shadow Volume Copies that Windows saves as default recovery options for users without other ones. Victims may wish to try rolling back to the last, safe Restore Point before their PCs were infected. However, since most threats with similar attacks do erase such data, having backups saved to other locations is always a more reliable choice.

While the FileFuck Trojan's payload lends itself to deployment with little discrimination, Windows users should expect any infection exploits from the following techniques:

• Threat actors can use brute-force tools for breaking login combinations and getting direct access to a network or server, which lets them install other threats at their pleasure. Strong password protection will counter these attacks.
• Spam e-mail campaigns are responsible for the circulation of many file-locker Trojans and can use disguises, such as fictitious billing documentation, as well as document-embedded software vulnerabilities like Word's macros.
• Torrents and free software websites with poor uploading standards are infection vectors for other threats that attack the users without needing specific targets.
• Exploit kits may use Web-browsing vulnerabilities for attempting automatic downloads.

Malware researchers are emphasizing updating your security and anti-malware software for deleting the FileFuck Trojan accurately and quickly since some cyber-security brands are struggling with detecting it. However, like most Hidden Tear variants, it has no real protection against its removal by dedicated security products.

The FileFuck Trojan leaves its victims with no way out of its attack, which makes it a 'for fun' program, instead of a money-making one. And, as is usually the case, what's fun for a criminal programmer is damaging to society at large.