LockLock Ransomware

The LockLock Ransomware is a Trojan that blocks your files by encoding them with a cipher, with its modifications detectable from additional changes in the extension tags. The LockLock Ransomware campaign uses ransom messages for soliciting payments in return for decryption help, although this threat does belong to a family that is often easy for members of the PC security sector to decode. Even if you do choose to pay the threat actor's fee, your anti-malware software should always be trusted with deleting the LockLock Ransomware to limit any ongoing damages.

When an Open Source is a Little Too Open

Previously found on GitHub, EDA2 is an open-source code project created and distributed strictly for educational purposes of benefit to the PC security sector. However, con artists lost little time in turning EDA2 and an associated project, Hidden Tear, into variants of threatening software. Although EDA2 no longer is publicly hosted, malware analysts see new Trojans using its code almost every week. Most recently, the Trojan in question is the LockLock Ransomware.

The LockLock Ransomware's current campaign appears to be targeting PC users in China through unknown infection vectors, though casual attempts at spreading similar threats often use e-mail attachments as the lynchpins of their attacks. The Trojan encodes your files and creates ransom messages, ostensibly for buying back your encoded data. The symptoms that malware analysts can verify are:

• The LockLock Ransomware encrypts your non-system files with an AES 256-bit algorithm. Related programs may no longer open them or interpret their contents, although the damage is potentially reversible with a decryptor.
• While encrypting the data, the LockLock Ransomware also inserts its custom extension ('.the LockLock') at the end of each name.
• The Trojan uses two methods of displaying a ransom note: by hijacking your desktop background and replacing its image with a warning message, and by creating Notepad TXT files. Current versions of the LockLock Ransomware use themes referencing the hacker-activist organization called Anonymous, although malware analysts can find no verifiable links between the two entities.

The infection blocks data with the purpose of soliciting a ransom payment from victims following its instructions. After taking the money, the threat actor may or may not provide any decryption assistance.

Knock-Knocking on the LockLock Ransomware's Data Lockdown

EDA2 Trojans like the LockLock Ransomware, the SeginChile Ransomware or the CryptoShocker Ransomware are often relatively vulnerable to the decryption efforts spearheaded by various entities in the PC sector. PC users who are unable to restore their content should consider looking for help from reputable security researchers as a preferable option to paying this Trojan's ransom. Non-local backups also offer a recovery strategy that malware analysts endorse regularly for being robust and rarely targeted by most Trojans, including the LockLock Ransomware.

Most of the LockLock Ransomware's symptoms are visible only after the completion of its payload. You can prevent the encryption from occurring by defending your PC from many of the most well-documented infection vectors, including network accounts with weak passwords, unsafe RDP settings, and disguised e-mail attachments. Detecting and removing the LockLock Ransomware through your anti-malware tools usually only should be necessary after most common-sense security protocols fail.

Con artists show little shame in reusing code that has been thoroughly analyzed by the PC security industry at large. While this results in a proliferation of threats like the LockLock Ransomware, it also makes it easier than otherwise to protect yourself with preexisting Web safety standards.