Marlboro Ransomware

Posted: January 13, 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:	92

First Seen:	January 13, 2017
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The Marlboro Ransomware is a Trojan that uses encryption to block your files so that its author can sell the bundled decryption service to any victims. Because some of the Marlboro Ransomware's encryption routine includes glitches that cause irreversible file damage, the only certain way to recover your content is to restore it from a backup. Use standard anti-malware protection to monitor this threat's infection vectors and remove the Marlboro Ransomware when another threat tries to install it.

Welcome to the Encryption Country

File-locking Trojans come in a variety of stripes, some of which use 'quick and lazy' encryption methods while others implement unbreakable, double-layered ciphers carefully. The new Marlboro Ransomware campaign, whose first attacks began on the eleventh of January, shows off both experienced and surprisingly shoddy practices from its threat actor. For victims fortunate enough to infect themselves with the Marlboro Ransomware instead of, for example, Troldesh, they can turn to the free decryption solution that the cyber security industry developed in a matter of days immediately.

The majority of the Marlboro Ransomware's sophistication is in its delivery mechanisms, which use well-designed spam e-mail messages faking messages from stores local to Croatia and Serbia (the only countries to be attacked in this first wave). Victims must open the attachment, a Word document, and then enable the macro-based corrupted content, which lets the Trojan download and install the Marlboro Ransomware.

The Marlboro Ransomware is much less of a professional product than the spam installing it. The programming resource Stack Overflow provides some of its code inadvertently, and the Trojan uses the notably weak XOR-based encryption (similar to the Xorist Ransomware or the Ramsomeer Ransomware) to lock your files. With that done, it opens a local Web page file showing instructions on how to pay with Bitcoin. Unsurprisingly, the pop-up claims that the Marlboro Ransomware uses the much more secure AES-RSA method of enciphering your data, making its attack look plausibly unable to be cracked.

The Problems that Even the Best Security Programs can't Fix

Due to XOR's inherent weaknesses as an encryption method, third-party security researchers are hosting downloads of a free decryptor effective against the Marlboro Ransomware. Encrypted content should be verifiable by looking for the '.oops' extension that the Marlboro Ransomware adds to every enciphered filename. However, the Trojan also includes bugs that make it impossible to restore the last seven bytes of data per file. Wholly undamaged data restoration is possible only with backups that the Marlboro Ransomware hasn't deleted or encrypted, such as a cloud storage copy.

The Marlboro Ransomware's threat actor is likely to send more waves of this campaign over time. Although the Trojan's installers use well-done disguises, most anti-malware products should detect them during a scan automatically. PC users also can avoid enabling macro-based content to eliminate the infection method that old Marlboro Ransomware attacks use. Since not all of the damage the Marlboro Ransomware causes is easily reversible, malware experts continue urging readers to exercise preventative security strategies that can remove the Marlboro Ransomware before an encryption attack.

Thankfully, the know-how in spam attacks doesn't translate directly to programming skills. PC users only can hope that the Marlboro Ransomware's threat actor will refrain from furthering his education in this area.

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.exe

File name: name.exe
Size: 5B (5 bytes)
MD5: 5f897b051235b788e52927e8eec07669
Detection count: 39
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: dir
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: January 16, 2017

file.exe

File name: file.exe
Size: 492.54 KB (492544 bytes)
MD5: 9c7a41fbe431a41bfdf933436c846858
Detection count: 3
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: May 3, 2017