Mikoyan Ransomware

Posted: May 3, 2017

Threat Metric

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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:	12

First Seen:	May 3, 2017
Last Seen:	August 17, 2022
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The Mikoyan Ransomware is a Trojan that blocks the files in the Windows default Downloads folder by encrypting them. While its author also delivers ransoming demands for decrypting them, malware experts suggest that you use a backup or free alternatives to avoid paying this fee. Although this threat is newly-identified, updated anti-malware products should remove the Mikoyan Ransomware with few issues.

An Open Flow of Information for Open-Air Extortion

Open-sourcing is a source of both great benefit and great trouble to the software development sector, including its underbelly, the marketplace for threatening software. New Trojans, often deriving their features from easily-scavenged code like Hidden Tear, are almost viable for live deployment with little work instantly. Although malware experts haven't rated it as a member of that particular family of threatening software, the Mikoyan Ransomware is a recently-dated case in point of how free code can be both boon and bane to PC users.

Since no live attacks are verifiable currently, the Mikoyan Ransomware may still be in the middle of its development phase. Particularly favored distribution methods for Trojans of the same type include, but aren't limited to exploit kits that load from corrupted websites, as well as e-mail attachments. After getting access to the PC by any method required, the Mikoyan Ransomware starts ransoming the victim's local data through the following attacks:

The Mikoyan Ransomware targets any files in the Windows user's 'Downloads' folder. This scan includes any sub-directories within the primary one.
The Trojan adds its personal extension ('.MIKOYAN') to the name of all these files without deleting any original extensions.
Finally, it uses a basic encryption routine to lock all of the above content and block it from opening in any compatible applications.
The Trojan finances its campaign with the accompanying lock-screen pop-up that it uses for blocking the Windows UI and delivering its extortion demands. Current versions of the Mikoyan Ransomware ask for 1 Bitcoin (equaling $1,474) for the decryption key and include a built-in decryption support for the window.

The Price Tag on Giving Con Artists the Benefit of the Doubt

Along with providing its straightforward ransom-payment guidelines, the Mikoyan Ransomware also tries to misinform its victims on the strength of its encryption attack (a recurring tactic with similar, file-encryption-based Trojans). Despite its promises of a secure AES-256 and RSA-4086 asymmetric encryption routine, malware experts can confirm the Trojan's file-locking function is fully decryptable. Contact appropriate anti-malware organizations for any assistance you need with procuring a free decryptor for recovering any downloaded content that you can't retrieve in any other way.

The expense ransoms of the Mikoyan Ransomware's future campaign point towards the Trojan being a potential attacker of unprotected corporate servers and other, business sector targets. Conducting safe password-maintenance practices and avoiding archetypal infection exploits, like e-mail spam, can block the majority of such vulnerabilities. Otherwise, most anti-malware programs may delete the Mikoyan Ransomware immediately or block the exploit that its author is using to install it.

The potential data loss and financial costs involved in a Mikoyan Ransomware attack may be non-negligible, but even users without backups don't have to reward bad actions to recover their files. Often, advice from a Trojan's author is worse than an abject silence.

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:

C:\Users\<username>\Downloads\MIKOYAN.exe

File name: MIKOYAN.exe
Size: 43 KB (43008 bytes)
MD5: 4da994544d32b9418bbf227158e1f06f
Detection count: 65
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: C:\Users\<username>\Downloads
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 17, 2022