QuakeWay Ransomware

Posted: June 26, 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:	7

First Seen:	June 26, 2017
Last Seen:	April 18, 2018
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The QuakeWay Ransomware is a Trojan that locks your files and creates text messages asking for information from its victims to provide unlocking services. Since any data gathered by threat actors is exploitable in future attacks theoretically, malware experts recommend that you use free restoration methods. These solutions can include recovering through remote backups and letting your anti-malware products uninstall the QuakeWay Ransomware while scanning the PC.

The Earthquake that Fixes Itself for Free

Occasionally, malware researchers find a Trojan with encryption-based features that doesn't launch its attacks for taking payments from those it harms. While much rarer than Trojans trafficking in Bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies, 'free' variants like the QuakeWay Ransomware do exist and can endanger your files similarly to their premium counterparts. Although the QuakeWay Ransomware's authors have indeterminate motives, the evidence collected implies that they may be deploying it as a test of their communications infrastructure or to phish for identifiable data.

Other than not asking for money, the QuakeWay Ransomware resembles similar file-encoding Trojans and uses a simple algorithm to encipher your media, such as pictures or documents. It injects the string '.org' at the end of their names, to serve as an identifiable extension tag, and shows no UI while the attack takes place. When done, the QuakeWay Ransomware creates a TXT file containing a unique message asking you to contact the threat actor's Russian-based e-mail.

Third parties doing the latter has given malware experts the most interesting detail of the QuakeWay Ransomware's campaign: the fact that the threat actors offer to decrypt the locked content without being paid in cash. Instead, they ask the user to provide their country and IP address, giving them information about the spread of the QuakeWay Ransomware's infections and helping them with future attacks potentially.

Finding Another Way Through a Digital Disaster

While its threat actor's intentions may be more or less innocent than is apparent, malware experts advise against providing potentially exploitable information to any individuals responsible for distributing threatening software. The QuakeWay Ransomware has limited protection against decryption and unlocking your files with the help of appropriate third party anti-malware researchers is highly likely. However, keeping backups always should be your first means of saving files from attacks like a the QuakeWay Ransomware infection.

Although the QuakeWay Ransomware is in live circulation, its infection vectors are unverifiable, for now. E-mail attachments, the RIG Exploit Kit (a Web page-based threat that scans your PC for script-based vulnerabilities), and brute-force compromises of logins are some examples of how con artists are installing file-encrypting Trojans. Anti-malware products may detect many of these attacks and may remove the QuakeWay Ransomware before it can start locking the local media, or uninstall it afterward.

What seems like a straightforward interaction between a con artist and a victim si rarely as above-board as its appearance might imply. The QuakeWay Ransomware isn't using a 'premium' business model, but even as a freeware Trojan, its attacks can harm your files and may lead to worse effects, for those who assume that all negotiations are in good faith.

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:

File.exe

File name: File.exe
Size: 520.19 KB (520192 bytes)
MD5: 82e1295d92903394972cd466e9c04062
Detection count: 66
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: June 29, 2017