Salsa Ransomware

Posted: April 11, 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:	30

First Seen:	April 11, 2017
Last Seen:	March 18, 2021
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The Salsa Ransomware is a Trojan that uses encryption to block your files until you pay a ransom. Most PC users can protect their data from these attacks adequately by using thorough backup strategies, although free decryption software also may provide recovery possibilities. This Trojan almost always will conceal its installer inside of another download, but modern anti-malware tools should detect and remove the Salsa Ransomware automatically.

The Salsa with an Adjustable Seasoning

Trojans that ask for money from their victims sometimes are amenable to categorization according to which regions of the world or types of PC users they attack. Simultaneously, many threat actors prefer to take the easiest ransoming method possible by deploying messages that they copy from unrelated attack campaigns. While minimal effort for maximum gain usually is a guideline of the threat industry, the latest the Salsa Ransomware campaign takes another approach.

Other than its communication methods, malware experts rate the Salsa Ransomware as a standard sample of threatening, file-encrypting software. The Trojan's author has been deploying multiple versions of this threat using different algorithms, such as the AES-256, to encrypt the infected PC's media. Targeted content most often includes documents (especially formats associated with the Microsoft Office or Adobe), audio, spreadsheets, images and archives. With its encryption blocking your content, the Salsa Ransomware also hijacks your desktop to display a warning message and create its ransoming messages.

The latter is the Salsa Ransomware's greatest point of departure from previous threats. Although its ransoming demands (for 500 USD in Bitcoins, with a timer before it implements additional penalties) aren't abnormal, the Salsa Ransomware creates a separate HTML note for every language that it supports. With a total of forty pages, its author appears to be distributing the Trojan with little or no discretion.

Taking the Heat out of the Salsa Ransomware

This Trojan's appending of the '.salsa222' extension allows victims both to identify the infection and determine which files are affected with little difficulty. However, underlying differences between different versions of the Salsa Ransomware can complicate any decryption process for unlocking your files without paying its perpetrators. Since the availability of decryption is never a certainty, malware experts encourage making full use of proven backup solutions for all users who have files worth preserving.

The propagation methods in use by the Salsa Ransomware's attacks are unconfirmed and could include common techniques, such as an exploit kit's drive-by-downloads or an e-mail attachment pretending to be an invoice. Malware experts can verify that separate Trojan downloaders are associated with this threat and may be capable of installing other threatening software, as well. Most anti-malware products are identifying this Trojan as a variant of Graftor and should find eliminating the Salsa Ransomware a minimal burden.

Whether you speak English, Japanese, Arabic, or Icelandic, the Salsa Ransomware is a potential risk to anything that you save on your computer. Copying your files to an extra drive always is worth the trouble compared to potentially needing to pay the Salsa Ransomware's threat actors hundreds of dollars in cryptocurrency.

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following directories were created:

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\CLICK HERE TO UNLOCK YOUR FILES SALSA222%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\DONOTDELETESALSA