Saturn Ransomware

The Saturn Ransomware is a Trojan that keeps your files locked with an encryption-based cipher while also delivering you demands for money to unlock them. Even though decryption software sometimes is available without any charges, malware experts can't verify any decryptor compatibility with the Saturn Ransomware and recommend reserving backups for any media recovery that you might need. Different anti-malware programs also can delete the Saturn Ransomware safely and keep this Trojan's attacks from completing.

When a Planet-Sized Shadow Falls over Your Files

A Trojan with file-locking features appears to be just opening up a campaign of, as is traditional, blocking data to make Bitcoins from the owners of the infected PCs. Right now, malware experts can't follow the Saturn Ransomware's development path back to a concrete ancestor. However, different entities in the AV sector are estimating that it's a variant of the batch file-based Serpent Ransomware or a part of the BTCWare Ransomware family. Regardless of its ancestry, the Saturn Ransomware can both lock your files, possibly permanently, and deliver extortion-promoting content to the infected computer.

The Saturn Ransomware is just over three hundred kilobytes, which makes it larger than most of the file-locking threats that malware analysts identify. On Windows systems, it encrypts a range of different formats of content, such as documents, spreadsheets or archives, with an unknown algorithm. This attack stops any encrypted media from opening, and the Saturn Ransomware also adds a '.saturn' extension for cosmetic purposes.

The Trojan also includes several means of communicating its ransom demands for giving the victim a data-restoring decryptor. These methods include two formats of text files and, potentially, a BMP image that the Saturn Ransomware uses for hijacking the Windows wallpaper. However, all of these messages redirect the user to the Saturn Ransomware's TOR-based website, which contains an interface for paying Bitcoin ransoms equaling three hundred USD in value.

Malware experts also highlight the presence of an additional 'key' file. This code isn't the decryption key; instead, it's a custom login for the victims' use when they sign in to the Saturn Ransomware's website.

Getting Your Digital Solar System Back in Order

Since the sample availability of the Saturn Ransomware is restricted, malware researchers are unable to provide confirmation or debunking of any decryption possibilities from freeware sources. Users can copy their encoded files for testing any compatibility that this Trojan's locked content might possess with different, AV sector-hosted decryptors. In the meantime, having a backup, especially one that's secured on a different device, is highly advisable to keep the Saturn Ransomware's damage minimal.

Threat actors may try to compromise your PC with the Saturn Ransomware after gaining access to it by more than one strategy. Infection vectors that malware experts are noting as relevant currently to the threat landscape include fake e-mail messages, ones carrying attached files especially, as well as brute-force attacks against any network that's using a conventionally poor password for logins. Traditional anti-malware products, still, should remove the Saturn Ransomware immediately, or disinfect your computer after the fact, if it's needed.

While the Saturn Ransomware isn't the most expensive ransom-levying Trojan, three hundred dollars in cryptocurrency is more than any computer owners should need to pay for their files. Failing to do your duty to protect your possessions, even digital ones, can become a driving force behind Trojan-based ill-minded enterprises like the Saturn Ransomware campaign.