WantMoney Ransomware

Posted: December 4, 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:	2/10
Infected PCs:	63

First Seen:	May 5, 2022
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The WantMoney Ransomware is a Trojan that imitates the Petya Ransomware's ransoming message while also blocking your digital media. Besides being unable to open anything that the threat encrypts, the victims also may see changes to their desktop's wallpaper or experience sudden pop-up alerts. Free decryption programs sometimes may recover the content that a Trojan locks, but PC users can guarantee the best defense with professional anti-malware products that remove the WantMoney Ransomware expediently and backups saved on other devices.

An Ugly Expression for Your Desktop to Wear

Not everyone in the BlackHat industry has access to the Petya Ransomware, but threat actors using Ransomware-as-a-Service, independently-made Trojans, and even variants free software like Hidden Tear are imitating its payload profitably. These copycats aren't necessarily significantly less threatening to users who don't back up their data, since they may, like the WantMoney Ransomware, still be just as capable of damaging files by enciphering them. Its randomly-named executables are compromising PCs by methods not yet known by malware experts, although the scope of the WantMoney Ransomware's campaign seems to be limited to China.

The WantMoney Ransomware is using an AES cipher for its encryption feature, which sorts through the files on an infected system and blocks different media types, including videos, archives, text documents, spreadsheets or music. The Trojan also delivers ransoming demands for selling its file-unlocking service afterward through no fewer than three, distinct methods:

The most visually-identifying note hijacks the desktop's wallpaper and replaces it with a BMP that shows an ASCII skull (similar to the Hidden Tear Trojan, the Cryp70n1c Ransomware), a red background that imitates the Petya Ransomware's lock-screen function, and messages related to paying Bitcoin ransoms in both Chinese and English text.
The WantMoney Ransomware also duplicates its background text in a second, Notepad file, which may be a redundancy measure, in case the victim can't read the background, or if the hijacking feature fails.
A final, backup ransom-displaying message launches through a Windows message box-based pop-up automatically. Once again, it provides no new information that the user can't read in any of the first two notes

The threat actors sell their decryption key for one-tenth of a Bitcoin or just over one thousand USD. As usual, there are no guarantees that they'll reciprocate their side of the transaction, and malware experts recommend testing the possible compatibility with your locked files versus all appropriate, free decryption programs beforehand.

Wanting Freedom from Money-Snatching Trojans

Besides the Trojan's using a randomly-generated name, it also is trying to conceal its identity from security software by using a UPX-based executable packer. Despite that precaution, most updated anti-malware programs can identify the WantMoney Ransomware on sight, which should prevent it from being able to encrypt any of your media. E-mail is a significant majority of the infection strategies in use with file-locking threats, but cybercrooks also may compromise a network with brute-force utilities or distribute the Trojan's installer in torrents or other, piracy-related resources.

Backups are a sure way of recovering any content without lasting harm to your PC's documents, pictures, and other content that most often suffer attacks from threats like the WantMoney Ransomware. Users who don't have their anti-malware programs remove the WantMoney Ransomware in time to interrupt its file-locking feature also may wish to investigate free decryption applications available through various entities in the AV sector. However, decryption never is a guarantee, even if you choose to pay the Bitcoin ransom.

Right now, the WantMoney Ransomware aims at profiting from Chinese users and may customize its infection model correspondingly. The rest of the world has similar threats to worry about thanks to the easy availability of Trojans with data-enciphering attacks, whether they're actual remnants of the Petya Ransomware or just copycats of the family.

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following URL's were detected:

us09.biz