Zeronine Ransomware

The Zeronine Ransomware is a file-locking Trojan that can stop files on your PC from opening by encrypting them. The Zeronine Ransomware attacks also include a highly-identifiable pop-up in Turkish and English with ransom demands. In ideal scenarios, users should have their anti-malware tools delete the Zeronine Ransomware safely before restoring from their most recent, undamaged backup.

All but Three of Your Files are Turning into Big Zeroes

While Turkey is one of the perennial favorites for file-locking Trojans' campaigns, there isn't an individual family that dominates the region. The KesLan Ransomware spinoffs, the STOP Ransomware hirelings, and some versions of the Russia-leaning Scarab Ransomware are all possible culprits in a Turkish data-encrypting attack. The Zeronine Ransomware – a recently-confirmed example from May – hails from none of the above groups, but shows symptoms and general characteristics along the same lines.

The Zeronine Ransomware is a .NET Framework Trojan for Windows systems with a sub-megabyte size for its executable. Malware researchers are confirming that it encrypts numerous formats of data, including the usual documents, pictures, movies, and music, along with less 'normal' ones, such as EXEs and HWPs. The Trojan may still be in development, since it includes notable oversights in this file-locking attack, such as blocking its executable potentially. Users can detect the non-opening files easily by searching for the 'zeronine' extension it adds without removing the previous formatting tag (such as 'example.doc.zeronine').

The Zeronine Ransomware's pop-up ransom note is, interestingly, in both English and Turkey, and uses Discord as its negotiating platform of preference. The Zeronine Ransomware also has the typical offer of a 'free trial' for up to three of the victim's files but claims that closing the window will cause permanent loss of the decryption information. Since malware experts can confirm that the Zeronine Ransomware embeds its decryption key internally, this warning might be more than a bluff – and it complicates disinfection and data recovery significantly.

Cheaply Number-Crunching a File-Ransoming Attack

Malware researchers haven't analyzed the Zeronine Ransomware's distribution methods thoroughly, which could include brute-forcing admin accounts, compromising servers with weak RDP settings, or using more random tactics, like torrents. However, the Trojan doesn't use any sophisticated means of obfuscation and lacks digital certificates for mimicking a regular application. Users should be attentive to their password security, software security patches, and downloading habits for avoiding most file-locker Trojans, especially.

Since there's a non-negligible possibility of the Zeronine Ransomware locking files permanently, Windows users also should have appropriate backups as a universal fallback position. Storing backup data on other devices will limit any problems that non-consensual encryption can cause, and is less expensive for recovery than the gamble of a ransom payment naturally. Although the Zeronine Ransomware is targeting Turkish users, its payload doesn't seem to limit the attacks to any single region through language settings checks.

Updated and legitimate anti-malware programs can identifying the latest samples appropriately and will remove the Zeronine Ransomware as a threat. However, victims may wish to withhold disinfection efforts until after contacting an experienced cyber-security specialist for their recommendations on any decryption solutions.

The Middle East is long-known for its military conflicts, but technology is transformative as to the tactics, if not motivations, of violence. Turkey appears nowhere near escaping the series of wars waged against files for money, but the same fact applies to much of the rest of the world.