GPcode ransomware leaves victims stranded

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The SonicWall Capture Labs threat reseach team have tracking a well established ransomware family known as GPcode.  GPcode ransomware is typically spread through email attachments or social engineering techniques, such as disguising the malware as a legitimate software update.  Once the malware is run on a victim’s machine, it encrypts files using a strong encryption algorithm, specifically RSA-1024 and AES-256, which makes it impossible to decrypt files without the decryption key.  GPcode has been active since 2005 and was nicknamed the “$20 ransomware”.  It is considered one of the first examples of ransomware and is still being seen in the wild today.  However, GPcode malware authors do not have a track record of providing decryption keys after a ransom is paid and in this case, they are uncontactable.

 

 

Infection Cycle:

 

Upon infection, files on the system are encrypted.  Each encrypted file is given a “.ENCODED” file extension.  The following image is displayed on the desktop background:

 

The following message is displayed using Notepad:

 

During runtime, the malware writes ntfs_system.bat and executes it:

 

ntfs_system.bat contains the following script.  This is used to delete the original malware file:

del "{malware file path}"
del %0

 

The malware can be seen writing the ransom note file to the desktop:

 

We tried reaching out to the email address provided in the ransom note but the email bounced:

 

SonicWall Capture Labs provides protection against this threat via the following signature:

  • GAV: Gpcode.RSM (Trojan)

This threat is also detected by SonicWall Capture ATP w/RTDMI and the Capture Client endpoint solutions.

Security News
The SonicWall Capture Labs Threat Research Team gathers, analyzes and vets cross-vector threat information from the SonicWall Capture Threat network, consisting of global devices and resources, including more than 1 million security sensors in nearly 200 countries and territories. The research team identifies, analyzes, and mitigates critical vulnerabilities and malware daily through in-depth research, which drives protection for all SonicWall customers. In addition to safeguarding networks globally, the research team supports the larger threat intelligence community by releasing weekly deep technical analyses of the most critical threats to small businesses, providing critical knowledge that defenders need to protect their networks.