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LockerGoga Ransomware

LockerGoga is a newly observed ransomware tool targeting businesses throughout Western Europe

Threat ID:
CC-2915
Category:
Ransomware
Threat Severity:
Low
Threat Vector:
Email spam
Published:
31 January 2019 12:00 AM
Report a cyber attack: call 0300 303 5222 or email [email protected]

Summary

LockerGoga is a newly observed ransomware tool targeting businesses throughout Western Europe

Affected platforms

The following platforms are known to be affected:

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows - All versions

Threat details

At the time of publication, it is unclear how LockerGoga is delivered, although there are unconfirmed reports indicating it is distributed through targeted spam campaigns

Once installed, LockerGoga will attempt to encrypt all files matching a hard-coded extension list, including DOCX, PDF and XLSX. New processes are created for each target file, causing the encryption to be very slow. LockerGoga may also attempt to remove Volume Shadow Copies, although this functionality appears to be poorly coded and may only partially delete them.

Update  

A new variant of LockerGoga has been observed targeting engineering and manufacturing organisations. This variant uses a new encryption implementation (believed to be based on the CryptoPP library). As with earlier versions of LockerGoga, this variant uses multiple processes to encrypt files; however, it now utilises all CPU cores to do this, resulting in a very fast encryption process.

Whilst the encryption process occurs, this variant will log the user out before changing the login details for all administrator and user accounts on the device.

Update

Some additional details have emerged on how LockerGoga operates.

Although it is still unclear how LockerGoga is initially delivered, it is known to spread in a local network through a file copy mechanism that appears to be executed manually by a remote attacker . A set of batch files are copied to a device's TEMP folder alongside the malware itself and the PsExec tool. PsExec is used to run the batch files, which run LockerGoga on the new device and attempt to disable security utilities.

The latest observed LockerGoga binary, 1.5.1.0, works in a master/slave configuration and is initially executed with the -m switch, which runs the master process. The master process creates the list of files to encrypt and then spawns slave processes using the switches -i SM-tgytutrc -s. The slave processes encrypt the files.

When encryption has completed, LockerGoga changes the user's and Administrator account's passwords to HuHuHUHoHo283283@dJD and then logs out the user.

Remediation steps

Type Step

If a device on your network becomes infected with ransomware it will begin encrypting local machine files and files on any network the logged-in user has permission to access. For system administration accounts this may include backup storage locations.

To avoid becoming infected with ransomware, ensure that:

  • A robust program of education and awareness training is delivered to users to ensure they don’t open attachments or follow links within unsolicited emails.
  • All operating systems, anti-virus and other security products are kept up to date.
  • All day to day computer activities such as email and internet are performed using non-administrative accounts and that permissions are always assigned based on the principle of least privilege.
  • Your organisation adopts a holistic all-round approach to Cyber Security as advocated by the 10 Steps to Cyber Security.

Identifying the source of infection:
Identifying the affected device and disconnecting or quarantining it from the network is essential to damage limitation.

  • Users should immediately report infections to their IT support provider, disconnect their network cable and power the computer down.
  • File auditing should be enabled, and file server logs should be monitored to detect signs of unauthorised encryption and allow the source of encryption to be identified (i.e. the infected device).

To limit the damage of ransomware and enable recovery:
All critical data must be backed up, and these backups must be sufficiently protected/kept out of reach of ransomware.

  • Multiple backups should be created including at least one off-network backup (e.g. to tape).
    The only guaranteed way to recover from a ransomware infection is to restore all affected files from their most recent backup.

Last edited: 14 February 2020 2:51 pm