Friday, December 8, 2023

New PXJ Ransomware Delete’s Backup Copies and Disable’s User Ability to Recover any Files

Researchers discovered a new ransomware strain dubbed Pxj that encrypts users’ files appends “.pxj” extension to the encrypted files.

The new ransomware strain was discovered by IBM’s X-Force Incident Response team, and the ransomware malware is all known as “XVFXGW”.

PXJ Ransomware

The PXJ Ransomware code appears to be a new one, it doesn’t share any underlying code with known ransomware families.

Cybercriminals packed the ransomware using an Open source intelligence packer named UPX, the packer is known for supporting multiple file formats.

The distribution method of the ransomware strain remains unknown, but mostly through emails, once it gets into the user system it checks with Recycle Bin and empties it.

It also destroys the files from shadow copies, disables Windows Error Recovery service and then executes serious of commands to destroy the user’s ability from recovering the data after it encrypted.

Once these services are disabled it starts the encryption process, for encryption, it uses both AES and RSA algorithms.

The ransomware encrypts the following files includes photos and images, databases, documents, videos and other files on the device.

Once the encryption completed it appends a “PXJ” extension and drops a file named “LOOK.txt” which has the ransom note.

Ransom Note

Infected users can contact attackers only through the Email and users are asked to pay a ransom in bitcoins to get the decryption key.

Also, the attacker demands users to pay ransom immediately, else the ransom amount gets doubled after three days and the decryption key will get destroyed.

Researchers observed a dropped file named “Res.AAABANIx93RdufO4” with the old and new samples of ransomware, according to the ransom note, “victims should not delete this file, which leads us to hypothesize that this file may be used in the decryption process.”

The ransomware becomes a trunky business for cybercriminals it evolves every day with new ability and the threat actors behind it earn millions of dollars.

Website

Latest articles

Exploitation Methods Used by PlugX Malware Revealed by Splunk Research

PlugX malware is sophisticated in evasion, as it uses the following techniques to avoid...

TA422 Hackers Attack Organizations Using Outlook & WinRAR Vulnerabilities

Hackers exploit Outlook and WinRAR vulnerabilities because these widely used software programs are lucrative...

Bluetooth keystroke-injection Flaw: A Threat to Apple, Linux & Android Devices

An unauthenticated Bluetooth keystroke-injection vulnerability that affects Android, macOS, and iOS devices has been...

Atlassian Patches RCE Flaw that Affected Multiple Products

Atlassian has been discovered with four new vulnerabilities associated with Remote Code Execution in...

Reflectiz Introduces AI-powered Insights on Top of Its Smart Alerting System

Reflectiz, a cybersecurity company specializing in continuous web threat management, proudly introduces a new...

SLAM Attack Gets Root Password Hash in 30 Seconds

Spectre is a class of speculative execution vulnerabilities in microprocessors that can allow threat...

Akira Ransomware Exploiting Zero-day Flaws For Organization Network Access

The Akira ransomware group, which first appeared in March 2023, has been identified as...

Endpoint Strategies for 2024 and beyond

Converge and Defend

What's the pulse of Unified Endpoint Management and Security (UEMS) in Europe? Join us live to uncover the strategies that are defining endpoint security in the region.

Related Articles