Clop is a ransomware variant of the CryptoMix family that is thought to have been developed in Russia. It targets victims in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Europe. Last month, law enforcement authorities in a joint task force from Ukraine, South Korea, and the USA, arrested and charged six suspects believed to be members of the Clop threat actor gang.
Clop Ransomware is also a CryptoMix Variant
Clop uses several methods to avoid detection and impede analysis. The malware includes anti-analysis and anti-virtual-machine (VM) techniques to ensure the file will not execute if it finds it is running in an emulated environment. The ransomware also attempts to disable Windows Defender and uninstall Microsoft Security Essentials.
As we are always looking for weaknesses, if you are a victim of this variant and decide to pay the ransom, please send us the decryptor so we can take a look at it. You can also discuss or receive support for Cryptomix ransomware infections in our dedicated Cryptomix Help & Support Topic.
Another item noticed by BleepingComputer in this variant is that it will create a batch file named clearnetworkdns_11-22-33.bat that will be executed soon after the ransomware is launched. This batch file will disable Windows's automatic startup repair, remove shadow volume copies, and then resize them in order to clear orphaned shadow volume copies.
The ransomware will then begin to encrypt a victims files. When encrypting files it will append the .Clop or .CIop extension to the encrypted file's name. For example, a test file encrypted by this variant has an encrypted file name of test.jpg.CIop.
This variant will also create a ransom note named CIopReadMe.txt that is now indicating that they are targeting an entire network rather than an individual computer. Whether this is true or not is not known at this time, as the ransomware itself does not have the ability to self-propagate, but could be done manually if the attackers are hacking into Remote Desktop Services.
Upon execution, Clop ransomware begins terminating selected Windows processes and services. Clop can also disable anti-virus software running on the computer. This technique also helps Clop close all files so that they can be more easily encrypted. Per Bleeping Computer, the malware exhibits digitally signed executables in an attempt to appear legitimate. The malware also creates a batch file that is designed to disable Windows startup repair and also remove any shadow volume copies. The newest variants, first found in December 2019 by MalwareHunterTeam, kill the 663 Windows processes. This includes Windows 10 apps, terminal programs, editors, programming tools and languages, debuggers, and more.
Other newer variants disable Windows defender through silent command line modification of registry keys, and is also uninstalling the Microsoft Security Essentials client. Cybereason detects the malicious sample execution together with all of the listed commands:
Ransom.Clop is Malwarebytes' detection name for a ransomware that evolved as a variant of Ransom.Cryptomix. Ransom.Clop was first seen in February of 2019. Besides encrypting systems the Clop ransomware also exfiltrates data that will be published on a leak site if the victim refuses to pay the ransom.
Clop ransomware first emerged in 2019, when it became a prevalent threat to organizations and businesses. Clop ransomware encrypts the victims files and threatens to leak the confidential information if no ransom is paid.To date, it is estimated Clop ransomware has successfully extorted more than $500 million from various organizations, including multinational energy companies and at least two prominent United States universities.In this article we will cover what Clop ransomware and its variants are, what threats they can pose to your organization, and how you can prevent Clop ransomware attacks.
Clop evolved as a variant of the CryptoMix ransomware family. In February 2019, security researchers discovered the use of Clop by the threat group known as TA505 when it launched a large-scale spear-phishing email campaign. Clop is an example of ransomware as a service (RaaS) that is operated by a Russian-speaking group. Additionally, this ransomware used a verified and digitally signed binary, which made it look like a legitimate executable file that could evade security detection.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a high-impact threat warning to U.S. businesses and organizations on October 2, 2019. That threat was ransomware, and the FBI warned that cybercriminals "upgrade and change their techniques to make their attacks more effective and to prevent detection." Although often dismissed as old news by some, that the City of New Orleans recently declared a state of emergency following an attack should be proof enough that ransomware remains a real and present danger. Now an already successful piece of ransomware malware, behind the December 23 attack that encrypted "almost all Windows systems" at Maastricht University, has evolved to become even more of a threat to Windows 10 users. Security researchers have revealed that the latest Clop ransomware variant will now terminate a total of 663 Windows processes before file encryption commences. Clop can kill a host of Windows 10 and Microsoft Office applications. Here's what is known so far.
Clop first emerged as a pretty straightforward variant of the CryptoMix ransomware family back in March 2019. At the time, it didn't appear to be anything particularly out of the ordinary, not least as CryptoMix had been making a nuisance of itself since March 2016. However, even in those early days, the threat actors behind Clop were looking to tweak the malware threat: Clop started targeting entire networks rather than just individual Windows machines.
As with all ransomware threats, the best mitigation is to be prepared. That means being cyber aware: understanding how malware is distributed helps users to spot the kind of emails and attachments that are dangerous and take appropriate action. Ensuring that systems and applications are patched with the latest security updates is also best practice, vulnerabilities in browsers are often exploited by threat actors to install ransomware, for example. Beyond user education and proper patch management, the application of controlled folder access is also recommended to prevent ransomware from successfully executing its encryption intentions. Any ransomware mitigation advice would be lacking were it not to mention that the three, two, one rule of backups should also be in place. That means that backing up your files regularly isn't optional folks, and those backups should ideally be onto two different types of storage media and one "offsite" location.
Security professionals can help their organizations defend against Clop ransomware by investing in a security awareness training program that takes the different needs and security requirements of each user group into consideration. Doing so will allow the organization to strengthen its digital defenses against phishing campaigns and other common delivery vectors for ransomware. Security teams should leverage this training program as part of a layered defense strategy for ransomware, a concerted effort that should also include anti-spam, a backup strategy and other security measures.
This permits malware to overwrite and change system files. It also reads multiple technical details such as computer names and sends them off to threat actors. Also, Clop ransomware creates \Users\CIiHmnxMn6Ps folder where more malicious files are implemented.
Clop is a ransomware which uses the .clop extension after having encrypted the victim's files. Another unique characteristic belonging with Clop is in the string: "Dont Worry C0P" included into the ransom notes. It is a variant of CryptoMix ransomware, but it additionally attempts to disable Windows Defender and to remove the Microsoft Security Essentials in order to avoid user space detection.
Clop is one of the newest ransomware threats. It is a variant of the infamous CryptoMix ransomware, a dangerous file-encrypting virus that actively evades detection and encrypts saved files with the .Clop extension.
This new ransomware was discovered by Michael Gillespie on 8 February 2019 and it is still improving over time. This blog will explain the technical details and share information about how this new ransomware family is working. There are some variants of the Clop ransomware but in this report, we will focus on the main version and highlight part of those variations. The main goal of Clop is to encrypt all files in an enterprise and request a payment to receive a decryptor to decrypt all the affected files. To achieve this, we observed some new techniques being used by the author that we have not seen before. Clearly over the last few months we have seen more innovative techniques appearing in ransomware.
Clop is one of the wealthiest ransomware groups around. Reports say money launderers connected with the outfit have tried to conceal at least $500 million. The real figure for revenues from ransomware is certain to be way higher. The malware first appeared in 2019, a variant of a previous strain known as CryptoMix. Over the succeeding years, it was set to work targeting sectors as diverse as transportation and logistics, education, manufacturing, healthcare and retail.
As mentioned earlier, Flawed Ammyy RAT contains not only the main malware but also a valid signature of the downloader. Unlike other malware that contains invalid certificates, the advantage of Flawed Ammyy RAT is that its binary is signed and distributed via many valid certificates. And such similarity was found in the CLOP ransomware that recently targeted South Korean companies.
The analysis conduct by ASEC found many similarities between the Flawed Ammyy RAT and CLOP ransomware, such as an overlap in the activity period, direct targeting of Korean users, routines to bypass the antivirus program, and signing and distribution of various malware including variants using a valid certificate. In addition, they share the same signature and they both target enterprise users, which makes it highly likely that they are produced by the same threat actor. 2ff7e9595c
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