{
	"id": "921f23c4-9ef9-4309-a709-befc0b02ce2a",
	"created_at": "2026-04-06T00:15:42.671727Z",
	"updated_at": "2026-04-10T13:13:06.971719Z",
	"deleted_at": null,
	"sha1_hash": "426b0377de1c3f4fe20a76594749d2bd1baeed3b",
	"title": "Fake CDC Flu Pandemic Warning delivers Gandcrab 5.2 ransomware",
	"llm_title": "",
	"authors": "",
	"file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
	"file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
	"file_size": 550367,
	"plain_text": "Fake CDC Flu Pandemic Warning delivers Gandcrab 5.2\r\nransomware\r\nPublished: 2019-03-13 · Archived: 2026-04-05 13:53:28 UTC\r\nA somewhat interesting and slightly alarming malware campaign, spreading worldwide but supposed to be\r\ntargeting the USA  that pretends to be an urgent message from the CDC ( Centre for Disease Control ) warning\r\nabout a flu outbreak. This delivers Gandcrab 5.2 ransomware that currently does not have free decryption\r\navailable yet.\r\nThey are using email addresses and subjects that will scare, shock, persuade or entice a recipient to read the email\r\nand open the attachment.\r\nRemember many email clients or webmail services, especially on a mobile phone or tablet,  only show the Name\r\nin the From:  and not the bit in \u003cdomain.com \u003e. That is why these scams and phishes and malware deliveries work\r\nso well.\r\nTo confuse the issue even more the subject line was written in what looks like a mix of cyrillic \u0026 western\r\ncharacters \u0026 encoded in UTF8 format so a computer will automatically translate / decode it.  When I first tried to\r\npost this, I got a garbled mess of characters in the url  to this post where the Copy \u0026 pasting from the email picked\r\nup the utf8 format\r\nSubject: =?utf-8?B?Rmx1IHDQsG5k0LVtaWMgd9Cwcm5pbmcu?=\r\nhttps://web.archive.org/web/20190331091056/https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/fake-cdc-flu-pandemic-warning-delivers-gandcrab-5-2-ransomware/\r\nPage 1 of 10\n\nYou can now submit suspicious sites, emails and files via our Submissions system\r\nThe CDC has not been hacked or had their email or other servers compromised. They are not sending the emails\r\nto you. They are just innocent victims in exactly the same way as every recipient of these emails. These came\r\nfrom numerous different email addresses \u0026 domains on the same server\r\nThe email looks like:\r\nFrom:  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. \u003cPeter@eatpraynope.com\u003e\r\nDate:  Tue 12/03/2019 22:52\r\nSubject:  Flu pаndеmic wаrning.\r\nAttachment:  Flu pandemic warning.doc\r\nBody content:\r\nYou should take a look at this important announcement!\r\nNow, flu virus activity is seriously elevated. US Center for Disease Control and Prevention\r\n(CDC) states that within the a last half year, the situation has became dangerous noticeably:\r\nnear 20,000 people were killed by the flu already, and more than 220,000 were urgently\r\nhospitalized.\r\nInstructions DOC\r\nTo avoid contamination and keep people from the flu, CDC developed a prescriptions list.\r\nYou can find DOC file with this list attached to the letter.\r\nIt is strongly recommended to study it with care and follow the directions to avoid the\r\ndisease.  With care of your health, CDC Communication Department\r\nNot interested anymore? Unsubscribe\r\nВ© 2001–2019 All rights Reserved.\r\nScreenshot:\r\nhttps://web.archive.org/web/20190331091056/https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/fake-cdc-flu-pandemic-warning-delivers-gandcrab-5-2-ransomware/\r\nPage 2 of 10\n\nFake CDC email\r\nhttps://web.archive.org/web/20190331091056/https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/fake-cdc-flu-pandemic-warning-delivers-gandcrab-5-2-ransomware/\r\nPage 3 of 10\n\nFake CDC email\r\nThe Word doc attachment is almost empty with just an Urgent Notice Heading. The scumbags trying to\r\ncompromise you are hoping that you will enable content \u0026 editing to enable the macros that let this run.\r\nFake CDC word doc Urgent Notice\r\nFlu pandemic warning.doc         Current Virus total detections:  Anyrun|\r\nhttps://web.archive.org/web/20190331091056/https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/fake-cdc-flu-pandemic-warning-delivers-gandcrab-5-2-ransomware/\r\nPage 4 of 10\n\nThis malware doc downloads from http://205.185.125.109/samanta.exe ( VirusTotal)\r\nThe C2 for this is a well known site https://www.kakaocorp.link/static/tmp/eshe.png where the ransomware\r\nposts encrypted / encoded details about the compromised computer.\r\nAs usual this still drops a text file in each folder that it has encrypted and changes the desktop background\r\nThe ransom note looks like this ( I have blurred out a lot of the content) the computer data section is the same as\r\nthe details sent to the C2\r\nGandcrab 5.2 ransomware note\r\nEmail Headers:\r\nhttps://web.archive.org/web/20190331091056/https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/fake-cdc-flu-pandemic-warning-delivers-gandcrab-5-2-ransomware/\r\nPage 5 of 10\n\nIP Hostname City Region Country Organisation\r\n194.58.39.79  eatpraynope.com RU\r\nAS197695 Domain names registrar\r\nREG.RU, Ltd\r\nReceived: from eatpraynope.com ([194.58.39.79]:53462)\r\nby my emnail server with esmtp (Exim 4.91)\r\n(envelope-from \u003cPeter@eatpraynope.com\u003e)\r\nid 1h3qFp-0006zX-2T\r\nfor abc123@myonlinesecurity.co.uk; Tue, 12 Mar 2019 22:52:13 +0000\r\nDKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; s=mail; d=eatpraynope.com;\r\n h=Message-ID:From:To:Subject:Date:MIME-Version:Content-Type; i=Peter@eatpraynope.com;\r\n bh=au57B5AjAYA8CV51N8wUPa2oKbcn4cMHOk1pSWI+wPw=;\r\n b=ajb75+gP8xkU82j754wURfAVH+pizwP+dJ+PymiMQRD/i68Ebvm4ek9aYCdjMNUIHtaZNN1S6GjZ\r\n rttgYhdZ0PHEVi8ZCfnYwmw4GTHy8RTLzp5rW3iWleJeFP32X2ysR7pEKYyZcKj07u/D3UA5nNvQ\r\n mUqaWOgSrMQpix47/hM=\r\nMessage-ID: \u003c069ddf0efa09cdeac937c192994d4599ba6f4a88ef@eatpraynope.com\u003e\r\nFrom: \"Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\" \u003cPeter@eatpraynope.com\u003e\r\nTo: \u003cabc123@myonlinesecurity.co.uk\u003e\r\nSubject: =?utf-8?B?Rmx1IHDQsG5k0LVtaWMgd9Cwcm5pbmcu?=\r\nDate: Tue, 12 Mar 2019 15:51:31 -0700\r\nMIME-Version: 1.0\r\nContent-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=\"ab513f7da27658eb37327bf5d105001304f7\"\r\nThe other emails I saw were all from same IP \u0026 server 194.58.39.79\r\nviktoria@akk-actg.com\r\nflorian@jesseandjoannabelizewedding.com\r\nniko@sf-dns.net\r\npeter@eatpraynope.com\r\nhttps://web.archive.org/web/20190331091056/https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/fake-cdc-flu-pandemic-warning-delivers-gandcrab-5-2-ransomware/\r\nPage 6 of 10\n\nfake CDC email list\r\nAll the alleged senders, companies, names of employees, phone numbers, amounts, reference numbers etc.\r\nmentioned in the emails are all innocent and are just picked at random. Some of these companies will exist and\r\nsome won’t.  Don’t try to respond by phone or email, all you will do is end up with an innocent person or\r\ncompany who have had their details spoofed and picked at random from a long list that the bad guys have\r\npreviously found .  The bad guys choose companies, Government departments and other organisations with\r\nsubjects that are designed to entice you or alarm you into blindly opening the attachment or clicking the link in the\r\nemail to see what is happening.\r\nThis email attachment contains what appears to be a genuine word doc or Excel XLS spreadsheet with either\r\na macro script or  an embedded OLE object that when run will infect you.\r\nModern versions of Microsoft office, that is Office 2010, 2013, 2016 and Office 365 should be automatically set\r\nto higher security to protect you.\r\nBy default protected view is enabled and  macros are disabled, UNLESS you or your company have enabled\r\nthem.  If protected view mode is turned off and macros are enabled then opening this malicious word document\r\nwill infect you, and simply previewing it in  windows explorer or your email client might well be enough to infect\r\nyou. Definitely DO NOT follow the advice they give to enable macros or enable editing to see the content.\r\nMost of these malicious word documents either appear to be totally blank or look something like these images\r\nwhen opened in protected view mode, which should be the default in Office 2010, 2013, 2016  and 365. \r\nSome versions pretend to have a digital RSA key and say you need to enable editing and Macros to see the\r\ncontent.  Do NOT enable Macros or editing under any circumstances. \r\nhttps://web.archive.org/web/20190331091056/https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/fake-cdc-flu-pandemic-warning-delivers-gandcrab-5-2-ransomware/\r\nPage 7 of 10\n\nWhat can be infected by this\r\nAt this time, these malicious macros only infect windows computers. They do not affect a Mac, IPhone, IPad,\r\nBlackberry, Windows phone or Android phone. The malicious word or excel file can open on any device with\r\nan office program installed, and potentially the macro will run on Windows or Mac or any other device with\r\nMicrosoft Office installed. BUT the downloaded malware that the macro tries to download is windows specific,\r\nso will not harm, install or infect any other computer except a windows computer. You will not be infected if you\r\ndo not have macros enabled in Excel or Word. These Macros do not run in “Office Online”  Open Office, Libre\r\nOffice, Word Perfect or any other office program that can read Word or Excel files. \r\nPlease read our How to protect yourselves page for simple, sensible advice on how to avoid being infected by this\r\nsort of socially engineered malware. Also please read our post about word macro malware and how to avoid being\r\ninfected by them\r\nBe very careful with email attachments. All of these emails use Social engineering tricks to persuade you to open\r\nthe attachments that come with the email. It might be a simple message saying “look at this picture of me I took\r\nlast night” that appears to come from a friend. It might be a scare ware message that will make you open the\r\nattachment to see what you are accused of doing. Frequently it is more targeted at somebody ( small companies\r\netc.) who regularly receive PDF attachments or Word .doc attachments or any other common file that you use\r\nevery day, for example an invoice addressed to sales@victimcompany.com.\r\nThe basic rule is NEVER open any attachment to an email, unless you are expecting it. Now that is very easy to\r\nsay but quite hard to put into practice, because we all get emails with files attached to them. Our friends and\r\nfamily  love to send us pictures of them doing silly things, or even cute pictures of the children or pets. Many of us\r\nroutinely get Word, Excel or PowerPoint attachments in the course of work or from companies that we already\r\nhave a relationship with.\r\nNever just blindly click on the file in your email program. Always save the file to your downloads folder, so you\r\ncan check it first. A lot of malicious files that are attached to emails will have a faked extension. That is the 3\r\nletters at the end of the file name. Unfortunately windows by default hides the file extensions so you need to Set\r\nyour folder options to “show known file types. Then when you unzip the zip file  that is supposed to contain the\r\npictures of “Sally’s dog catching a ball”, an invoice or receipt from some company for a product or service  or\r\nreceive a Word doc or Excel file report that work has supposedly sent you to finish working on at the weekend,\r\nhttps://web.archive.org/web/20190331091056/https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/fake-cdc-flu-pandemic-warning-delivers-gandcrab-5-2-ransomware/\r\nPage 8 of 10\n\nyou can easily see if it is a picture or document \u0026 not a malicious program. If you see JS or .EXE or .COM or\r\n.PIF or .SCR or .HTA .vbs, .wsf , .jse  .jar at the end of the file name DO NOT click on it or try to open it, it\r\nwill infect you.\r\nWith these malformed infected word, excel and other office documents that normally contain a vba macro virus,\r\nthe vital thing is do not open any office document direct from your email client or the web. Always save the\r\ndocument to a safe location on your computer, normally your downloads folder or your documents folder and scan\r\nit with your antivirus. Many Antiviruses do not natively detect vba  macro-viruses in real time protection and you\r\nneed to enable document or office protection in the settings. Do not rely on your Anti-Virus to immediately detect\r\nthe malware or malicious content.    DO NOT enable editing mode or enable macros  \r\nAll modern versions of word and other office programs, that is 2010, 2013, 2016 and 365, should open all\r\nMicrosoft office documents that is word docs, excel files and PowerPoint etc  that are downloaded from the web\r\nor received in an email  automatically in “protected view” that stops any embedded malware or macros from being\r\ndisplayed and running. Make sure protected view is set in all office programs to protect you and your company\r\nfrom these sorts of attacks and do not over ride it to edit the document until you are 100% sure that it is a safe\r\ndocument. If the protected mode bar appears when opening the document DO NOT enable editing mode or\r\nenable macros the document will look blank or have a warning message, but will be safe.\r\nBe aware that there are a lot of dodgy word docs spreading that WILL infect you with no action from you if you\r\nare still  using an out dated or vulnerable version of word. This is a good reason to update your office programs to\r\na recent version and stop using office 2003 and 2007.  Many of us have continued to use older versions of word\r\nand other office programs, because  they are convenient, have the functions and settings we are used to and have\r\nnever seen a need to update to the latest super-duper version.  The risks in using older version are now seriously\r\nstarting to outweigh the convenience, benefits and cost of keeping an old version going.\r\nI strongly urge you to update your office software to the latest version and stop putting yourself at risk, using old\r\nout of date software.\r\nIOC:\r\nMain object- “Flu pandemic warning.doc”\r\nsha256 a1ca75dfdcc8038650c27cbd4f7b3edc2cf5915cd75567c9bd2407ea0d099eba\r\nsha1 7971cd39eee59bf64cc2dfd7610d6f529eafd9df\r\nmd5 fae8e6b098eb9ecce2611f1dffc8f7b9\r\nDropped executable file\r\nsha256 C:\\windows\\temp\\191.exe 73a994e9fa2804afceaf1286e4aba8522eb3c555b85766b03f03106118165736\r\nMD5 27fa5f1ef590ee5e503c3d15f210dab7\r\nSHA-1 6069666610d09085dc7926cde3d242427e67b167\r\nDNS requests\r\ndomain www.kakaocorp.link\r\nConnections\r\nip 107.173.49.208\r\nip 205.185.125.109\r\nhttps://web.archive.org/web/20190331091056/https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/fake-cdc-flu-pandemic-warning-delivers-gandcrab-5-2-ransomware/\r\nPage 9 of 10\n\nHTTP/HTTPS requests\r\nurl http://205.185.125.109/samanta.exe\r\nurl http://www.kakaocorp.link/\r\nurl https://www.kakaocorp.link/static/tmp/eshe.png\r\nEmails from: ( probably loads of other domains \u0026 addresses on same server)\r\nviktoria@akk-actg.com\r\nflorian@jesseandjoannabelizewedding.com\r\nniko@sf-dns.net\r\npeter@eatpraynope.com\r\n194.58.39.79\r\nSource: https://web.archive.org/web/20190331091056/https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/fake-cdc-flu-pandemic-warning-delivers-gandcrab-5-2-ra\r\nnsomware/\r\nhttps://web.archive.org/web/20190331091056/https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/fake-cdc-flu-pandemic-warning-delivers-gandcrab-5-2-ransomware/\r\nPage 10 of 10",
	"extraction_quality": 1,
	"language": "EN",
	"sources": [
		"Malpedia"
	],
	"origins": [
		"web"
	],
	"references": [
		"https://web.archive.org/web/20190331091056/https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/fake-cdc-flu-pandemic-warning-delivers-gandcrab-5-2-ransomware/"
	],
	"report_names": [
		"fake-cdc-flu-pandemic-warning-delivers-gandcrab-5-2-ransomware"
	],
	"threat_actors": [],
	"ts_created_at": 1775434542,
	"ts_updated_at": 1775826786,
	"ts_creation_date": 0,
	"ts_modification_date": 0,
	"files": {
		"pdf": "https://archive.orkl.eu/426b0377de1c3f4fe20a76594749d2bd1baeed3b.pdf",
		"text": "https://archive.orkl.eu/426b0377de1c3f4fe20a76594749d2bd1baeed3b.txt",
		"img": "https://archive.orkl.eu/426b0377de1c3f4fe20a76594749d2bd1baeed3b.jpg"
	}
}