# LokiLocker ransomware family spotted with built-in wiper

**[theregister.com/2022/03/16/blackberry_lokilocker_ransomware/](https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/16/blackberry_lokilocker_ransomware/)**

Jeff Burt

**[Security](https://www.theregister.com/security/)**

## BlackBerry says extortionists erase documents if ransom unpaid

[Jeff Burt Wed 16 Mar 2022 // 21:00 UTC](https://www.theregister.com/Author/Jeff-Burt)
**1**

BlackBerry security researchers have identified a ransomware family targeting Englishspeaking victims that is capable of erasing all non-system files from infected Windows PCs.

LokiLocker, a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) family with possible origins in Iran, was first
[seen in the wild in mid-August 2021, BlackBerry Threat Intelligence researchers write in a](https://blogs.blackberry.com/en/2022/03/lokilocker-ransomware)
blog post today.

"It shouldn't be confused with an older ransomware family called Locky, which was notorious
in 2016, or LokiBot, which is an infostealer," they say. "It shares some similarities with the
LockBit ransomware (registry values, ransom note filename), but it doesn't seem to be its
direct descendant."


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They describe LokiLocker – named after Loki, the trickster god in Norse lore – as a limitedaccess ransomware-as-a-service scheme that appears to be sold to a relatively small
number of carefully vetted affiliates behind closed doors." Affiliates are identified by a chosen
username and assigned a unique chat-ID number. The researchers estimate there are about
30 different such affiliates across the LokiLocker samples that they have found in the wild.

Like other cyber threats, such as distributed denial-of-services (DDoS), ransomware has
evolved in recent years to include bad actors offering to lease their malware as a service to
other criminals, enabling those less skilled to fire off relatively sophisticated campaigns via
someone else's malicious code and backend infrastructure.

McAfee last year [issued a threat report that showed a significant drop in the incidence of](https://www.mcafee.com/enterprise/en-us/lp/threats-reports/jun-2021.html)
ransomware in the first quarter of 2021. However, the decline had less to do with
cybercriminals embracing other attack methods and more with many of them using RaaS
campaigns that target fewer but larger organizations that bring in more money than mass
multi-target ransomware attacks.

BlackBerry researchers say there are victims around the world, which isn't surprising given
that different affiliates may have different targeting patterns. Most so far are in Eastern
Europe and Asia.

The researchers are still trying to determine the origins of the RaaS family but wrote that all
the embedded debugging strings are in English and mostly free of the kinds of mistakes and
misspellings typically seen in malware coming from Russia or China. Some of the earliest
known LokiLocker affiliates have usernames that are found exclusively on Iranian hacking
channels.

"Also, perhaps more interestingly, some of the cracking tools used to distribute the very first
samples of LokiLocker seem to be developed by an Iranian cracking team called
AccountCrack," says Blackberry. "Moreover, at least three of the known LokiLocker affiliates
use unique usernames that can be found on Iranian hacking channels. It's not entirely clear
whether this means they truly originate from Iran or that the real threat actors are trying to
cast the blame on Iranian attackers."

In addition, the malware appears to contain a list of countries to exclude from encryption and
in the samples the BlackBerry researchers have seen, the only country on the list is Iran.

"It seems that this functionality is not yet implemented, as there are no references to this
array in the code," the researchers write. "However, like the references to Iranian attackers
and hacking tools, it could just as well be a false flag meant to misdirect our attention" and
put blame on Iran.

The malware is written in .NET and protected with NETGuard – a commercial product that
the researchers call a "modified ConfuserEX," an open-source tool for protecting .NET
applications – while also using KoiVM a virtualization plugin It used to be a licensed


-----

commercial protection for .NET applications, but after its code was open-sourced in 2018, it
became publicly available on GitHub.

The use of KoiVM as a protector is an unusual method for complicating analysis of the
malware that hasn't been seen with many other threat actors and may mark the start of a
new trend, according to BlackBerry.

The ransomware uses a combination of AES for file encryption and RSA for key protection to
encrypt documents on victims' local hard drives and network shares. It then tells the victims
to email the attackers to receive instructions for paying the ransom.

An early sample of the ransomware was distributed inside trojanized brute-checker hacking
tools, including PayPal BruteCheck, Spotify BruteChecker, PiaVNP Brute Checker by
ACTEAM, and FPSN Checker by Angeal. Such tools are used to automate validation of
stolen accounts and get access to other accounts through credential stuffing, in which
hackers use usernames and passwords stolen from one website to log into other websites,
sometimes using a botnet to accelerate the process.

"It's possible that the LokiLocker version distributed with these hacking tools constituted
some kind of beta testing phase before the malware was offered to a wider range of
affiliates," the researchers say.

Like other ransomware, LokiLocker puts a time limit for paying the ransom and will make the
system unusable if the payment isn't made. However, if configured to do so, the malware
also includes a wiper function that will erase the data if the payment deadline passes.

"It will delete files on all of the victim's drives, except for the system files, and it will also try to
overwrite the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the system drive to render the system unusable,"
the researchers write, adding that the victims are greeted with this message: "You did not
pay us. So we deleted all your files :)"

Presumably this is so that there's no chance at all to recover the scrambled documents, save
from backups. In addition, after overwriting the MBR, the ransomware will try to crash the
system by forcing a Blue Screen of Death.

The wiper function is part of an escalation by ransomware gangs in recent years to
encourage victims to pay the ransom by including additional threats beyond just refusing to
decrypt the files, such as erasing data or leaking stolen files on the dark web.

There are no free tools to decrypt files captured by LokiLocker and BlackBerry – like the FBI
and other security authorities – urge victims not to pay the ransom, arguing that it adds fuel
to the global growth in ransomware and there is no guarantee they will get their data
returned. Also, even if it is returned, the hackers could have put a backdoor into the system,
making the organization more vulnerable to future attacks.


-----

After all, people who pay one ransom can often be persuaded to pay another, the team at
BlackBerry concludes. ®

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