Malware

Avast released a free decryptor for Babuk ransomware

Researchers from cybersecurity firm Avast released a decryption tool for Babuk ransomware that allows victims to recover their files for free.

Cybersecurity firm Avast has released a decryption tool for Babuk ransomware that allows victims to recover their files for free. The decryptor was created using the leaked source code and decryption keys.

Babuk is a Russian ransomware, its source code was leaked, along with some of the decryption keys, in September 2021.

The Babuk Locker operators halted their operations at the end of April after the attack against the Washington, DC police department. Experts believe that the decision of the group to leave the ransomware practice could be the result of an operational error, it was a bad idea to threaten the US police department due to the information that it manages.

The ransomware gang broke into the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department, encrypted its files and demanded a $4 million ransom.

At the end of May, the Babuk ransomware operators rebranded their ransomware leak site into Payload.bin and started offering the opportunity to other gangs to use it to leak data stolen from their victims.

The security research group vx-underground said that a Russian youngster, who is believed to be one of the developers of the Babuk gang, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and decided to leak the complete Babuk source code for Windows, ESXI, NAS.

Some members of the group gang relaunched the RaaS as Babuk V2.

Once encrypted files, Babuk appends one of the following extensions to the file name:

  • .babuk
  • .babyk
  • .doydo

Avast released a free decryptor for the Babuk ransomware here.

Researchers from Bleeping Computer tested the decryptor and determined that it “will likely work only for victims whose keys were leaked as part of the Babuk source code dump.”

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, cybercrime)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.

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