Malware

New Cerber ransomware variant kills common database-related processes

A new variant of the Cerber ransomware kills common database-related processes like those of the MySQL, Oracle and Microsoft SQL servers to encrypt files.

According to experts the BleepingComputer.com forum, a new variant of the Cerber ransomware is the wild attempts to shut down database connections to increase the effects of the infection.

The principal goal of a ransomware it to encrypt some of the most important data stored on computers and servers in the shortest time.

In a business perspective, precious data are usually stored in databases, and the write access to them if usually blocked by the operating systems because other processes are already using them.

Clearly, the lock of the databases doesn’t allow the malware, including the Cerber ransomware, to have a write access to the archive preventing the ransomware from encrypting them.

In order to overwhelm this problem, the latest version of the Cerber attempts to kill the principal processes linked to many database-related activities.

“According to security researcher BloodDolly, this update also includes the addition of new database processes that are closed by the close_process directive in Cerber’s configuration.  This directive tells Cerber to terminate certain processes before encryption begins.” states bleepingcomputer.com.

“The directive and the current list of processes being terminated are:

 "close_process":
 {
  "close_process":1,
  "process":["msftesql.exe","sqlagent.exe","sqlbrowser.exe","sqlservr.exe","sqlwriter.exe","oracle.exe","ocssd.exe","dbsnmp.exe","synctime.exe","mydesktopqos.exe","agntsvc.exeisqlplussvc.exe","xfssvccon.exe","mydesktopservice.exe","ocautoupds.exe","agntsvc.exeagntsvc.exe","agntsvc.exeencsvc.exe","firefoxconfig.exe","tbirdconfig.exe","ocomm.exe","mysqld.exe","mysqld-nt.exe","mysqld-opt.exe","dbeng50.exe","sqbcoreservice.exe"]
 },

msftesql.exe, sqlagent.exe, sqlbrowser.exe, sqlservr.exe, sqlwriter.exe, oracle.exe, ocssd.exe, dbsnmp.exe, synctime.exe, mydesktopqos.exe, agntsvc.exeisqlplussvc.exe, xfssvccon.exe, mydesktopservice.exe, ocautoupds.exe, agntsvc.exeagntsvc.exe, agntsvc.exeencsvc.exe, firefoxconfig.exe, tbirdconfig.exe, ocomm.exe, mysqld.exe, mysqld-nt.exe, mysqld-opt.exe, dbeng50.exe and sqbcoreservice.exe.”

In order to kill the above processes, the ransomware needs to run from privileged accounts, a good reason to work with minimum privileges in a workspace.

The Cerber ransomware is a very common threat, it is offered on the criminal underground as a service and researchers estimate that the profits for the criminal organization behind is greater than a $1 million this year.

Another worrisome trend is the increasing number of ransomware-bases attacks against businesses that need to adopt all the necessary countermeasure to defeat the threat.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Cerber ransomware, hacking)

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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