Pierluigi Paganini June 17, 2019

Good news for the victims of the latest variants of the GandCrab ransomware, NoMoreRansomware released a free decryption tool.

Victims of the latest variants of the GandCrab ransomware can now decrypt their files for free using a free decryptor tool released on the the NoMoreRansom website. The tool works with versions 5 to 5.2 of the ransomware, as well as versions 1 and 4. 

“On 17 June, a new decryption tool for the latest version of the most prolific ransomware family GandCrab has been released free of charge on www.nomoreransom.org.” reads the press release published by the Eurpol. “This tool allows victims of ransomware to regain access to their information encrypted by hackers, without having to pay demanded ransoms.”

The GandCrab decryptor tool is the result of a partnership with law enforcement agencies from Austria (Bundeskriminalambt – BMI), Belgium (Federal Computer Crime Unit), Bulgaria (General Directorate Combating Organized Crime – Cybercrime Department), France (Police Judiciaire de Paris – Befti), Germany (LKA Baden-Württemberg), the Netherlands (High Tech Crime Unit), Romania (DIICOT), the United Kingdom (NCA and Metropolitan Police), the United States (FBI) and Europol and its Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT), together with the private partner Bitdefender.

The ransomware appeared in the threat landscape early 2018 when experts at cyber security firm LMNTRIX discovered a new ransomware-as-a-service dubbed GandCrab. The RaaS was advertised in Russian hacking community on the dark web, researchers noticed that authors leverage the RIG and GrandSoft exploit kits to distribute the malware.

In more than one year its operators released several versions with numerous enhancements, but in June they announced they are shutting down their operation and affiliates are being told to stop distributing the ransomware.

In October 2018, experts at the Cybaze Z-Lab have analyzed one of the latest iterations of the infamous GandCrab ransomware, the version 5.0.

The operators revealed they have generated more than $2 billion in ransom payments, earning on average of $2.5 million dollars per week. The operators also declared to have earned a net of $150 million that now have invested in legal activities.

Experts at BitDefender pointed out that not all victims are treated equally:

“GandCrab prioritizes ransomed information and sets individual pricing by type of victim.” read a blog post published by BitDefender. “An average computer costs from $600 and $2,000 to decrypt, and a server decryption costs $10,000 and more. While helping victims with decryption, we’ve seen ransom notes asking for as much as $700,000, which is quite a price for one wrong click,”

According to the Europol, previously released tools for the GandCrab ransomware have helped more than 30 000 victims recover their data for free and save roughly $50 million in unpaid ransoms. 

The joint efforts have also weakened the operators’ position on the cyber crime market and have led to the demise and shutdown of the operation by authorities. Bitdefender and McAfee experts provided a significant contribution to the fight against this threat. 

You can download the GandGrab decryption tool for free at the following address:

https://labs.bitdefender.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/gandcrab-removal-tool-v1-v4-v5/

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – ransomare, decryptor tools)

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