A Sneaky Ransomware That Seems Benificial. But Deceptive.
There is a new malware called vxCrypter ransomware in the digital space and it is capable of encrypting your files along and ‘improve’ your PC’s performance.VxCrypter is a ransomware based on an old ransomware named vxLock, which is still unfinished. It had utilized Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and Rivest-Shamir-Adleman or RSA algorithm to encrypt files.
The VxCrypter keeps track of the SHA-256 of every file. An SHA-256 is an algorithm that changes data into a fixed fingerprint. Every file has a unique SHA-256 fingerprint, so a file’s copy will have the same SHA-256 code.Any file identical to SHA-256 code is deleted, thus clearing the space on PX and improving performance. This way, the encryption speed is also increased.
VxCrypter Ransomware deletes files with identical SHA-256 code, essentially clearing up space on your PC and improving performance. It does so to increase encryption speed.But it is a decoy, as the victim may think that the effect is beneficial due to enhanced performamce, in the background, the ransomware will encrypt all the files in the system even faster..txt, .docx, .xls, .ppt, .zip, .xml, .wmv etc., are some of the most commonly affected formats.