Ransom.Clop

Short bio

Ransom.Clop is Malwarebytes' detection name for a ransomware that evolved as a variant of Ransom.Cryptomix. Ransom.Clop was first seen in February of 2019. Besides encrypting systems the Clop ransomware also exfiltrates data that will be published on a leak site if the victim refuses to pay the ransom.

Symptoms

Ransom.Clop stops many Windows processes and tries to uninstall security software before it starts the encryption routine. When the encryption is finished victims will be shown the ransom note.

Type and source of infection

Ransom.Clop is a ransomware that encrypts files on infected computers using a RSA 1024-bit public key it encrypts files with RC4 using 117 bytes of the public key. Ransom.Clop may be distributed using various methods. The most common one is by email, often sent out as spam, but sometimes combined with social engineering.

Aftermath

Recovering from a ransomware attack can be a painstaking process even if the victim decides to pay it can take a considerable time to recover without adequate, recent, and organized backups, or a roll-back technology.

Not paying the Clop ransom can lead to exposure of exfiltrated data on the dark web.

Protection

Home remediation

Malwarebytes can detect and remove Ransom.Cryptomix without further user interaction.

1. Please download Malwarebytes to your desktop.
2. Double-click MBSetup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program.
3. When your Malwarebytes for Windows installation completes, the program opens to the Welcome to Malwarebytes screen.
4. Click on the Get started button.
5. Click Scan to start a Threat Scan.
6. Click Quarantine to remove the found threats.
7. Reboot the system if prompted to complete the removal process.

Take note, however, that removing this ransomware does not decrypt your files. You can only get your files back from backups you made before the infection happened.

Business remediation

Nebula endpoint tasks menu

Choose the Scan + Quarantine option. Afterwards you can check the Detections page to see which threats were found.

On the Quarantine page you can see which threats were quarantined and restore them if necessary.

All component/technology detections are passed to the remediation engine for complete removal from infected systems. This industry leading technology uses patented techniques in identifying all cohorts or associated files for a single threat and removes them all together to prevent malware from resuscitating itself. If you are using Malwarebytes Ransomware Rollback technology, it allows you to wind back the clock to negate the impact of ransomware by leveraging just-in-time backups.

Traces/IOCs

Ransom extensions:

• .clop
• .CIop (capital i)

Ransom notes:

• ClopReadMe.txt
• CIopReadMe.txt (capital i)