LokiLocker encrypts victim’s files on local drives and network shares with a standard combination of AES for file encryption and RSA for key protection.
It then asks the victim to email the attackers to obtain instructions on how to pay the ransom.
LokiLocker also boasts an optional wiper functionality – if the victim doesn’t pay up in the timeframe specified by the attacker, all non-system files will be deleted and the MBR overwritten, wiping all the victim’s files and rendering the system unusable.
With a single stroke, everyone loses.
LokiLocker works as a limited-access Ransomware-as-a-Service scheme that appears to be sold to a relatively small number of carefully vetted affiliates behind closed doors.
Each affiliate is identified by a chosen username and is assigned a unique chat-ID number.
There are currently about 30 different “VIP” affiliates across the LokiLocker samples that BlackBerry researchers have found in the wild.
One of the earliest samples of this ransomware was initially distributed inside Trojanized brute-checker hacking tools such as:
PayPal BruteChecker
Spotify BruteChecker
PiaVPN Brute Checker By ACTEAM
FPSN Checker by Angeal (Cracked by MR_Liosion)
ed by MR_Liosion)
The malware defines an array of strings, which presumably contains a list of countries to exclude from encryption.
In all the samples that have been observed so far, this list contains only one entry – “Iran”.
It seems that this functionality is not yet implemented, as there are no references to this array in the code.
However, like the references to Iranian attackers and hacking tools, it could just as well be a false flag meant to misdirect attention.
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