Lotus ransomware charges 1 BTC ($49K USD). Multi PC discount possible

The SonicWall Capture Labs threat research team has observed reports of a variant from the Crysis/Dharma ransomware family called Lotus.  The operators of this malware charge 1 BTC ($49K USD at the time of writing this alert) for file recovery.  However, the price appears to be negotiable after a conversation with the malware operator.

Infection Cycle:

Upon infection, the malware can be seen using the built-in mshta program to display the ransom message:

Files on the system are encrypted and the following extension is appended to their file names:

.id-E625BDD2.[paymei@cock.li].LOTUS

The following ransom message is displayed on the desktop:

The following files are dropped on to the system:

• MANUAL.txt (in every directory containing encrypted files)
• %APPDATA%\Roaming\{original malware file name} [Detected as: GAV: Lotus.RSM (Trojan)]
• %APPDATA%\Roaming\Info.hta (contains message shown above)
• %APPDATA%\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\Info.hta (contains message shown above)

MANUAL.txt contains the following text:

We reached out to the supplied emails and had the following conversation with the ransomware operator:

The operator asks how many pc’s we would like to recover.  This leads us to believe that the malware is aimed at large organizations:

We see if we can negotiate further if we have multiple infected PC’s:

SonicWall Capture Labs provides protection against this threat via the following signature:

• GAV: Lotus.RSM (Trojan)

This threat is also detected by SonicWALL Capture ATP w/RTDMI and the Capture Client endpoint solutions.

Security News

The SonicWall Capture Labs Threat Research Team gathers, analyzes and vets cross-vector threat information from the SonicWall Capture Threat network, consisting of global devices and resources, including more than 1 million security sensors in nearly 200 countries and territories. The research team identifies, analyzes, and mitigates critical vulnerabilities and malware daily through in-depth research, which drives protection for all SonicWall customers. In addition to safeguarding networks globally, the research team supports the larger threat intelligence community by releasing weekly deep technical analyses of the most critical threats to small businesses, providing critical knowledge that defenders need to protect their networks.