Home / malware Trojan:W32/Gpcode
First posted on 26 July 2010.
Source: SecurityHomeAliases :
There are no other names known for Trojan:W32/Gpcode.
Explanation :
Also known as a trojan horse program, this is a deceptive program that performs additional actions without the user's knowledge or permission. It does not replicate.
Additional DetailsGpcode is a trojan that encrypts files with certain extensions on local and remote drives and then asks a user to contact its author to buy a decryption solution. So basically the trojan makes user's files hostages and asks for a ransom to "free" them. This is a type of criminal activity that has not been seen for a long time.
The trojan's file is a PE executable about 56 kilobytes long, packed with UPX file compressor.
Execution
After the trojan's file is run by a user it creates a startup key for its file in Windows Registry:
€ [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
"services"="[file name]"
where [file name] is the name of the trojan's file.
Activity
The trojan starts to scan local and remote drives for files with the following extensions:
€ .xls € .doc € .txt € .rtf € .zip € .rar € .dbf € .htm € .html € .jpg € .db € .db1 € .db2 € .asc € .pgp
When a file with any of these extension is found, the trojan reads it to memory, encrypts file's data with a simple algorithm, saves encrypted data into a new file (the name of this file is 'coder' + original file's name: for example for FILE.PGP the trojan will create the CODERFILE.PGP file), deletes the original file and then renames the newly created file with the name of the original file.
After that the trojan creates a text file named ATTENTION!!!.TXT in the same folder where the encrypted file is located. This .txt file contains the following text:
€ Some files are coded. € To buy decoder mail: n781567@yahoo.com € with subject: PGPcoder 000000000032
All encrypted files have the following 21 byte text string in their beginning:
€ PGPcoder 000000000032
The encryption algorithm is quite simple - the trojan uses ADD operation on the original file's data with a single byte encryption key. The original value of the encryption key is 58 (0x3a) and it is modified using 2 fixed byte values which are 37 (0x25) and 92 (0x5c) after encryption of each next byte of the original file's data.
While the trojan scans local and remote drives, it keeps a track of all found folders and files in the AUTOSAVE.SIN file that is created in a temporary folder.
After all files are encrypted the trojan terminates its process, deletes its executable file, AUTOSAVE.SIN file and its startup key from the Registry.
Detection
F-Secure Anti-Virus detects Gpcode.b trojan with the following update: [FSAV_Database_Version]
Version=2005-05-23_01
Variant:Virus.Win32.Gpcode.bLast update 26 July 2010
