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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday July 11 2017, @02:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the achievement-unlocked dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

The master decryption key for last year's Petya ransomware was made public last week and has since been confirmed to be genuine.

Petya ransomware first emerged in March 2016, distinguishing itself from similar malware by encrypting the Master Boot Record (MBR) instead of individual files. Soon after its initial appearance, Petya was paired with another ransomware, and the pair became available as a service a couple of months later.

The last known variant of the malware was spotted in December 2016 and was referred to as GoldenEye. Dubbed PetrWrap, a ransomware family observed in March this year was using Petya for its nefarious purposes, but wasn't created by Janus Cybercrime Solutions, the name Petya's author goes by.

[...] Kaspersky security researcher Anton Ivanov‏ has already confirmed that the key works for all Petya versions, including GoldenEye.

The release of the master decryption key is great news for those Petya victims who were unable to restore their files to date. Last year, security researchers managed to crack the first two versions of the ransomware, and the only variant not decrypted before was GoldenEye.

"Thanks to the currently published master key, all the people who have preserved the images of the disks encrypted by the relevant versions of Petya, may get a chance of getting their data back," Hasherezade explains.

The newly released master key, however, won't help users hit by NotPetya.

Key is for the original Petya not NotPetya.

Source: http://www.securityweek.com/original-petya-master-decryption-key-released


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  • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday July 11 2017, @03:55PM (3 children)

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Tuesday July 11 2017, @03:55PM (#537627) Homepage Journal

    I keep my data backed up. Ransomware? No problem, wipe and reinstall (and curse).

    --
    mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday July 11 2017, @04:27PM (2 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday July 11 2017, @04:27PM (#537651)

    I need the blue key to open the door, but I'm low on shotgun shells and the cacodemons are a pain to reach with only the chainsaw.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @02:19AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @02:19AM (#537908)

      Any other monsters you can lure them over to?

    • (Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @12:57PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @12:57PM (#538047)

      idkfa