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posted by cmn32480 on Friday May 19 2017, @11:56AM   Printer-friendly
from the maybe-there-is-hope dept.

Various news outlets report the release of
Wannakey, a decryption utility for files encrypted by the WannaCry ransomware. According to the author of the software, it "has only been tested and known to work under Windows XP."

From the Wired article noted below:

Now one French researcher says he's found at least a hint of a very limited remedy. The fix still seems too buggy, and far from the panacea WannaCry victims have hoped for. But if Adrien Guinet's claims hold up, his tool could unlock some infected computers running Windows XP, the aging, largely unsupported version of Microsoft's operating system, which analysts believe accounts for some portion of the WannaCry plague.

[...] Guinet says he's successfully used the decryption tool several times on test XP machines he's infected with WannaCry. But he cautions that, because those traces are stored in volatile memory, the trick fails if the malware or any other process happened to overwrite the lingering decryption key, or if the computer rebooted any time after infection.

Coverage:

Previous stories:
"Biggest Ransomware Attack in History" Hits Around 100 Countries, Disrupts UK's NHS
WannaCrypt Ransomware Variant -- Lacking Kill Switch -- Seen in Wild [Updated]


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Friday May 19 2017, @03:08PM

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Friday May 19 2017, @03:08PM (#512212) Homepage Journal

    There are some shops that rely on software that no longer runs on new hardware and there is no modern equivalent. There are also poor people with XP computers that had been donated and can't afford a new one. I have two XP computers, but they're never online. I just can't see discarding perfectly good (or would be if Microsoft had ethics) being discarded.

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    mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
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