Ransom.Ekans

Short bio

Ransom.Ekans is Malwarebytes’ detection name for a highly targeted ransomware family. This family appears to have a special interest for Industrial Control Systems (ICS).

Type and source of infection

Ransomware is a category of malware that holds files or systems hostage for ransom.
Ransom.Ekans is very likely dropped inside affected networks by using open RDP connections. Once delivered Ransom.Ekans checks whether the system it is running on belongs to a certain domain and if so, it starts encrypting the files on the system.

Protection

Malwarebytes detects Ransom.Ekans by by using real-time protection and by using Anti-Ransomware technology.

Malwarebytes detects and protects against Ransom.Ekans

Business remediation

To remove Ransom.Ekans using Malwarebytes business products, follow the instructions below.

How to remove Ransom.Ekans with Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection

1. Go to the Malwarebytes Cloud console.
2. To allow you to invoke a scan while the machine is off the network, go to Settings > Policies > your policy > General.
3. Under Endpoint Interface Options, turn ON:
   1. Show Malwarebytes icon in notification area
   2. Allow users to run a Threat Scan (all threats will be quarantined automatically)

If you have infected machines that are not registered endpoints in Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection, you can remove Ransom.Ekans with our Breach Remediation tool (MBBR).

1. Log into your My Account page and copy your license key. The key is needed to activate MBBR tool.
2. Open your Cloud console.
3. From a clean and safe machine, go to Endpoints > Add > Malwarebytes Breach Remediation. This will download the MBBR zip package.
4. Unzip the package.
5. Access a Windows command line prompt and issue the following commands:
   mbbr register –key:<prodkey>
   mbbr update
   Note: You must substitute your license key for <prodkey>.
6. Copy the MBBR folder to a flash drive.
7. From an infected, offline machine, copy the MBBR folder from the flash drive.
8. Start a scan using the following command:
   mbbr scan –full –ark –remove –noreboot
9. Refer to the Malwarebytes Breach Remediation Windows Administrator Guide for all supported scanning commands.

How to remove Ransom.Ekans with Malwarebytes Endpoint Security

You can use Malwarebytes Anti-Malware v1.80, which is included in your Malwarebytes Endpoint Security deployment to scan and remove Ransom.Ekans.

Option 1

1. Remove the infected endpoint from the network.
2. On the infected machine, right click the system tray icon and click on Start Scanner.
   
3. Select Perform full scan.
   
4. Click on Scan button.

Option 2

1. Open CMD
2. CD to C:\Program Files (x86)\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware
3. Run mbamapi /scan –full –remove -reboot

Consumer remediation

Malwarebytes can detect and remove Ransom.Megacortex without further user interaction.

1. Please download Malwarebytes to your desktop.
2. Double-click MBSetup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program.
3. When your Malwarebytes for Windows installation completes, the program opens to the Welcome to Malwarebytes screen.
4. Click on the Get started button.
5. Click Scan to start a Threat Scan.
6. Click Quarantine to remove the found threats.
7. Reboot the system if prompted to complete the removal process.

Take note, however, that removing this ransomware does not decrypt your files. You can only get your files back from backups you made before the infection happened.