Ransomware Qlocker Encrypts QNAP Devices with 7Zip

A huge ransomware campaign seems to be underway to attack QNAP devices globally and customers can now locate their files in password-protected 7zip archives. The ransomware is known as Qlocker and on 19 April 2021, it was aimed at attacking QNAP computers. Ever since the help platform of bleeping computers has had enormous development, and the victims’ requests have increased in ID-Ransomware. 

However, as per the victims in the Qlocker support department of Bleeping Computer, hackers use 7-zip to transfer files to password-protected archives on QNAP computers. During locking of the files, multiple 72 processes are displayed on the QNAP Resource Monitor, which can be executed on the 7zip command line. Once ransomware is completed, files of the QNAP computer will be saved in a password-protected 7-zip file with a.7z extension. Victims must enter the password identified by the perpetrator only to retrieve those archives. 

As soon as one has encrypted the QNAP devices, they then have a !!!READ ME.txt ransom note with a special client key to sign on to the Tor ransomware payment platform. All victims are expected to pay Bitcoins of roughly 0.01, which is around $557.74, from the Qlocker restitution notes shown to get a password for their archived data. After payment is made and an invalid Bitcoin Tax ID has been entered, a 7Zip archive password will be displayed on the Tor Payments website. This password is exclusive to the victim that cannot be used on computers of all the other victims. 

On April 22, a security investigator, Jack Cable, announced a bug found in the Qlocker Tor platform that allows users to freely retrieve their 7zip passwords. This bug could allow victims to obtain a Bitcoin transaction ID from someone who has previously paid but changed it slightly. When the modified transaction ID was sent to the Qlocker Tor site, the payment was acknowledged, and the victim’s password was displayed. 

Jack Cable also helped victims secretly recover their passwords and Emsisoft arranged to build a support system to further exploit this vulnerability. Unfortunately, the ransomware developers took it and patched it an hour after they heard of the error. There is no way to download files without a password that is not available for free anymore at this stage.

QNAP has lately solved critical vulnerabilities which enable a mobile player to access a device completely and to run ransomware. 

The following descriptions were found for these two vulnerabilities by QNAP on 16 April: 

CVE-2020-2509: Command Injection Vulnerability in QTS and QuTS hero

CVE-2020-36195: SQL Injection Vulnerability in Multimedia Console and the Media Streaming Add-On 

“QNAP strongly urges that all users immediately install the latest Malware Remover version and run a malware scan on QNAP NAS. The Multimedia Console, Media Streaming Add-on, and Hybrid Backup Sync apps need to be updated to the latest available version as well to further secure QNAP NAS from ransomware attacks. QNAP is urgently working on a solution to remove malware from infected devices,” QNAP stated in a security advisory.