WannaCry Decryption Keys: Unlock your files without paying

If the you have been infected by the WannaCry ransomware that wreaked havoc across the world last Friday, you might be lucky to get your locked files back without paying the $300 ransom to the cybercriminals.

Adrien Guinet, a French security researcher from Quarkslab, discovered a way to recover the secret encryption keys used by ransomware for free, which works in operating systems Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and 2008.WannaCry

WannaCry Ransomware decryption keys

Το πρόγραμμα κρυπτογράφησης του WannaCry λειτουργεί δημιουργώντας ένα ζευγάρι κλειδιών στον υπολογιστή του θύματος που βασίζονται σε πρωτεύοντες αριθμούς, ένα δημόσιο κλειδί και ένα «ιδιωτικό» κλειδί για την κρυπτογράφηση και την αποκρυπτογράφηση των αρχείων του συστήματος αντίστοιχα.

To prevent the victim from accessing the private key and decrypting locked files himself, WannaCry deletes the key from the system, leaving no option for victims to retrieve the decryption key, other than paying ransom to the attacker.

But here's the kicker: WannaCry "Does not erase the first numbers from the memory before releasing the relevant memory", says Guinet.

Based on this finding, Guinet released a decryption tool, which is called WannaKey , which essentially tries to recover them prime numbers used in the formula to generate encryption keys from memory.

However, this method comes with some limitations and will work only if:

  • The infected computer has not been restarted after the infection.
  • The associated memory has not been allocated and deleted by some other process.

"In order to be able to work, your computer must not have restarted after the infection. Also note that you need a little luck to work (see below) and so it may not work in any case! ”Says Guinet.

Although the WannaKey pulls only the prime numbers from the memory of the affected computer, the tool can only be used by those who can use those prime numbers to generate the decryption key manually to decrypt the files infected by .

iGuRu.gr The Best Technology Site in Greecefgns

every publication, directly to your inbox

Join the 2.100 registrants.

Written by newsbot

Although the press releases will be from very select to rarely, I said to go ... because sometimes the authors are hiding.

Leave a reply

Your email address is not published. Required fields are mentioned with *

Your message will not be published if:
1. Contains insulting, defamatory, racist, offensive or inappropriate comments.
2. Causes harm to minors.
3. It interferes with the privacy and individual and social rights of other users.
4. Advertises products or services or websites.
5. Contains personal information (address, phone, etc.).