PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, or PUBG as it’s commonly referred to is one of the major players in the recent battle royale gaming frenzy. If you’ve been reading Techaeris for… well, even just starting today you may have seen articles about the game here on the site. The game has been immensely popular, and has even been popular enough that some malware authors really just want you to play it. The PUBG Ransomware does encrypt at least some of your files if you become infected, but getting rid of it is at least for now exceptionally easy.
Normally, any threat of ransomware would be enough to cause panic and anxiety with computer owners. Authors of this type of malware generally tend to lock everything on a drive and will only unlock once a rather large amount of money is sent. Not so with PUBG Ransomware. The encryption seems to be kept to a user’s desktop files only, and this ransomware isn’t looking for money at all. Those behind this malware simply want you to check out the game…
PUBG Ransomware
Your files, images, musics, documents are Encrypted!Your files is encrypred by PUBG Ransomware!
but don’t worry! It is not hard to unlock it.
I don’t want money!
Just play PUBG 1Hours!Or Restore is [ s2acxx56a2sae5fjh5k2gb5s2e ]
If you really don’t want to check out the game, they even provide the unlock key right there in their message. You also really don’t even have to play PUBG at all. The malware is simply looking for an executable to run with the same name as PUBG‘s exe. So just re-name Solitaire to TslGame.exe, boot it up, and watch your files decrypt before your very eyes. You don’t even need to run the game (or whatever you’ve renamed) for the full hour requested, as long as the executable is running for at least 3 seconds, the encryption process will reverse itself. Probably still best not to get yourself infected, because who knows if or when this malware will mature and start to behave… badly.
What do you think about the PUBG Ransomware? Is this some sort of legitimate threat, or just a prank? Tell us what you think in the comment section below, or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/pubg-ransomware-decrypts-your-files-if-you-play-playerunknowns-battlegrounds/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Bleeping Computer[/button]
