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Cryptolocker v.I,v.II,v.III, v.IV & CryptoWall

Protecting against Cryptolocker & CryptoWall

How to provide another layer of defense
Different variants of Cryptolocker/CryptoWall have proven to have similar behavior patterns that allow for
the creation of VirusScan and Host Intrusion Prevention proactive rules to effectively prevent the installation
and/or payload of current as well as evolving variants of these threats.

Prior to implementing the recommendations below, it is important the rules are tested thoroughly to ensure
no legitimate application, in-house developed or otherwise is deemed malicious and prevented from
functioning in your production environment.

For an in-depth coverage of the different CryptoLocker variants, symptoms, attack vectors and prevention
techniques please review the following videos:

1. CryptoLocker Malware Session here

2. CryptoLocker Update here

The Q&A document corresponding to the CyptoLocker Malware Session can be found here.

VSE Access Protection Rules

Always setup these rules in report mode in order to check if they cause any conflict in your environment.
Once it is established they will not block any activity from legitimate applications you can set them to block
and apply these settings to all relevant systems.

For reference purposes please review the following KB articles to configure Access Protection rules in
VirusScan Enterprise:

KB81095 - How to create a user-defined Access Protection Rule from a VSE 8.x or ePO 5.x console
KB54812 - How to use wildcards when creating exclusions in VirusScan Enterprise 8.x

Cryptolocker v.I
These are the Access Protection Rules that can be setup in VSE to stop the installation and payload of this
variant in your environment.
Rule # Action Windows 7 Windows XP File Actions to Prevent
1 File or Folder Name to block **\Users\*\AppData\*\*.exe **\Documents and Settings\*\Application Data\*.exe New Files being created. Files being executed.
2 File or Folder Name to block **.tmp.tmp **.tmp.tmp New Files being created.
Processes to include *\Users\*\AppData\Roaming\*.exe *\Documents and Settings\*\Application Data\*.exe
3 Registry Blocking (HKCU) Software/CryptoLocker* Software/CryptoLocker* Create Key or Value
Windo ws 7 Windo ws XP F ile A c t io ns t o P re v e nt

Cryptolocker v.II
File o r Fo lder Name to blo ck **\Users\*\AppData\*\*.exe **\Do cuments and Settings\*\Applicatio n Data\*.exe New Files being created. Files being executed.

VSE Access
File o r Fo lder NameProtection Rules cannot influence the
to blo ck **.tmp.tmp payload of this variant.
**.tmp.tmp New Files being created.
Registry Blo cking (HKCU) So ftware/Crypto Lo cker* So ftware/Crypto Lo cker* Create Key o r Value

Cryptolocker v.III
Rule # Windows 7 Windows XP File Actions to Prevent
4 File or Folder Name to block **.*.cry **.*.cry New Files being created
Processes to include *\Users\*\AppData\Roaming\*.exe *\Documents and Settings\*\Application Data\*.exe
Cryptolocker v.IV & CryptoWall
The following Access Protection Rules can be setup to prevent installation and encryption phases.

Rule # Windows 7 Windows XP File Actions to Prevent

5 File or Folder Name to block
6 File or Folder Name to block
Processes to include
7 File or Folder Name to block
Processes to include
8 File or Folder Name to block
Processes to exclude
**\decrypt_instruction.* **\decrypt_instruction.* New Files being created. Files being executed.
**.*.encrypted **.*.encrypted New Files being created.
*\Users\*\AppData\Roaming\*.exe *\Documents and Settings\*\Application Data\*.exe
**\Users\*\AppData\Roaming\*.exe **\Documents and Settings\*\Application Data\*.exe New Files being created. Write access to files.
*\Users\*\AppData\Roaming\*.exe *\Documents and Settings\*\Application Data\*.exe
**\*.scr **\*.scr New Files being created. Files being executed.
rundll32.exe, winlogon.exe, FrameworkService.exe, McShield.exe, Scan*.exe

Add only known legitimate programs under the Application Data folder to Processes to exclude.

*** Disclaimer:
Usage of *.* in access protection rule would prevent all types of files from running and being accessed from
that specific location. If specifying a process path under Processes to Include, the use of wildcards for
Folder Names may lead to unexpected behavior. Users are requested to make this rule as specific as
possible.

Host Intrusion Prevention Signatures

Please ensure you plan and configure your Trusted Applications or exclusion list to prevent false detections
in your environment.
We have created a video that demonstrates how to setup the rules described below in HIPs. Please ensure
that these HIP rules are tested in a non-business impacting representative subset of your production
environment prior to a wider distribution in your network.

You can view it in here: https://community.mcafee.com/videos/1859

Cryptolocker v.I, v.II, v.IV & CryptoWall

In order to provide protection for these variants you need to setup a rule to prevent non-trusted processes
from writing to the extensions listed in the following HIP rule:

*.odt, *.ods, *.odp, *.odm, *.odc, *.odb, *.doc, *.docx, *.docm, *.wps, *.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm, *.xlsb, *.xlk,
*.ppt, *.pptx, *.pptm, *.mdb, *.accdb, *.pst, *.dwg, *.dxf, *.dxg, *.wpd, *.rtf, *.wb2, *.mdf, *.dbf, *.psd,
*.pdd, *.pdf, *.eps, *.ai, *.indd, *.cdr,, *.jpe, *.jpg, *.dng, *.3fr, *.arw, *.srf, *.sr2, *.bay, *.crw, *.cr2,
*.dcr, *.kdc, *.erf, *.mef, *.mrw, *.nef, *.nrw, *.orf, *.raf, *.raw, *.rwl, *.rw2, *.r3d, *.ptx, *.pef, *.srw,
*.x3f, *.der, *.cer, *.crt, *.pem, *.pfx, *.p12, *.p7b, *.p7c

The rule should look like this in the user interface:

***NOTE: File directives rename/delete have been added to include Cryptolocker v.IV & CryptoWall since
the video in the community was created.

Cryptolocker v.III
To fight this variant you need to setup a rule to prevent non-trusted processes calling trusted processes.

The rule should look like this:

Enable Signature 3894, Access ProtectionPrevent svchost executing non-Windows executables.

***NOTE: The signature is disabled by default so will need to be enabled

For reference purposes please review the following KB articles to configure HIPs:

To blacklist applications using a Host Intrusion Prevention custom signature refer to KB71329.
To create an application blocking rules policies to prevent the binary from running refer to
KB71794.
To create an application blocking rules policies that prevents a specific executable from hooking any
other executable refer to KB71794.
To block attacks from a specific IP address through McAfee Nitrosecurity IPS refer to KB74650.

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