An Empirical Study of Key Generation in Cryptographic Ransomware

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Presented at CyberScience2020 2020 by

Pranshu Enbody

Ransomware implement a denial-of-access attack on a user’s irreplaceable data achieved by encryptinguser files. Successful encryption requires secure key generation and therefore understanding ransomware’s keygeneration procedures is critical for developing effective solutions. This paper presents a study of key generationstrategies observed in modern ransomware. We explain the weak strategies that we have discovered to be in usethat can be circumvented and strong strategies that cannot be circumvented. We provide empirical evidence in theform of code snippets and disassembly of real-world ransomware. Finally, we provide guidance on swiftly identifyingthe differences between effective and weak key generation strategies in novel ransomware.