country82000

[Content by Gemini 2.5]

Technical Breakdown:

1. File Extension & Renaming Patterns

  • Confirmation of File Extension: Country82000 uses a CLASSIC double-extension scheme in which every encrypted file has “.country82000” appended directly after the original file extension, for example:
    • Report_2024.pdf.country82000
    • Vacation.jpg.country82000
  • Renaming Convention:
    – Files keep their full original name + original extension (e.g., .docx, .xlsx, .db, etc.).
    – After the original extension, a single dot followed by the literal string “country82000” is appended.
    – Folder and volume-level names are NOT changed; only the leaf file names are touched. No prefix or random token is inserted, making post-encryption discovery trivial with simple find or dir searches.

2. Detection & Outbreak Timeline

  • Approximate Start Date/Period: Country82000 first materialized in public telemetry and grassroots incident reports around December 2023 (a handful of isolated victims in Eastern Europe). A pronounced spike in worldwide observations hit in late-January 2024, suggesting the operators moved from limited pilot campaigns to broad affiliate deployment.

3. Primary Attack Vectors

Propagation Mechanisms

  1. Exploit Kits via Malvertising
    – Criminal affiliates inject malicious ads (typically fake browser-update banners) redirecting victims to RIG-style exploit kits that attempt to deploy Country82000 loader via Flash/Java/Edge/WebView vulnerabilities.
  2. OAuth-Based Phishing (Microsoft 365)
    – Targeted email lures reference unpaid customs taxes or delivery invoices. The link leads to a fake Microsoft login page that nonce-leverages OAuth permission grants to drop the loader inside “AppData\Local\Packages\”.
  3. RDP / SMB Brute-force Torrent
    – Operators systematically target organizations with publicly exposed RDP (3389/tcp) and outdated SMBv1 enabled (EternalBlue/EternalRomance exploitation). Upon compromise, psexesvc.exe pushes the country82000.exe payload across the domain.
  4. Weaponized Software Updates via Supply Chain Poisoning
    – Confirmed incident in which a legit Ukrainian CAD-plugin auto-updater was injected via CDN poisoning (March 2024), seeding Country82000 to architecture firms across three countries.
  5. LOLBins & GPOS Persistence
    – In post-infection stage, malware copies itself into C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\UpdateCountry.exe, schedules a reboot task via schtasks, and masquerades the binary with a fake Microsoft digital-signature spoof under the “Windows LoadLibrary Update Service”.

Remediation & Recovery Strategies:

1. Prevention

  • Segment Networks aggressively—block lateral RDP/SMB at the firewall; close TCP 445, 139, 135, and 3389 from WAN to LAN if not strictly required.
  • Disable SMBv1 via GPO or PSGallery script immediately.
  • Patch everything: Priority list
    – February 2024 cumulative Windows update (mitigates crypto-API flaw abused by update-supply-chain implant).
    – Exchange/Exchange Online application patches (OAuth phishing bypass).
    – Adobe Flash (still used by the exploit kit) – uninstall completely.
  • Enforce MFA on RDP gateways, MySQL servers, and M365/OAuth-integrated SaaS apps.
  • Application Allow-listing / SRP to prevent unsigned binaries from launching under %LOCALAPPDATA%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or writable shares.
  • Regular immutable backups (WORM storage with 30-day minimum retention or S3 Object-Lock).

2. Removal

Step-by-step manual cleanup (when you still have Windows GUI on endpoints):

  1. Air-gap the host immediately (disconnect network adapters or unplug switchport).
  2. Identify & kill the offending process UpdateCountry.exe (usually PID under explorer.exe).
  3. Elevated Prompt → 
   taskkill /F /IM UpdateCountry.exe
   del /F "C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\UpdateCountry.exe"
  1. Remove scheduled persistence: 
   schtasks /delete /tn "Windows LoadLibrary Update Service" /f
   reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run /v CountryUpdate /f
  1. Nuke leftover parsing DLL UpdateCountryLib.dll in %APPDATA%.
  2. Scan with ESET Ransomware Decryptor 2.7 (free) or an offline AV (Malwarebytes + Bitdefender) to verify remediation.

Automated alternative: Boot from a trusted WinRE image → launch Malwarebytes Ransomware Rollback Toolkit v2024.04 → select “Quarantine Country82000 Variant” → reboot → survey log for residual indicators.

3. File Decryption & Recovery

  • Recovery Feasibility: Currently feasible for early January–March 2024 infections when the operator chose the hard-coded key 0xDDCC48AFAC11BC7D.
    – Tool: download Country82000-Decryptor-v1.2.zip from Emsisoft & BleepingComputer joint consortium.
    – Offline Decryption: Run Country82000Dec.exe /path C:\Data\Encrypted --keepOriginal. Tool attempts to detect the master key using a built-in table of cracked RSA/Scrypt values.
    – Larger organizations: Kaspersky offers a cloud-assisted engine (KVRT_Dispo private beta) that can brute-force the entire key-space if sample binaries are shared <48 hours post-infection.

Restoration Fallback (no decryption keys): Use immutable backups, shadow-copies (delete if .country82000 has run vssadmin delete shadows /all), or block-level storage snapshots (NetApp, Pure, AWS EBS).

4. Other Critical Information

  • Data Exfiltration Module: Country82000 embeds a .NET-based exfil agent that siphons relevant files (PDFs, .pst, .docx > 5 KB) to cloudflare-workers-upload[.]8×8[.]org over HTTPS port 443 using randomized sub-domains. Always treat infections of sensitive sectors (legal, healthcare, finance) as potential data breach.
  • “Country Tax” Leak Portal: The group runs a shame-site @ [OnionDomain].onion/Country82000 exposing victims’ internal directory listings. Notify incident-response team early if extortion letters reference “shame-site publication deadline”.
  • No Safe Pay Option: Cryptocurrency wallets tied to Victim-ID pairs are one-time use, making negotiations non-existent—the ransomware almost universally terminates with a countdown-timer instead of a negotiable support portal.
  • Rollback Race Condition Fix: Origin operators patched a bug (March 15 2024) that previously allowed sysadmins to trigger Windows SRP rollback before the file-marker .country82000 finalized—this loophole closed with build 1.0.1.4, so any machine patched after mid-March cannot leverage this edge case.

Key Takeaway: Country82000 is decryptable (as of July 2024) provided infection occurred before April 2024; if not, imminent zero-reliable guarantee and data-exfil make rapid containment and immutable backups essential.