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PewCrypt Ransomware Locks Users' Files and Won't Offer a Decryption Key Until - and Unless - PewDiePie's YouTube Channel Beats T-Series To Hit 100M Subscribers (zdnet.com) 237

Posted by msmash from the stranger-things dept.
The battle between PewDiePie, currently the most subscribed channel on YouTube, and T-Series, an Indian music label, continues to have strange repercussions. In recent months, as T-Series closes in on the gap to beat PewDiePie for the crown of the most subscribers on YouTube, alleged supporters of PewDiePie, in an unusual show of love, have hacked Chromecasts and printers to persuade victims to subscribe to PewDiePie's channel. Now ZDNet reports about a second strain of ransomware that is linked to PewDiePie. From the report: A second one appeared in January, and this was actually a fully functional ransomware strain. Called PewCrypt, this ransomware was coded in Java, and it encrypted users' files in the "proper" way, with a method of recovering files at a later date. The catch --you couldn't buy a decryption key, but instead, victims had to wait until PewDiePie gained over 100 million followers before being allowed to decrypt any of the encrypted files. At the time of writing, PewDiePie had around 90 million fans, meaning any victim would be in for a long wait before they could regain access to any of their files. Making matters worse, if T-Series got to 100 million subscribers before PewDiePie, then PewCrypt would delete the user's encryption key for good, leaving users without a way to recover their data.

While the ransomware was put together as a joke, sadly, it did infect a few users, ZDNet has learned. Its author eventually realized the world of trouble he'd get into if any of those victims filed complaints with authorities, and released the ransomware's source code on GitHub, along with a command-line-based decryption tool.
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PewCrypt Ransomware Locks Users' Files and Won't Offer a Decryption Key Until - and Unless - PewDiePie's YouTube Channel Beats T More

PewCrypt Ransomware Locks Users' Files and Won't Offer a Decryption Key Until - and Unless - PewDiePie's YouTube Channel Beats T

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  • I was never a fan (not being a 13 year old girl when he broke) but somewhere along the line he pivoted to attracting the Alt-Right viewers and seemed to have gone off the deep end. Then again I was never a fan, maybe he always was like this. At any rate the fans he's attracting were already scary and that was before this and that mess in New Zealand.

    • No he did not (Score:3, Insightful)

      by SuperKendall ( 25149 )

      I have seen on Twitter recently that PewDiePie is "alt-right", but as is usual with anything labeled "alt-right" that is Fake News.

      What the hell have you seen that would make him alt-right? I don't watch his videos much but in the few I have seen there is zero political content of any kind. He does meme reviews for crying out loud!

      I am pretty sure he has irked some people, these days anyone who is mad at you for anything simply labels you "alt-right". Don't propagate slander and lies.

      P.S. if you don't re

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Tailhook ( 98486 )

        What the hell have you seen that would make him alt-right?

        It's objectively easy to find. In the first 60 seconds of the latest PewDiePie video; "Shane vs Cat," which appeared two hours ago there is a graphic of the "NPC Wojak" meme. There is simply no way a meme lord like PewDiePie doesn't know that symbol is hated by SJW groupthinkers. This appears in the context of a "meme review" where he riffs on J.K. Rowling and the history of her various sops to 'progressive inclusivity.'

        Personally I don't believe PewDiePie is particularly "Alt Right." He makes his liv

        • There is simply no way a meme lord like PewDiePie doesn't know that symbol is hated by SJW groupthinkers.

          Just because he wants to make fun of extremists bigots doesn't make him alt right.

          • I think his point was that from the SJW crowd, anything other than fealty to SJW values, mores and speech codes is definitionally alt-right.

            So poking fun at PC culture is alt-right. Even if you are a democratic socialist from a democratic socialist country. Like all who's primary motivation in life is political affiliation, they will brook no dissent.

            Therefore, if you are of the "SJW groupthinkers" Highdude702 is describing, then yes, "just because he wants to make fun of extremists bigots" does in fact

        • all but one. Several left wingers on YouTube went through the list before hand and found a ton of Alt-Right guys, including some really nasty ones. Look up a guy named Cult of Dusty on YouTube and he talks about some of the worst ones. Several white supremacists and extreme right wing folk were in there.

          I don't think he himself is a white supremacist, but I also don't think he put any effort into avoiding them. For someone as visible as he is that's just bad all around.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by Pluvius ( 734915 )

            He did that because the shitheads that follow people like Cult of Dusty were sending PewDiePie's follows death threats, so PewDiePie replaced his list with a single link to K-Pop band BTS as a half joke, half attempt to sic millions of teenage fangirls onto said shitheads.

            Before this, PewDiePie also followed plenty of people who are not right wing, including Laci Green, Boogie2988, James Charles, and the aforementioned BTS. It's almost like he was using Twitter to follow interesting people regardless of wh

            • I'll speculate that it was more of a "follow me and I'll follow you" tit-for-tat strategy that is employed by "influencers". It is the famous people crowd's currency. You go on someone's podcast and say how great they are, and they say how great you are. It is all just advertising, paid for by in-kind contributions.

              If you violate the contract, then they retaliate in kind. Hence the celebrity twitter wars of hate. It is simple tit-for-tat game theory.

              So if someone with a big list of followers follows yo

      • Re:No he did not (Score:4, Insightful)

        by AbRASiON ( 589899 ) * on Thursday March 21, 2019 @06:26PM (#58312766) Journal

        This poster is correct.

        PDP, is quite harmless, but the media have it in for him since he's a nice big target and they hate steamers/ bloggers generally because they're eating the lunch of traditional gaming media.

        PewDiePie encompass typical childish and nerds humour, taking the piss and messing around. There's very very little bad stuff here.

        Man did the sjw types get a hard on for him and will not drop it. It's foolishness like this, when they're so blatantly wrong which actually weakens their cause as people start to question "if they're wrong about PDP, who else are they misrepresentating?"

        Ultimately resulting in genuine bad actors getting less need criticism and or general distrust of the gaming and eventually, regular media.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by Tom ( 822 )

          Man did the sjw types get a hard on for him and will not drop it. It's foolishness like this, when they're so blatantly wrong which actually weakens their cause as people start to question "if they're wrong about PDP, who else are they misrepresentating?"

          Absolutely everything. That was an easy question. Any other questions?

          Feminism and astrology have multiple things in common. One of them is that they started with a general good idea ("women should be equal" or "stars are pretty interesting") and ended up in in the land of total nonsense.

          PewDiePie encompass typical childish and nerds humour, taking the piss and messing around. There's very very little bad stuff here.

          Except, again, by those who took the harmless basic idea and then went with it until they were way over the cliff.

      • Sure, here you go (Score:2, Insightful)

        by rsilvergun ( 571051 )
        right here [youtube.com]

        For those who don't want to be bothered watching the video (or can't stand Cult of Dusty, which I can't really blame you for), PDP had a large number of alt-right personalities he was following and after the New Zealand shooter he emptied his followers list.

        PDP may or may not actually believe any of the things the alt-right does. But he absolutely uses the movement and it's fans to his advantage. The controversial things he's done have almost exclusively appealed to the alt-right. [theverge.com]

        Lik

        • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

          by junglee_iitk ( 651040 )

          As someone who subscribed to T-Series - you are part of the problem. PewDiePie's base is the young generation. YOU are the one is out of sync.

          He's normalizing and legitimizing the worst aspects of that community.

          No buddy, you are. Literally, when you say "angry, bitter, jobless young men" as if that is not a problem or you don't get a sadistic pleasure in it. You DID when you gave your quite consent to far-left.

          Eventually a real demagogue will come along and organize them into brown shirts.

          If only the joble

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Tom ( 822 )

          There's an entire engine on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook dedicated to exploiting angry, bitter, jobless young men for ad revenue and Pateron donations. I'm bloody sick of it. It's dangerous as fuck. Eventually a real demagogue will come along and organize them into brown shirts.

          Given how much easier it is to bleed them and buy yourself a yacht and a villa, most of them will be content with that. One of the (rare) advantages of the social media revolution is that the vast majority of people these days don't have enough attention span to attend an actual revolution anymore.

        • Re:Sure, here you go (Score:5, Informative)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Friday March 22, 2019 @08:23AM (#58314790) Homepage Journal

          hbomberguy did a video specifically about PewDiePie: https://youtu.be/GjNILjFters [youtu.be]

          Shaun is also very good, producing a lot of debunking videos.

          Just waiting for the wave of videos about Lauren Southern to hit now, given that the Christchurch terrorist cited her "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory prominently in his manifesto, even using it as the title.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by RedK ( 112790 )

            Just waiting for the wave of videos about Lauren Southern to hit now, given that the Christchurch terrorist cited her "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory prominently in his manifesto, even using it as the title.

            Why would you do exactly what that guy wants you to do ? Sow discord and create unrest. Like do you enjoy being a pawn ?

            • on their ties to White Supremacy and Neo-Nazis. The Alt-Right has been using dog whistles [wikipedia.org] to cosy up with those two groups since day 1 without taking any flack to speak of. It's both dangerous and disingenuous to allow that to go on.

              What I'm saying is this: The Alt-Right are not your friends. They're a friendly face on the same Authoritarian arm of the right wing that's been around since the 20s. They exist specifically to legitimize and normalize something that was rightly recognized as horrific post W

              • I love how you always talk about "dog whistles" you know how those work right? You sure do hear them a lot. Maybe you're the "alt-right" nazi.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      My personal favourite of his alt-right credentials was when he wore the British home guard uniform, which is the uniform worn by British officers who's job was to warn and rescue people after Nazi bombing raids, after which your compatriots at mainstream media called him a nazi.

      It was almost as excellent as your desperate lying across this thread.

  • It's not the loonies killing in the name of religion. It's not the fact that people are willing to do long term damage to the public, the environment, or even themselves in the search for short term gains.

    It's shit like this that makes me say sod it. Let the meerkats have a go. Or squid, they're pretty smart.

  • And using Youtube as a platform for payment doesn't change that.... I'd be surprised if this doesn't violate Youtube's TOS, and they can suspend or even terminate the account.
    • Just reset all the subscriptions on both parties, 'we could not determine which ones were blackmailed or automated into subscribing'.
    • Right. Except that this did not come from directly PewDiePie or his "organization". Nor is it endorsed by him, as far as I know. This is apparently just some overzealous fans of his, who are jackasses. That last part of that sentence may have been redundant.

  • Amazing. Just look at all these fucking goobers desperate to tie their completely uninteresting little lives and egos to a Youtube 'star' who wouldn't piss on them even if they begged him to.

    I'm convinced more than ever that what this world needs is a damn good plague.

  • Bad crypto (Score:4, Informative)

    by swillden ( 191260 ) <shawn-ds@willden.org> on Thursday March 21, 2019 @08:31PM (#58313282) Journal

    Sigh, /. is dead. It's like none of the posters even looked at the code [github.com].

    For anyone who's interested, the encryption used here is very poor. He leaves the mode and padding unspecified for both the asymmetric (RSA) and symmetric (AES) encryption operations. That causes the provider defaults to be used. In the case of the RSA step that's not terrible, since every provider I'm aware of uses PKCS#1 v1.5 padding. This isn't great, since PKCS#1 v1.5 is vulnerable to an adaptive chosen ciphertext attack, but in this usage that doesn't really matter.

    The bigger problem is that AES typically defaults to ECB mode. Using ECB means that any repeated 16-byte blocks of plaintext will encrypt to identical 16-byte blocks of ciphertext. This can often expose enough structure to allow the file contents to be partially recovered. It's particularly bad in this case since the same key is used to encrypt all of the files. If AES were in any way vulnerable to brute force, this would almost certainly provide many "cribs" (known plaintext/ciphertext pairs) which could be used to discover the key and decrypt everything else. AES-256 is not, however, vulnerable to brute force, and won't be until computers are made of something other than matter and occupy something other than space (anyone catch the reference?).

    Overall, I suppose the chosen encryption was adequate to the task, but it was very sloppy.

    Do you think he'd accept a pull request to fix it up?

    The minimum required changes are small. I'd use "RSA/ECB/OAEPWithSHA-256AndMGF1Padding" for the RSA operation, just because, and "AES/GCM/NoPadding" for the AES op. It would also be necessary to get the IV (let the provider generate it) and prepend it to each encrypted file. The files would be 28 bytes larger (12 for IV, 16 for tag), but secure.

    Also, I'd process files in chunks rather than reading a whole file into memory and then encrypting and writing it back out. It could then handle files of any size. His code just skips any files larger than 20 MB. That's actually the biggest flaw in the implementation; given file sizes today, lots of stuff would just be skipped. All of my RAW photos would be safe, for example. The JPEGs would get encrypted, but who cares about them?

    Oh, one more problem: Most systems these days don't overwrite in place, so the plaintext file will be left on the drive, available for recovery. Granted that recovery is not trivial, but still, the data will be there. Fixing this would require doing something like filling the drive with garbage files, forcing the drive to overwrite all free blocks. Overwriting multiple times might be a good idea, too, though that's probably not necessary. Some systems offer free space shredding as a feature; on those that could be used to ensure destruction of the plaintext.

    • Now that is a Slashdot response!

      Well done!

      • I know, right? It's mostly nostalgia for the old days that keeps me around here. I should probably give up my /. habit.

        • I only peek in from time to time these days. They really left the nerd site stuff way behind. It is a shame, because it was a great community. There was a time where you might find yourself arguing the merits of a protocol with the guy who actually wrote it.

          On the other hand..... much, much less goat sex.

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