To counter this dangerous ransomware, just a graphics card and a little patience

A programmer discovered that by exploiting one or more graphics cards, it was possible to unlock files encrypted by ransomware that was supposedly unbreakable.

Ransomware all works the same way. After infecting a computer or, worse, a company's network, it will make the files it finds there inaccessible by encrypting them. Once the job is done, the hackers send a ransom demand in exchange for the key needed to unlock the data. That's the basic principle. As for the code, each malware of this type has its own specificities that make it more or less difficult to manage without paying anything.

Among these malicious programs, the name Akira comes up regularly. First discovered in 2023, it has since had several variants that continue to be rampant today, even going so far as to exploit unlikely flaws like webcam firmware. Not all hackers necessarily use the latest version, which is generally the most dangerous. And this is precisely what allowed an affected company to recover its files without paying the ransom, using only a graphics card.

Breaking the encryption of this powerful ransomware requires a simple graphics card

After analysis, the author of the Tinyhack blog, a programmer by trade, concluded that the Akira variant used against the company in question encrypted files at using a method vulnerable to a brute force attack. So he tasked an Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics card with testing all possibilities to find the key, and it succeeded in 7 days. The expert notes that with 16 GPUs working in parallel, the operation time is reduced to about 10 hours.

Read also – Thanks to With the RTX 4090, hackers can crack hundreds of passwords per day

The details of the process, as well as the code used, are available at Tinyhack. Lucidly, the author explains that after this, the Akira developers will likely modify their encryption method. Companies currently infected by the ransomware can, however, use the work done to recover their data. No need to raid the stores selling graphics cards, they can rent servers from specialized organizations.