This little tool helps make sure WannaCry doesn’t make you wanna cry by applying a series of tweaks on Windows

May 16, 2017 08:36 GMT  ·  By

WannaCry is unsurprisingly the hottest topic in technology news these days, and it’s no surprise why: hundreds of thousands of computers are already infected, and the number is growing as users across the world are extremely slow when it comes to installing patches and security software.

While the easiest way to remain protected is to simply update your Windows system, even if you are running an unsupported version of Windows thanks to Microsoft who released emergency patches for everyone, here’s another tool that could lend you a hand with that.

Called WannaSmile, this little script configures your computer to block WannaCry from reaching your computer with a series of tweaks based on the existing mitigation methods.

The kill-switch method

First and foremost, what WannaSmile can do is to disable SMB on your system, as this service is enabled by default and is being used by the ransomware to compromise a computer. Then, for systems that are connected to the Internet, it deploys a so-called kill-switch that involves editing the HOSTS file and adding Google’s IP to make sure the lock-down does not occur and skip the ransomware domain.

In the case of systems that are not connected to the Internet, the script comes with a special utility which creates a lightweight local web server and adds localhost instead of the Google IP, again with the purpose of blocking the locking of your files.

What’s important to know is that for systems that are connected to the Internet, the kill switch won’t work if the connection is not available at the time of running the script or if the kill-switch domain is down. Of course, you might need to configure additional rules in the firewall to allow it.

If this sounds too complicated for you, there’s the more convenient solution to simply patch your Windows system, with updates now available for every Windows version since Windows XP. You can download the Windows Security Update for WannaCry ransomware from Softpedia right now, regardless of your Windows version.