Nitrogen ransomware programmers lock themselves out of a payment — key management bug encrypts victims' data forever

A variant of Nitrogen ransomware has a key management bug that encrypts victims' data irreversibly, making it impossible to recover even if the ransom is paid. The specific strain targets VMware ESXi hypervisors, affecting virtual machines within them. Due to an error in the encryption process, the public key necessary for decryption is overwritten, rendering the data permanently inaccessible. Victims are advised to rely on backups as paying the ransom will not lead to data recovery. The bug highlights the unintentional consequences of coding errors in ransomware attacks.