Alilibat Ransomware - How to remove

Alilibat is file-locking ransomware. Part of the Scarab family, it has the potential to be very harmful: corrupt the files on the infected computer.

If your computer is infected with Alilibat, the encrypted files have the .alilibat extension attached to their names. Additionally, a ransom note DECRYPT.TXT should be placed in your folders and a new desktop background should be set.

The text in DECRYPT.TXT is supposed to steer the victim of Alilibat to contact the extortionists and pay them money to be able to get their own files back.

Hello.
All your files have been encrypted due to a security problem with your PC.
For Information on decoding, please write to the e-mall [email protected]
Your files are now encrypted!

Your personal identifier:—

Now you should send us email with your personal identifier.
Contact us using this email address: [email protected]

Free decryption as guarantee!
Before paying you can send us up to 3 files for free decryption
The total size of files must be less than 5Mb (non archived), and files should not contain valuable information (databases, backups, large excel sheets, etc.).

Attention!
*Do not rename encrypted files.
*Do not try to decrypt your data using third party software, it may cause permanent data loss.
*Decryption of your files with the help of third parties may cause increased price (they add their fee to our) or you can become a victim of a scam.
[email protected]

It looks like the people behind [email protected] and [email protected] have the warped sense that people deserve to have their files locked if their PC security wasn’t good enough. Make sure to understand that the people who wrote the note are also responsible for locking your files. They spread Alilibat.

The ransom note doesn’t just look similar to the other Scarab variants (like Burn and Crypted034), but also Dharma ransomware (like Dharma-Btc and TOR13).

How Alilibat spreads

Usually, Scarab viruses use e-mail attachments to infect computers. Social engineering is used to make the recipient of the malicious e-mail curious, scared, or excited reading it. You’re encouraged to open the attachment or link that comes with the e-mail — the one in which Alilibat is hiding. More details in the article on Scarab.

It’s also possible for Alilibat to infect a computer because it was pretending to be legitimate software or an update to something already installed. Check what programs you installed or updated shortly before the Alilibat attack and check where you downloaded them from.

A version of Scarab also uses remote desktop protocol to infiltrate systems, but Alilibat is probably not distributed this way. Hacked remote desktop allows cybercriminals to do whatever they want on a system, such as installing software or deleting files and a lot of targeted ransomware infections are done using it.

How the files are locked

Alilibat, like most file-locking ransomware, uses encryption to make files unopenable and useless. There is no way to decrypt the files, except with the decryption keys that the developers of Alilibat have. Provided that the criminals are capable enough to create working decryption — not all extortionists are.

If you contact the developers of Alilibat, there is a chance that you can restore your files. However, the price is going to be incredibly high (up to a few thousand dollars, even if you’re a single person). And the chance of restoring your files are actually not very high. What might happen instead is that the criminals demand more money, or simply ignore you. They can do that because the ransom is paid in Bitcoin, a currency transactions in which cannot be reversed or recalled.

There are a few options to try to restore your Alilibat-locked files, and though none of them guarantee complete success, they also do not require you to lose hundreds or thousands of dollars: system restore and shadow copies (probably won’t work, but worth a try), data recovery (though it’s only useful in some situations), and waiting for a free decryptor are all options.

However, the best solution is to be ready for ransomware before it even infects. Not prevention, although being secure against ransomware is always important. It’s not possible to completely avoid malware. Instead, it’s immensely important to set up and regularly update file backups. They should be stored somewhere that ransomware can’t get to, such as disconnected media or the cloud. If Alilibat infected your computer and you had backups, you do not need to worry about losing all of your files; you can just restore them from the backup. But before you do that, it’s important to remove the Alilibat so that it doesn’t cause any more problems.

How to remove Alilibat

You’ll need an antivirus program which can deal with strong viruses like Alilibat: Spyhunter, or another professional program. Scan your computer and remove the malicious program.

Try to improve your cyber security to avoid these infections in the future. If Alilibat came as an e-mail attachment, be careful and teach the people around you to not open unfamiliar files without first scanning them, even if those files look safe. The same should be done with downloaded new programs. The remote desktop connection should be secured with a very strong password or disabled if it’s not needed.

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to recover Alilibat Ransomware encrypted files and remove the virus

Step 1. Restore system into last known good state using system restore

1. Reboot your computer to Safe Mode with Command Prompt:

for Windows 7 / Vista/ XP

• Start → Shutdown → Restart → OK.
• Press F8 key repeatedly until Advanced Boot Options window appears.
• Choose Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

for Windows 8 / 10

• Press Power at Windows login screen. Then press and hold Shift key and click Restart.
• Choose Troubleshoot → Advanced Options → Startup Settings and click Restart.
• When it loads, select Enable Safe Mode with Command Prompt from the list of Startup Settings.

 

2.Restore System files and settings.

• When Command Prompt mode loads, enter cd restore and press Enter.
• Then enter rstrui.exe and press Enter again.
• Click “Next” in the windows that appeared.
• Select one of the Restore Points that are available before Alilibat Ransomware has infiltrated to your system and then click “Next”.
• To start System restore click “Yes”.

 

Step 2. Complete removal of Alilibat Ransomware

After restoring your system, it is recommended to scan your computer with an anti-malware program, like Spyhunter and remove all malicious files related to Alilibat Ransomware. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore Alilibat Ransomware affected files using Shadow Volume Copies

If you do not use System Restore option on your operating system, there is a chance to use shadow copy snapshots. They store copies of your files that point of time when the system restore snapshot was created. Usually Alilibat Ransomware tries to delete all possible Shadow Volume Copies, so this methods may not work on all computers. However, it may fail to do so. Shadow Volume Copies are only available with Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. There are two ways to retrieve your files via Shadow Volume Copy. You can do it using native Windows Previous Versions or via Shadow Explorer. a) Native Windows Previous Versions Right-click on an encrypted file and select Properties → Previous versions tab. Now you will see all available copies of that particular file and the time when it was stored in a Shadow Volume Copy. Choose the version of the file you want to retrieve and click Copy if you want to save it to some directory of your own, or Restore if you want to replace existing, encrypted file. If you want to see the content of file first, just click Open.

b) Shadow Explorer It is a program that can be found online for free. You can download either a full or a portable version of Shadow Explorer. Open the program. On the left top corner select the drive where the file you are looking for is a stored. You will see all folders on that drive. To retrieve a whole folder, right-click on it and select “Export”. Then choose where you want it to be stored.

Step 4. Use Data Recovery programs to recover Alilibat Ransomware encrypted files

There are several data recovery programs that might recover encrypted files as well. This does not work in all cases but you can try this:

• We suggest using another PC and connect the infected hard drive as slave. It is still possible to do this on infected PC though.
• Download a data recovery program.
• Install and scan for recently deleted files.

Note: In many cases it is impossible to restore data files affected by modern ransomware. Thus I recommend using decent cloud backup software as precaution. We recommend checking out Carbonite, BackBlaze, CrashPlan or Mozy Home.