Coot Ransomware - How to remove

If your files became unopenable and had the “.coot” suffix added to their names, that’s a symptom of the Coot ransomware infection. This is a virus that’s spread by extortionists. It locks most user files, then leaves behind a note demanding money from the victim in exchange for unlocking the files.

Coot symptoms include:

• Some or all user files are renamed to include the “.coot” suffix. These files can’t be opened, extension or not, because they’re encrypted by the virus.
• Some cybersecurity sites are blocked. There are instructions below on how to unblock them.
• A fake Windows Update window seen during the encryption process.
• Files called _readme.txt placed in multiple folders. These files inlude a ransom note demanding $490 in exchange for a decryption key and provide  the email addresses of the criminals – [email protected] and [email protected].

This virus is a new version of Djvu and comes after Werd, Nols, and many other infections. This family of ransomware has claimed a lot of victims over the couple of years that it has been active. Remember that there’s merit in reporting this sort of attack to law enforcement and that there have been cases where cyber-extortionists were arrested, but Djvu’s creators are still active for now, still spreading this very destructive and devastating virus.

Coot ransomware features and solutions:

Type of threat	Ransomware Spyware
Consequences of the Coot infection	Files corrupted Antivirus broken Passwords stolen
How to remove Coot	Unblock cybersecurity sites Use antivirus tools (SpyHunter) to remove malware Change passwords
How to get the files back	Restore from a backup Wait for a free solution Use data recovery, shadow volume copies, etc.

The _readme files include the ransom message from the same people who created the virus. It goes like this:

ATTENTION!

Don’t worry, you can return all your files!
All your files like photos, databases, documents and other important are encrypted with strongest encryption and unique key.
The only method of recovering files is to purchase decrypt tool and unique key for you.
This software will decrypt all your encrypted files.
What guarantees you have?
You can send one of your encrypted file from your PC and we decrypt it for free.
But we can decrypt only 1 file for free. File must not contain valuable information.
You can get and look video overview decrypt tool:
https://we.tl/t-IbdGyCKhdr
Price of private key and decrypt software is $980.
Discount 50% available if you contact us first 72 hours, that’s price for you is $490.
Please note that you’ll never restore your data without payment.
Check your e-mail “Spam” or “Junk” folder if you don’t get answer more than 6 hours.

To get this software you need write on our e-mail:
[email protected]

Reserve e-mail address to contact us:
[email protected]

How Coot encrypts the files

Coot spreads in cracks, pirated programs, key generators, infected files that were uploaded online by some bad actors. This mostly threatens people who can’t afford to buy software legally, which probably means that they also really can’t afford to pay the ransom to the criminals who are spreading Coot.

Coot tries to delete important files from your antivirus program. It also blocks a lot of cybersecurity sites and blogs on the infected site, so looking up the infection will be a bit more difficult. Coot deletes backup files and shadow copies to make restoring lost data more difficult. Finally, this ransomware might install Azorult, a trojan that can not only download other malware, but also steal passwords that are saved in your browser.

Coot starts encrypting your files by contacting a server run by the criminals to get an encryption key. This key is unique for each case and, since Coot can run multiple times only encrypting some of your files, it gets multiple keys. During this, Coot might display a fake Windows Update window. And if the virus can’t contact the

The files that are affected by Coot are edited according to a cryptographic algorithm, which looks like the files being corrupted, except that this corruption can be undone with the proper algorithm if you have the decryption key. Additionally, Coot doesn’t encrypt the files completely because doing that with your biggest files would take way too long. So, only the important portions of the files, like the very start and end – parts of files that usually include metadata necessary for reading the file. A few types of files might still be partially readable. But the majority of data affected by the Coot virus is definitely lost to the virus.

Can Coot files be recovered

Coot is a part of the Djvu ransomware family. You might have heard of this family. Emsisoft recently released a decryptor – it’s available for everyone for free. But it won’t completely work on Coot. It’s possible that the offline decryption key for Coot will be found, but only some of the victims of Coot will be affected by this, and usually, only some of their files are saved. It is worth keeping the encrypted data on a backup. That way, you can wait for a solution – there’s always a small possibility that the extortionists behind Djvu will be arrested, or maybe that they’ll release master decryption keys.

This isn’t a problem for you if you have a backup of your files. If you had saved your data somewhere where the virus couldn’t touch it, you only need to remove Coot and you can restore the files then.

But that’s not practical when you need your files back right now. Below this article, there are instructions on how to try to recover data without having to decrypt it. You can connect your encrypted drive to another computer to access the data without having the virus run anymore. A strong antivirus program, like SpyHunter or another one that you trust, could be used to get rid of Coot. Data recovery and other methods can be used to recover lost data, but whether they’ll be fruitful depends on your situation.

Paying the criminals should be your last resort, even if you can afford it, because it’s not guaranteed to work – it’s not uncommon for victims to be abandoned and ignored. If you do choose to contact the criminals, do not use the infected computer for accessing your money while the spyware trojan is still infecting it.

Important -- edit the hosts file to unblock security websites

TL DR : The hosts file is edited to block security sites Before the virus can be removed, it's necessary to fix the hosts file (the file which controls which addresses connect to which IPs). That is the reason the majority of security websites is inaccessible when infected with this particular parasite. This infection edits this file to stop certain websites, including anti-malware download sites, from being accessed from the infected computer, making browsers return the "This site can't be reached" error. Luckily, it's trivial to fix the file and remove the edits that were made to it.

Find and edit the hosts file

The hosts file can be found on C:/Windows/System32/Drivers/etc/hosts. If you don't see it, change the settings to see hidden files.

1. In the Start Menu, search for Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel, find Appearance and Personalization.
3. Select Folder Options.
4. Open the View tab.
5. Open Advanced settings.
6. Select "Show hidden files...".
7. Select OK.

Open this file with administrator privileges.

1. Open the Start Menu and enter "notepad".
2. When Notepad shows up in the result, right-click on it.
3. In the menu, choose "Run as administrator"
4. File->Open and browse for the hosts file.

The hosts file should look like this: Delete additional lines that they connect various domain names to the wrong IP address. Save the file.

Download and run the antivirus program

After that, download antivirus programs and use them to remove the ransomware, the trojan, and other malware. Spyhunter (https://www.2-viruses.com/reviews/spyhunter/dwnld/).

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to recover Coot 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 Derp Ransomware has infiltrated to your system and then click “Next”.
• To start System restore click “Yes”.

 

Step 2. Complete removal of Coot 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 Derp Ransomware. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore Coot 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 Derp 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 Coot 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.