Cube - How to remove

Cube is ransomware: a destructive virus that extorts money from its victims. Cube breaks all the files it can on a computer and tries to sell people the way to fix them.

How did you install the Cube ransomware?

Some malware is spread by making it available for download in peer-to-peer filesharing. If you must be a pirate, be a careful one and don’t download anything suspicious, or if you do, be careful and prepare for the worst.

Malicious spam emails can deliver viruses like Cube in their attachments and links. You can scan them before opening them, but if the email is suspicious (for example, you won a prize in a contest that you never participated in), it might be safest to just ignore it.

What does ransomware do?

The virus encrypts the files so that they are useless. This can, in theory, be reversed, and this is what the Cube extortionists are trying to sell: the decryption.

After Cube has gone through your files and locked them, you will see that they have a new “.cube” extension. This is not the only thing stopping the files from being opened, unfortunately. The mechanism that Cube and other ransomware use is practically impossible to reverse unless you have your individual decryption key. But it is only the criminals who have it. They promise to fix and unlock your files in the ransom note named READ_ME.txt:

I am truly sorry to inform you that all your important files are crypted.
If you want to recover your encrypted files you need to follow a few steps.
You need to buy bitcoins and send them to the address you receive by mail.

Email addresses are provided — [email protected] and [email protected] — which can be used to contact the distributors of Cube. They are asking for bitcoins, which is convenient to cybercriminals because, as a digital currency, actions around bitcoin transactions can be automated.

What is the solution?

Don’t pay unless you really have to. There is almost never a guarantee that the criminals can decrypt the files. The Cube distributors promise to decrypt a small file to prove that they can (though they limit the files to only a few formats), but they could just as easily run with your money. Besides, they might have installed spyware together with Cube, so it might not be safe to do any banking on your computer until you have scanned and removed all the malware.

in order to guarantee the availability of our key we can decrypt one file for free
the size of the files <1 mb, doc.docx.xls.xlsx.pdf.jpg.bmp.txt file format
other formats will not be free decryption
after payment we will send a decryption program

The cybercriminals say that there is no other way to decrypt the files, but there have been decryptors developed for a few ransomware viruses. Those decryptors are often rather limited and rely on the ransomware being flawed somehow. Developing a decryptor can take a long time, and it is hard to say if Cube will have a decryptor while it is still new.

What prevention is there?

Install and always update your antivirus program and your operating system. New viruses are developed every day (Cube has only been discovered a couple of days ago) and antivirus vendors are always working to improve their programs, but you need to install updates to take advantage of the benefits of antivirus protection.

Make sure that your files are safe in a backup. Save them on a disk separate from your computer so that they are not damaged by a malware infection.

Be safe online. Be skeptical of ads that try to scare you, or promise something too good to be true, as they often lead to phishing and scam sites trying to lure people’s money out of them. If you’re suspicious of a link or a file that you got from an unfamiliar sender (or even your friend — people’s accounts sometimes get hacked and used to distribute malware), scan it with an antivirus program.

Check out our Ultimate Security Guide Against Ransomware.

How to remove the Cube virus

If your files have been encrypted by Cube, but you have backups, it will be simple to return to normal by just copying your files back on your computer. Though this should only be done after you have removed the virus.

If you do not have a file backup, below there is a guide that you can follow to try to return the lost files. But be sure to leave that for after you have removed Cube.

For this, scan your machine with an antivirus application. Research antivirus programs to find one with a good recent reputation, for example, Spyhunter. Remove the threats that your antivirus found.

Automatic Malware removal tools

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

 

Step 2. Complete removal of Cube

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 Cube. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore Cube 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 Cube 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 Cube 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.