Diavol/lock64 Ransomware - How to remove

Diavol is new and dangerous ransomware. It encrypts files, breaking them, and appends “lock64” to their names. Then, it asks victims to pay money if they want to get their files back.

Cybersecurity researchers suspect that Diavol ransomware may be developed by the same group of criminals who are responsible for TrickBot, a dangerous spyware trojan. If Diavol infected your machine, check whether spyware may have infected it, too.

About Diavol ransomware:

Type of threat	Ransomware, trojan.
Diavol infection symptoms	Programs quit on their own, backups get deleted, files are broken, they won’t open, their names and icons – changed, the desktop background is changed, ransom notes are placed in every folder.
Can you recover your files?	Restore data from backups, undelete, repair files.
How to remove Diavol ransomware	Use antivirus apps (Spyhunter, others) to remove malware, reset passwords and use 2-factor authentication to protect accounts.

How Diavol works

Possibly related to TrickBot

Diavol is a new family of ransomware. It was discovered and described by Fortinet in July of 2021.

According to the researchers, the name Diavol comes from the website that the cybercriminals who created this ransomware set up. The address for this website is found in the ransom notes left by Diavol.

Apparently, Diavol ransomware is likely made by the same people who made TrickBot. TrickBot is an info stealer – it exfiltrates usernames, passwords, payment information, other personal info, crypto wallet data, etc. TrickBot can spread in a network and download additional malware. This trojan attacks both individual users and businesses.

In addition, Diavol ransomware is similar to Conti ransomware and Egregor ransomware. They could be connected.

If Diavol is made by the same people who made TrickBot – experienced cybercriminals – then it could become very powerful and widespread.

Diavol encrypts files

Diavol kills processes that could be holding up files that it wants to encrypt, such as Office software, accounting software, etc. It also deletes backups, such as shadow volume copies.

Then, it starts encrypting. Diavol encrypts only around 11KB in smaller files and around 1 MB in files that are larger than 2 MB. This is enough to break files and make them unusable. (Although, it may be possible to repair some encrypted files with enough expertise and patience.) Diavol also changes the names of the encrypted files by adding a second file type extension, lock64.

Diavol changes the attacked computer’s desktop background to a blank image with this text:

All your files are encrypted!

For more information see README-FOR-DECRYPT.txt

It drops ransom notes named README_FOR_DECRYPT.txt:

# What happened? #

Your network was ATTACKED, your computers and servers were LOCKED.

You need to buy decryption tool for restore the network.
Take into consideration that we have also downloaded data from your network that in case of not making paynent will be published on our news website.

# How to get my files back? #

1. Download Tor Browser and install it.
2. Open the Tor Browser and visit our website – https://…

Tor Browser may be block in your country or corporate network. Try to use Tor over VPN!

According to the researchers who analyzed Diavol, though this ransomware claims that it downloaded your data and will publish it if you don’t pay the ransom, it likely can’t do this. It’s probably just bluff.

How Diavol infects computers

Diavol may be operated as RaaS – ransomware-as-a-service. In a RaaS operation, one group develops the malware (in this case, Diavol ransomware), while multiple criminal groups – affiliates – take the malware and spread it.

When an affiliate is successful in getting a victim to pay the ransom, the developer and affiliate share the money.

Each affiliate can conduct very focused attacks. Often, phishing emails are used to send infected files to victims. Other times, criminals use phishing or brute force attacks to learn credentials needed to log into their victim’s RDP accounts and install malware manually.

As is often the case, Diavol ransomware doesn’t work on computers where a language of one of the CIS countries, such as Russian, Turkmen, Azeri, etc. is installed.

How to remove Diavol ransomware

You can use antivirus software (like Spyhunter and others) to find and remove Diavol ransomware and other malware (such as spyware trojans).

Once the computers are clean, reset your passwords and make sure that multi-factor authentication is turned on. That way, the criminals who might have attacked your computers won’t be able to come back easily.

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to recover Diavol/lock64 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 Diavol Ransomware has infiltrated to your system and then click “Next”.
• To start System restore click “Yes”.

 

Step 2. Complete removal of Diavol/lock64 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 Diavol Ransomware. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore Diavol/lock64 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 Diavol 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 Diavol/lock64 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.