Ehiz Files Locker - How to remove

Ehiz is a ransomware infection that attacks Windows computers. It spreads on pirating sites. It gets downloaded together with other malicious programs, such as adware and spyware.

If Ehiz has infected your computer, you should see files that you can no longer open. The names of these files might end with “ehiz”. These are the main symptoms of an Ehiz ransomware infection.

To be able to use your computer normally again, delete all infections. Restoring the encrypted files is a separate matter, though.

About Ehiz ransomware:

Classification	Ransomware, trojan.
How Ehiz ransomware works	Ehiz spreads with pirated programs and gets downloaded alongside other malware, it breaks various files and changes their names by adding a new file extension, it demands a ransom in exchange for fixing the files.
Can you recover your files?	Restore from backups, try the free decryptor on your data, restore deleted data, repair the corrupted files.
How to delete Ehiz and other malware	Use antivirus tools (Spyhunter, etc.) to find and delete malware.

How Ehiz ransomware works

Ehiz encrypts files

Ehiz is file-encrypting ransomware. It’s a malicious program that edits many user-created files (documents, presentations, photos, movies, music, etc.) and scrambles their contents – like scrambling the letters of a text until they make no sense. You could say that Ehiz corrupts the files.

The ransomware also marks the encrypted files by adding the suffix “.ehiz” to their names. You can see this if you set your Windows to show file extensions.

Finally, Ehiz creates files called _readme.txt. The text in these notes asks you to pay a few hundred dollars to the extortionists who then promise to “decrypt all your encrypted files”, restoring them to normal.

At least I haven’t heard of Ehiz stealing files, so you don’t need to worry about that, probably.

It spreads with pirated content

Ehiz ransomware spreads with pirated content. It might come with cracked and “unlocked” programs from shady websites. People install infected programs themselves, not knowing that they’re letting ransomware (and likely a few more infections) on their PCs. Sometimes, they even disable their antivirus to stop it from interfering with cracks.

By the way, antivirus programs detect Ehiz as Suspicious, Malware, and Trojan (Virustotal.com).

After it’s downloaded, Ehiz works very quickly. It encrypts hundreds of files in a few minutes. While it’s doing that, it may show a fake Windows Update pop-up to distract the victim. You might also notice programs closing during this time.

Windows has features that save previous versions of files. To stop victims from recovering old, unencrypted data, Ehiz deletes backups. In addition, it tries to disable antivirus programs and task manager, as well as block some cybersecurity websites.

How to get your files back?

So, if you don’t have a backup of your file that escaped Ehiz’s attack, and if you want to try to recover some of the data that was encrypted, there’s something you should do: make a backup of the files that you want to recover. And always make a backup of these files before you mess with them.

Ehiz ransomware is part of the Djvu family (together with Nusm, Igvm, and others). This family of ransomware is well known to cybersecurity experts. And, unfortunately, there’s no trick to getting your files back for free. That is, with the exception of some rare circumstances, as described by Emsisoft.

Another option is to use a data recovery tool like EaseUS. These programs can bring back deleted files. Just make sure to try recovery programs – use those that let you check recovery results for free.

Look into file repair. Something I didn’t tell you earlier is that Ehiz (and lots of other ransomware) only encrypts portions of larger files. This is enough to break the files, but it allows some data to be recovered.

How to delete the Ehiz malware

You can use antivirus programs to find and delete Ehiz and other malware. You also need to get rid of the files that brought the malware infection originally.

During Ehiz’s infection, malware likely deleted important antivirus files (depending on which antivirus tool you use). Make sure to update your antivirus program.

Ehiz ransomware also blocks some cybersecurity websites. This can make it harder for you to look up information on the infection and solve the infection. Check your hosts file and fix it if needed, the instructions are below.

You can also reformat your drive to get rid of the infection (note that you will lose the programs installed on it).

Spyware may have come with the Ehiz ransomware. If the spyware might have read your passwords (for example, if you have login credentials saved in your browser), consider resettings them. This will help you avoid having your accounts hacked.

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 Ehiz Files Locker 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 Ehiz Files Locker has infiltrated to your system and then click “Next”.
• To start System restore click “Yes”.

 

Step 2. Complete removal of Ehiz Files Locker

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 Ehiz Files Locker. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore Ehiz Files Locker 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 Ehiz Files Locker 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 Ehiz Files Locker 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.