Maktub Locker - How to remove

Maktub Locker is a new ransomware that might enter your system and lock files stored on hard drive, so you won’t be able to open, view or use them in any other way.

It is a dangerous virus that is distributed through spam emails. If you have noticed that your computer is infected with it and you can’t access your personal files, the first thing you need to is to remove the virus from your system and only then try to retrieve your encrypted files.

To eliminate Maktub Locker from your computer, you will need some help from anti-malware software, such as Spyhunter or Malwarebytes. Simply download one of them and scan your system with it. Either one of these applications should detect the location of Maktub Locker and eliminate it automatically. It will also protect your computer from similar infections in the future, so it’s worth to keep it installed.

However, anti-malware software can’t decrypt your files. The only way to do it at the moment is to restore encrypted files from a backup copy of your hard drive. Unfortunately, you have to have legitimate copy of you hard drive to be able to perform this restore. If you do have one, scroll down below this article and take a look at our detailed instructions how to perform system restore.

If you have some questions regarding this topic, feel free to ask them in the comments section below and we will do our best to answer them all. To learn more about specific features of Maktub Locker please continue reading this article.

About Maktub Locker ransomware

The main goal of this ransomware is to infect computers, encrypt personal files and ask for the ransom in order unlock them. It’s not very difficult to notice whether your computer is infected with Maktub Locker or not because once it encrypts your files, you will see a message that looks like this on your desktop:

It says:

Warning! Your personal files are encrypted!

Your documents, photos, databases and other important files have been encrypted with strongest encryption and unique key, generated for this computer. Private decryption key is stored on a secret Internet server and nobody can decrypt your files until you pay and obtain the private key. The server will eliminate the key after a time period specified in this window.

As you can see, the cyber criminals are saying the after 12 hours from encryption, your private decryption key will be deleted without any possibilities to restore it, so your files will be lost forever. It’s just another manipulation by hackers in order to force users to bay the ransom.

They also offers users to upload one encrypted file, so they would decrypt it and send it back to you as a proof that they have the power to unlock your files. However, even if you pay the ransom, there are no guarantees that your files will be decrypted, thus we do not recommend to do that. If you have a copy of your hard drive, use our instructions and restore your files. If you don’t, just wait for other solutions, such as decryption tool developed by cyber security experts. In the meantime, make sure you eliminate Maktub Locker from your computer and protect your system with reliable anti-malware application because Maktub Locker can infiltrate other malware into it.

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

 

Step 2. Complete removal of Maktub 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 Maktub Locker. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore Maktub 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 Maktub 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 Maktub 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.

Manual removal