Mamba Ransomware - How to remove

A new peculiar ransomware virus has just recently been released. It was discovered on the 7th of September, 2016, having attacked a multinational company based in Brazil, though it can victimize individual users as well. This ransomware has been called Mamba ransomware, pertaining meaning to the species of venomous snakes. Mamba virus is a full disk encryption ransomware, meaning, its targets are not the single types of data files, but the entire disks. You can imagine the scope of damage this type of ransomware could cause, if this particular spieces was begun to be cultivated. We urge you to read the article about Mamba cryptomalware, using a disk-level encryption strategy, to learn about such highly dangerous threats and to find out ways how to ride shotgun for yourself against them.

About Mamba Ransomware

Mamba ransomware can be compared with Petya ransomware, since both use disk encryption strategy. Though Petya virus encrypts the MFT (master file table), instead of the data itself. As opposed to this, Mamba virus utilizes an open source tool DiscCryptor to encrypt the actual data with the popular asymmetric algorithm. When the targeted disk has been encrypted, Mamba crypto-malware displays the ransom note on the lock screen:

The only concrete information the message of Mamba file-encrypter contains is the contact e-mail address – [email protected] – which is to be used to contact these hackers. The size of the ransom has been reported to be 1 BTC (bitcoins – the cyber currency), amounting to 607,07 USD at this particular point in time. Though the official decryptor has not been released yet, the affected users are forewarned not to pay the money demanded for and not to try to get in touch with these cyber criminals in the first place, as the consequences can be even more sad.

How is Mamba Ransomware Distributed?

Even though Mamba file-encrypting virus is a far cry from the conventional file-based encryptors, it is being spread in quite similar ways to the standard ransomwares. Mamba encoder is a Trojan Horse, getting into the victim’s computer by stealth. Its name perfectly reflects its serpentine nature. This crypto virus is inhabited in the spam e-mails, sent to the victim. These spam e-mails, typically, contain fake notifications pretending to be sent by the existing institutions or companies, local or international ones.

The content of such an e-mails informs the user about some parcel, invoice, unpaid tax, crimes, never having been committed by the receiver of these fake notices. If the user clicks on any of the links provided or opens any of the attachments appended, the payload of Mamba encryptor, namely, 152.exe or 141.exe files, start to be executed, which means that his (her) PC has already been infected. Mamba trojan virus can also be the result of careless visiting of suspicious sites or careless clicking on suspicious advertisements.

How to Decrypt Files Encrypted by Mamba Ransomware?

Mamba ransomware is still undecryptable.

Update: the decrypter is now available at here: link. You can download it for free and successfully decrypt your files.

Update no.2: Mamba crypto-virus is back, mostly active in Brazil and Saudi Arabia. As stated in the report by Anton Ivanov and Orkhan Mamedov (1), it is still mostly targeted to the corporates  and can cause a lethal damage.

Important: while we know that security researchers had already introduced a decryption software for this infection, the version which was discovered in August of 2017 appears to exploit new sophisticated strategies for file-encoding. As a consequence, the newly-compromised operating systems and files from hard drives might not be decryptable with tool we mentioned in the first update.

For now, you can benefit from your backup rolled up. If you did not store additional copies of your data anywhere else, apart from the drives of your computer, check the Shadow Volume Copies, just in case they were not plagued by Mamba crypto virus. You can also try applying professional data recovery tools, such as Recuva, software by Kaspersky Lab, R-Sutdio, PhotoRec, etc. But before you engage in data recovery, take care of the most important business, that is, the removal of Mamba malware from your computer’s system.

Copy the damaged drive to have the encrypted data to be used on the would-be decryptor for generating the key (you cannot know, if even the professional data recovery tools will restore your data). Then, it is high time for the automatic malware removal software – Spyhunter to be utilized.

We recommend to remove ransomware threats automatically, since the process of removal requires excessive knowledge. However, we do provide with the tutorial for the manual removal of Mamba virus, which is located below.

Reference:

1 – https://securelist.com/the-return-of-mamba-ransomware/79403/

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

 

Step 2. Complete removal of HDD Cryptor 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 Mamba Ransomware. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore HDDCryptor 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 HDD Cryptor 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 Mamba 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.