Matroska Ransomware - How to remove

Matroska Ransomware might also come by the name HUSTONWEHAVEAPROBLEM is a dangerous virus that is set to encrypt your files and require for a ransom in order to unlock them. It was first time discovered in July, yet the volume of infections began to rise only now. If your computer is infected with it, you will be eventually ordered to pay a ransom in bitcoins. It’s a common technique, used by many well-known ransomware infections, such as Balbaz ransomware or Ransomnix virus.

A report of Virus total indicates that 27 out of 60 anti-malware and anti-virus applications detect this infection as a ransomware or trojan. That’s good news because almost any anti-malware application will be able to detect and remove the virus. The bad news is that it is not that easy to decrypt files encrypted by Matroska ransomware.

It is believed that this ransomware virus is being distributed by dropping a payload which executes the malicious code on the vulnerable system and infects it. Still, it’s not clear whether this infection executes automatically or manually.

Either way, once this virus is inside on your computer, it’s almost a game over regarding your personal file. Matroska ransowmare will automatically run a scan of files stored on your hard drive to indicate files that can be endrypted. Here’s a full list of files that can be encrypted:

.txt, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .pdf, .pps, .ppt, .pptx, .odt, .gif, .jpg, .png, .db, .csv, .sql, .mdb.sln.php, .asp, .aspx, .html, .xml, .psd, .frm, .myd, .myi, .dbf, .mp3, .mp4, .avi, .mov, .mpg, .rm, .wmv, .m4a, .mpa, .wav, .sav, .gam, .log, .ged, .msg, .myo, .tax, .ynab, .ifx, .ofx, .qfx, .qif, .qdf, .tax2013, .tax2014, .tax2015, .box, .ncf, .nsf, .ntf, .lwp

As you can see, most common file types are on the list and that means your text documents, audio and video files as well as images will probably be encrypted. And that’s really a huge problem, because Matroska employs AES cryptography to do the job. This type of cryptography is extremely difficult to decrypt, so it would be naive to expect a free decryptor anytime soon.

When the encryption process is over, every single file on your hard drive will appear with additional extension – [email protected]. From now on it will be impossible to open or use those files in any other regular way.

Obviously you could just restore your files from a backup, but hacker are always one step ahead – the virus automatically executes a command line (“vssadmin.exe delete shadows /all /Quiet”) and deletes all shadow volume copies from the computer. The only possible chance to recreate your files is if you had your backup file stored on an external hard drive or on the cloud.

You will also notice a new file on your desktop, name “HOW_TO_RECOVER_ENCRYPTED_FILES.txt”. It’s a ransom note with the instructions how to restore your files. Original text of the message:

YOUR FILES ARE ENCRYPTED!

Your personal ID

All your files have been encrypted due to a security problem with your PC.
To restore all your files, you need a decryption.
If you want to restore them, write us to t e e-mail [email protected].

In a letter to send Your personal ID (see In the beginning of this document).
You have to pay for decryption in Bitcoins.
The price depends on how fast you write to us.
After payment we will send you the decryption tool that will decrypt all your files.
In the letter, you will receive instructions to decrypt your files!

In a response letter you will receive the address of Bitcoin-wallet, which is necessary to perform the transfer of funds.
HURRY! Your personal code for decryption stored with us only 72 HOURS!

Our tech support is available 24 \ 7
Do not delete: Your personal ID
Write on e-mail, we will help you!

Free decryption as guarantee
Before paying you can send to us up to 1 files for free decryption.
Please note that files must NOT contain valuable information and their total size must be less than 5Mb.
When the transfer is confirmed, you will receive interpreter files to your computer.
After start-interpreter program, all your files will be restored.

Attention!
Do not rename encrypted files.
Do not try to decrypt your data using third party software, it may cause permanent data loss.
Decryption of your files with the help of third parties may cause increased price (they add their fee to our) or you can become a victim of a scam.
Do not attempt to remove the program or run the anti-virus tools
Attempts to self-decrypting files will result in the loss of your data
Decoders are not compatible with other users of your data, because each user’s unique encryption key

You are encouraged to contact hackers via email [email protected]. This should be done within first 72 hours after the infection, otherwise the unique key for decryption will be deleted. It’s a common technique to scare users and force them to pay the money. It’s not clear how much you will be asked to pay – this is probably going to be revealed when you contact cyber criminals. Usually it varies from $200 to $500.

How to eliminate Matroska ransomware

We insist you not to pay the ransom. There are no guarantees that your files will be unlocked even if you pay the ransom. Even though it is not possible to decrypt files for free, cyber security researchers are constantly working on a new ways to decrypt files encrypted with various ransomware infections and we will update this post as soon as one is out. As for now, you should make sure that the virus itself is no longer operating on your computer. That can be easily done with some help of anti-malware software. Download Spyhunter, scan your computer with it and the rest will be done with the program itself.

You can find detailed removal of Matroska instructions below this article.

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

 

Step 2. Complete removal of Matroska 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 HUSTONWEHAVEAPROBLEM. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore Matroska 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 HUSTONWEHAVEAPROBLEM 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 Matroska 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.

Manual removal