Nakw Ransomware - How to remove

$490 – that’s the price that some criminals are charging in exchange for restoring the locked file that their ransomware, Nakw, locked. This ransomware targets individual PC users and encrypts hundreds of Gigabytes of user files in only a few minutes.

Nakw is a new edition of Djvu ransomware, following after Derp, Werd, Leto, and many others. This is a serious family of ransomware and it has had the attention of cybersecurity researchers for a long time, but the cybercriminals haven’t been caught yet and their ransomware is still a real threat.

Identifying the infection

“Picture.jpg.nakw” – if your files look like this, with a double extension “nakw” (make sure that your Windows is configured to show file extensions), then the ransomware virus Nakw is responsible. The labeled files have been run through an encryption algorithm and the creators of Nakw demand up to $980 for fixing them.

The $980 ransom is an extremely high price for victims to pay, especially because Nakw ransomware attacks normal people and not businesses like other cryptoviruses. To a lot of victims, this ransomware attack means the loss of their family photos, personal projects, some – even their job.

The ransomware attacks not just files – it’s possible that it carries a spyware infection, too. This means that Nakw’s victims are in danger of having their online credentials stolen.

Nakw symptoms and solutions:

Nakw symptoms	Fake Windows Update window appears Files are renamed to include the extension “.nakw” _readme.txt files left in various folders
Consequences of the infection	Files are corrupted Passwords are exposed to criminals
Remove the infection	Use anti-malware scanners (SpyHunter) Change your passwords Install new security updates Make a backup of the corrupted files
How to restore Nakw files	Use a file backup to restore the data from Use the Djvu decrypter by Emsisoft Use data recovery, shadow volume copies, etc.

to leave a message from the ransomware’s developers to the victims, Nakw ransomware drops a ransom note, _readme.txt, in the folders where it encrypted files. The contents of the note look something like this:

ATTENTION!

Don’t worry my friend, you can return all your files!
All your files like photos, databases, documents and other important are encrypted with strongest encryption and unique key.
The only method of recovering files is to purchase decrypt tool and unique key for you.
This software will decrypt all your encrypted files.
What guarantees you have?
You can send one of your encrypted file from your PC and we decrypt it for free.
But we can decrypt only 1 file for free. File must not contain valuable information.
You can get and look video overview decrypt tool:
…
Price of private key and decrypt software is $980.
Discount 50% available if you contact us first 72 hours, that’s price for you is $490.
Please note that you’ll never restore your data without payment.
Check your e-mail “Spam” folder if you don’t get answer more than 6 hours.

To get this software you need write on our e-mail:
[email protected]

Reserve e-mail address to contact us:
[email protected]

Nakw ransomware behavior

Ransomware in piracy sites

Nakw ransomware uses piracy, torrent, and filesharing sites to spread. This affects people all over the world – students looking for a PDF version of an important book (yes, books can be infected, too), artists who can’t afford to legally buy an expensive suite, people to whom purchasing a legal copy of needed software is not an option. Besides modified software, activators like KMSPico and various cracking tools are also used by Nakw’s creators to distribute their ransomware.

Some people scold the victims of Nakw and other Djvu ransomware for pirating software, however, it’s rarely done out of greed. Pirating sites simply have more lax security and not a lot of ways to make money legally. Still, it’s true that those who stick to legal ways to get their software (and there are plenty of genuinely free programs, such as open-source projects) are at a lower risk of being infected. Not zero chance, though, because Nakw and its sibling cryptoviruses can also be uploaded on spoofed websites, infecting the installers of really free programs.

The only way to avoid downloading and running ransomware for sure is to scan every setup, PDF, and other files that you download – use an up-to-date antivirus tool to make sure that new ransomware (such as Nakw) is caught.

It’s important to note that Nakw ransomware doesn’t always infect alone: sometimes it brings a friend – a spyware trojan called Azorult. This thing can get to your passwords, so your privacy on the infected computer is completely compromised. Use another device for anything sensitive until you clean your computer and remember to change your passwords later.

Nakw file encryption

Nakw goes through user files and runs their contents through a cryptographic algorithm that scrambles all data, turning it into nonsense and gibberish. This process can be reversed if you know the algorithm and have the decryption key. Unfortunately, the victims of Nakw have neither.

Nakw marks each encrypted file by appending “.nakw” to their names. This makes it look like Nakw is a new file type, but it’s really just a label. With or without the label, the locked files can’t be viewed or edited because crucial data inside them are corrupted by the ransomware. For example, Nakw corrupts the metadata of many file types – data that’s used by programs to read those files.

However, not all data is actually encrypted. In large files, like video and audio files, some of the data can be recovered. Victims of Djvu have been able to use software to repair audio files, only losing a few seconds here and there. Video is more complicated, but if you know a specialist who knows how files work, they might help you repair some of them. Also, if you have archives locked by Nakw (zip, rar, 7z, etc.), you might be able to extract all but the first file from the archive unencrypted.

Most files are lost to Nakw, though, and whether the data can be recovered depends on your circumstances, but a lot of ransomware victims end up losing their files. Do not trust online scammers who offer you to restore them for a fee – many are out there to scam desperate victims of ransomware by promising that they have some special tools (they don’t). Every victim of Nakw has unique encryption keys and only the creators of this ransomware know all of them.

How to restore files locked by Nakw

To deal with the Nakw ransomware infection, a few steps need to be taken:

• Remove the Nakw virus and all other malware from the infected computer.
• Create a backup of the corrupted files.
• Restore the lost data (through backups, decryption, or data recovery)
• Find out how the Nakw infection happened and secure your computer against future attacks.

A backup of all of your data is the best defense against any ransomware: get rid of Nakw and other malware, copy your files back in, and you’re good to go! There are many ways to back up your files and it’s worth doing to avoid harm caused by ransomware or a broken drive.

If you did not have a backup of your files, https://www.emsisoft.com/ransomware-decryption-tools/stop-djvu that should work on Nakw. There are a couple of problems with it:

• It will only work for some victims of Nakw ransomware and only on some of their files (the ones that Nakw encrypted when it was unable to contact its command and control server).
• For the above decryption to work, the offline key needs to be discovered. This might not happen – the ransomware experts don’t always get ransomware samples.

If you keep the locked files, the Djvu decryption tool might be updated to support Nakw ransomware at some point in the next couple of weeks from the writing of this article.

Unrelated to decryption are the file recovery options in the following section. They rely on restoring lost data and might yield some results, but they might also fail you – it all depends on your circumstances.

But before you can recover your data, it’s important to get rid of the infections. A malware scanner like SpyHunter (or another emergency tool that you trust) can detect malware and get rid of it, but first, the hosts file needs to be fixed. Afterward, remember to update all of your software because Nakw can delete crucial files of your antivirus program, crippling it.

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 Nakw 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 Nakw Ransomware has infiltrated to your system and then click “Next”.
• To start System restore click “Yes”.

 

Step 2. Complete removal of Nakw 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 Nakw Ransomware. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore Nakw 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 Nakw 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 Nakw 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.