Nols Ransomware - How to remove

Nols has been reported as the new variant of the Djvu family of ransomware infections. This virus leaves your files with “.nols” at the end of their names and creates ransom notes called “_readme.txt” that ask you to send them money. The Nols files are broken by the virus as part of an extortion scheme.

You might have heard of Djvu as it’s the ransomware family that’s responsible for hundreds of thousands of attacks over the last couple of years. Recently, a decrypter for some old variants was developed and released for free by Emsisoft. However, it does not apply to Nols and the other new variants, like Leto and Reco, as the criminals who develop this infection have changed how it works and made it more difficult for experts to decrypt victims’ files. Additionally, Nols is dangerous in other ways, such as spreading a password-stealing trojan and breaking antivirus programs by deleting crucial files.

If you want to remove the Nols ransomware, you can do it with the help of a competent antivirus program like SpyHunter and safe mode or a malicious process killer. Remember that the encrypted “.nols” files are not dangerous, only corrupted. Also, it’s possible that some of your files were not affected by Nols, so check deep in your folders.

Nols is a very destructive piece of malware and needs to be removed from your computer before you can use it normally again:

Type of threat	Ransomware Spyware
Nols consequences	Files now have “.nols” at the end of their names You can’t access certain websites Online accounts get hacked Money is stolen from cryptowallets
Remove the Nols infection	Unblock websites by editing the hosts file Delete Nols and other malware using antivirus tools (SpyHunter) Restore your files from a backup Recover your data Wait for a free decrypter
How to avoid Djvu ransomware	Scan every downloaded file Don’t disable your antivirus program Don’t pirate software Have a backup of your files

The text of the _readme.txt files is something like this:

ATTENTION!

Don’t worry, 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:
https://we.tl/t-p1HwbAuGCw
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” or “Junk” 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]

Your personal ID:
140nMhFJuttFjTEqQjQV2SPRGuHIu5Qiu16Wpsqgxa5dX1oc20bT

If you have a backup of all the files that you need, great job! Backups are very important and they help you avoid the worst consequences of a ransomware attack, save you loads of time, and protect you from the stress this attack might otherwise cause. After you have cleaned your computer of Nols, just restore your files from the backup.

However, the “.nols” extension files are your only copies of some very important files, the situation is more complicated. There’s a small chance that Nols can be decrypted for free in the future, but you have to keep the locked files until then and not make edits to them. Check out this decrypter. The last section of this post describes some ways to recover lost data, and though they’re not guaranteed to work, they’re worth trying.

How Nols is dangerous

First of all, Nols encrypts your files, which is why ransomware viruses are also called cryptoviruses. The idea is to extort people from money (in the case of Nols, it’s either $490 or $980) by denying them access to their own files until they’ve paid.

Encryption is a great method for that: your files remain on your computer, but they’re corrupted by the virus. You can try opening them, renaming them, but most of the data will remain locked. In theory, the only way to decode them is to get the decryption key, and only the ransomware developers have everybody’s decryption keys.

Besides breaking your files, Nols can also break your antivirus program. Important definitions may be deleted, which would make your security program useless. This is something that a lot of established ransomware viruses do.

To stop you from accessing information about the infection, Nols might make edits to your hosts file, which effectively blocks a list of cybersecurity websites. The fix to this is described later in the article.

Arguably worse than Nols ransomware is the Azorult trojan that Djvu cryptoviruses often install. This trojan can extract your passwords from your browser, as well as download other malware to your computer. Make sure that you have 2-step verification on all your important online accounts and do not use the infected computer for anything important, especially anything money-related. Use another device until after you’re sure that Nols, Azorult, and other infections are gone.

Nols spreads in cracks and activators

While most ransomware viruses attack computers through exposed RDP connections, spread in malicious email spam, or get downloaded to vulnerable computers by malicious websites (always install new security updates to avoid this!), Nols is most likely to infect software pirates. This ransomware can hide in software cracks and key generators that people use to unlock expensive commercial software for free. Nols might also be downloaded in “activated” software, various programs uploaded on spoofed websites, in pirated files, etc.

It’s not a myth that the piracy ecosystem allows malware to spread more easily – there’s a lack of regulation, so rogue users and criminals can upload infected files and not suffer a lot of consequences. And people who can’t afford to buy expensive software, like students and people in countries which aren’t granted regional pricing, really can’t afford to pay the Nols ransom. They might also put themselves at even more of a risk by disabling their antivirus program to not interfere with the pirating and by using cracked software that cannot be updated.

Nols is fast, it can encrypt hundreds of gigabytes of files in a few minutes, so you probably won’t be able to catch it. (the reason for why Nols is so fast is that it only encrypts parts of your files, which is also why some file types don’t get encrypted as effectively as others – for example, people have been able to recover some audio files (sans the first few seconds of the recording) by removing the extension.

You could stop pirating and use legitimate free software (there’s a lot of great open-source projects out there!) and you could scan every downloaded file with an antivirus tool. Don’t dismiss antivirus warnings. Most importantly, keep a backup of your files so that, if you do get infected with another ransomware virus, you don’t need to worry about losing your files.

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

 

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

Step 3. Restore Nols 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 Nols 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 Nols 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.