Seon Ransomware - How to remove

Have your files been broken by something called “SEON Ransomware” after a visit to a video converting site? Seon is a family of file-locking viruses which have been around since November of 2018. The extension FIXT marks the files locked by Seon, but the encryption is deeper than just a new extension.

If your computer is hit with Seon and the virus locks your data, you’ll find your files encrypted with the .FIXT extension, unopenable and useless as they are. The encryption is reversible in theory, but only by getting a decryption key from the person who made Seon. No way to get it anywhere else because the criminals made sure that each victim gets a unique key.

A ransom note in a window called “SEON Ransomware ver 0.2” (readme.hta) talks about the “SEON Decryptor” which can supposedly decrypt the FIXT files — for a price, of course. And that’s why ransomware is known as cyber extortion. Your own files are being held for ransom by Seon’s developer. The Seon notes have changed a bit over the months and new email addresses have been adopted, but the virus is still largely the same: files are corrupted using an encryption algorithm, and the criminal wants to trick people to pay them money by promising to return the files.

A ransom note in a text file called YOUR_FILES_ARE_ENCRYPTED.txt:

SEON RANSOMWARE ver 0.2
all your files has been encrypted
There is only way to get your files back: contact with us
We accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

Do not try to reinstall operation system on your computer

Do not try to decrypt files with third party tools, this can lead to data loss

You can decrypt 1 file for free

Our contact emails:
[email protected]
[email protected]

The various versions of the Seon locker use various different email addresses, including these:

• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]

Bitcoin is great for criminals because it is somewhat anonymous and decentralized. It’s bad for the victims who have no way of guaranteeing the file decryption, and no way of getting their money back if it fails.

Can the FIXT files be fixed?

File backups are the best defense against ransomware attacks. A copy of your files, stored in a separate device, whether in the cloud or on an offline physical media, is not going to get encrypted. Once Seon is removed, you can populate your computer with your old files and continue as normal.

However, not everyone had backups set up. In that case, restoring the files is more complicated.

Exploring shadow copies is always worth a try. Even though modern ransomware viruses encrypt or delete data that could be used to fix the files, that doesn’t always work. Maybe you were lucky? As a last resort, try data recovery. The guides are below this article.

A free file decrypter is a possibility. GlobeImposter, Amnesia, GandCrab, and other file-lockers have had decryption programs released by cybersecurity experts. Sadly, Seon does not have one at the moment. This could change in the future, or it might not. Even though there is no guarantee of this, you might want to keep your FIXT files and see if a decryptor is created. Visit nomoreransom.org for updates.

How to remove SEON

The way that Seon is distributed means that more malware is installed at the same time, including a miner and a botnet virus. These viruses will hijack your computer, your CPU power, to generate cryptocurrency and distribute malware. The viruses should be removed before the computer is safe to use as normal again. Miners especially are known to strain the infected computer to the point that it becomes unusable, and your PC being a malware-spreading zombie can cause problems with accessing websites, spamming your email contacts, and your memory and processing power being hijacked.

Seon is recognized by a lot of antivirus programs (VirusTotal report on Sean 2.0) so it can be automatically removed using one. If your normal antivirus program isn’t working, try another one, like Spyhunter.

SEON distributed by malvertising

Seon was discovered in April and was apparently spread unintentionally by a very, very popular website (among the top 200 websites in the world) called onlinevideoconverter.com. Online video converters are known for abundant and intrusive ads, but they aren’t usually dangerous — only a little reckless and trusting site visitors to take care of themselves. This time, though, the converter site has been compromised by hackers to show actually harmful ads.

Seon is part of a very large-scale distribution campaign that involves hacking ad-servers to deliver malware and hide malicious code in GIF images. This attack is a great example of just how dangerous malvertising can be and how careful we need to be online.

We don’t know if more websites are compromised, but it’s likely that there will be. That’s why it’s so important to update your browser, your operating system, and all of your software. At least, install the security updates which will help your computer not be vulnerable to various exploits. According to  the experts from TrendMicro:

The vulnerabilities targeted by these exploit kits usually have available fixes, so applying a solid patching and update strategy mitigates much of the risk.

Automatic Malware removal tools

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

 

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

Step 3. Restore Seon 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 Seon 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 Seon 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.