Ungluk Ransomware - How to remove

The first wave of Ungluk ransomware started in the late December of 2015. It was detected as Win32/Filecoder.FD trojan by ESET, a Slovakian IT security company, which has also categorized Ungluk filecoder as a variant of Gpcode ransomware family. The ransomware virus uses the asymmetric encryption, which has still not been cracked.

How Do You Know That Your Files Have Been Encrypted by Ungluk Ransomware?

Ungluk crypto-malware encrypts files stored locally as well as files shared within a network. It targets .doc and .pdf files, as well as databases. The encrypted files are appended .bleep, .1999, .0x0, .H3LL or .fu*k extension. For instance, CV.pdf is renamed CV.pdf.bleep, if the .bleep extension is used by the ransomware. Two files: FILESAREGONE.TXT and IHAVEYOURSECRET.KEY are placed in each encrypted folder. The .key file contains the public key generated by the ransomware. It is useless without the private key, which is the hands of these hackers. The other file, which is the text file, encloses the following ransom note:

Hello.
All your files have been encrypted using our extremely strong private key. There is no way to recover them without our assistance. If you want to get your files back, you must be ready to pay for them. If you are broke and poor, sorry, we cannot help you. If you are ready to pay, then get in touch with us using a secure and anonymous p2p messenger. We have to use a messenger, because standard emails get blocked quickly and if our email gets blocked your files will be lost forever.

Go to http://bitmessage.org/, download and run Bitmessage. Click Your Identities tab > then click New > then click OK (this will generate your personal address, you need to do this just once). Then click Send tab.

TO: xxxxxxxxxxxx
SUBJECT: name of your PC or your IP address or both.
MESSAGE: Hi, I am ready to pay.

Click Send button.

You are done.

To get the fastest reply from us with all further instructions, please keep your Bitmessage running on the computer at all times, if possible, or as often as you can, because Bitmessage is a bit slow and it takes time to send and get messages. If you cooperate and follow the instructions, you will get all your files back intact and very, very soon. Thank you.

The files can be called Hellothere.txt, containing the ransom message, and Secretishere.key, containing the public key, if the filename extension added is .1999. If the extension appended is .0x0, the ransom notice is named READTHISNOW!!!TXT and the public key storage is called SECRET.KEY. The other ransom note’s name possibilities, as well as the ways the public key’s file can be named are the following: IAMREADYTOPAY.TXT, BLEEPEDFILES.TXT, IHAVEYOURSECRET.KEY, SECRETIDHERE.KEY. They are found if the Ungluk infection is recognizable from .H3LL and .fu*k extensions.

The users, who have contacted the author of the Ungluk crypto-locker, have reported that the size of the ransom is 2.5 BTC (bitcoins), which equals to 1,841.96 USD at the moment. When asked, the coder agrees to decrypt one file to demonstrate that he is able to decrypt the locked data. The cyber crook is also said to provide the victims with the decryption tool, called decrypt.exe, which CMD (Command) line is the following:

DECRYPTOR Usage: decrypt.exe -k [key of decrypt] -f [file for decrypt] -e [extension of file with dot].

This is the manual mode of the decryptor. It is safer, as you can choose the encrypted files yourself to be decrypted. The automatic mode has one flaw. If you run it, it will encrypt the unencrypted files. Thus, you need to back up your healthy files before running it. However, it is not known, if the cyber criminal is still sending the decrypting program.

So Your PC Has Been Infected. What to Do?

Copy the infected files, folders or drives, depending on the scope of the infection. Then run the full system scan with one of the following anti-virus scanners: Spyhunter or Malwarebytes. After the scan contact Kaspersky helpdesk for data recovery solutions. Use your back-up, check Shadow Copies, try Recuva or other data-restoring software. And remember for the next time that spam e-mails do not enclose any valuable information, updates from questionable sources can also hide Ungluk or any other ransomware infection.

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

 

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

Step 3. Restore Ungluk 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 Ungluk 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 Ungluk 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.