This article aims to help you by explaining more about plus how to remove the .0000 CryptoMix ransomware variant from your computer and how to restore files that have been encrypted by this virus.
Yet another variant of the CryptoMix ransomware family has surfaced out in the wild, appending the .0000 file extension to the files which are encrypted by the malware. The virus then drops a ransom note, named _HELP_INSTRUCTION.TXT which asks victims to contact the cyber-criminals on one of 4 anonymous e-mail addresses. Upon contact, the victims are requested to pay a hefty ransom fee in order to restore their encrypted files back to their original and working state. If you are one of the victims of .0000 ransomware, it is strongly recommended that you read this article and hence learn how to remove this CryptoMix ransomware variant and restore your files without having to pay ransom.
Threat Summary
| Name | .0000 CryptoMix |
| Type | Ransomware, Cryptovirus |
| Short Description | Aims to encrypt the files on the infected computer and then asks victims to contact the cyber-crooks and pay them to get the files decoded. |
| Symptoms | Files are no longer openable and are with changed names and added .0000 file extension. Ransom note, named _HELP_INSTRUCTION.TXT is dropped on the desktop of the user’s PC. |
| Distribution Method | Spam Emails, Email Attachments, Executable files |
| Detection Tool | See If Your System Has Been Affected by .0000 CryptoMix Download Malware Removal Tool | User Experience | Join Our Forum to Discuss .0000 CryptoMix. |
| Data Recovery Tool | Windows Data Recovery by Stellar Phoenix Notice! This product scans your drive sectors to recover lost files and it may not recover 100% of the encrypted files, but only few of them, depending on the situation and whether or not you have reformatted your drive. |
.0000 Files Virus – How Does It Infect Computers
The .0000 files virus aims to perform various different types of activities in order to successfully infect a given computer system. The primary one of those is to obfuscate the infection file of the .0000 ransomware in order to avoid detection by malware. This file may then be sent to victims via multiple different methods, including spammed e-mail messages which pretend that the infection file is a legitimate document, such as:
- Invoice.
- .PDF files
- Microsoft Office documents.
- Banking statements.
- Purchase receipts.
The e-mails which are being sent, distributing the infection file of .0000 CryptoMix ransomware variant may also contain deceitful messages within them, for example:
In addition to via e-mail, the malicious files of .0000 CryptoMix ransomware may also be spread other methods, such as fake key generator files, fake software setups and other files that may be uploaded online as legitimate downloads.
.0000 CryptoMix Ransomware – More Information
There is not much that differs the .0000 file ransowmare from the other CryptoMix variants it derives from. The malware drops it’s malicious files on the victim’s computer upon infecting it by either downloading them from a remote host or extracting them in an obfuscated manner. The malicious files that are dropped by the .0000 files virus may have different names and are usually located in the commonly targeted Windows folders:
After those files are dropped on the computer of the victim, the CryptoMix ransomware may perform various different activities, starting with:
- Creating mutexes.
- Touching system files and processes.
- Modifying registry sub-keys in the Windows Registry Editor. Deleting the Shadow Volume copies and disabling System recovery.
Regarding the registry editor and the Windows registry sub-keys, the .0000 CryptoMix variant may attack the Run and RunOnce Windows Registry sub-keys. This may result in the ransomware’s encryption file running automatically on system boot. The registry keys which may be attacked by it, have the following locations:
→ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
After having modified the registry editor, the .0000 ransomware may also delete the shadow volume copies of your computer by running the following commands as an administrator in your Windows Command prompt without this appearing visually on your screen:
→ bcdedit /set bootstatuspolicy ignoreallfailures The virus also makes sure that it’s presence is known on your computer by adding the _HELP_INSTRUCTION.TXT ransom note, which has the following contents: Hello! The encryption of the .0000 files ransomware is conducted in the same way as other CryptoMix variants. The virus begins by having a pre-configured set of file extensions which it scans for in order to encrypt them. These file extensions belong ot the most often used file types, like videos, archives, documents, images and others, for example: PNG .PSD .PSPIMAGE .TGA .THM .TIF .TIFF .YUV .AI .EPS .PS .SVG .INDD .PCT .PDF .XLR .XLS .XLSX .ACCDB .DB .DBF .MDB .PDB .SQL .APK .APP .BAT .CGI .COM .EXE .GADGET .JAR .PIF .WSF .DEM .GAM .NES .ROM .SAV CAD Files .DWG .DXF GIS Files .GPX .KML .KMZ .ASP .ASPX .CER .CFM .CSR .CSS .HTM .HTML .JS .JSP .PHP .RSS .XHTML. DOC .DOCX .LOG .MSG .ODT .PAGES .RTF .TEX .TXT .WPD .WPS .CSV .DAT .GED .KEY .KEYCHAIN .PPS .PPT .PPTX ..INI .PRF Encoded Files .HQX .MIM .UUE .7Z .CBR .DEB .GZ .PKG .RAR .RPM .SITX .TAR.GZ .ZIP .ZIPX .BIN .CUE .DMG .ISO .MDF .TOAST .VCD SDF .TAR .TAX2014 .TAX2015 .VCF .XML Audio Files .AIF .IFF .M3U .M4A .MID .MP3 .MPA .WAV .WMA Video Files .3G2 .3GP .ASF .AVI .FLV .M4V .MOV .MP4 .MPG .RM .SRT .SWF .VOB .WMV 3D .3DM .3DS .MAX .OBJ R.BMP .DDS .GIF .JPG ..CRX .PLUGIN .FNT .FON .OTF .TTF .CAB .CPL .CUR .DESKTHEMEPACK .DLL .DMP .DRV .ICNS .ICO .LNK .SYS .CFG After detecting the files, the malware uses the AES encryption algorithm in order to encrypt the files. This process replaces the data from the original files with data from the encrypted file types. After doing this, the .0000 ransomware generates a unique AES decryption key. This key is assymetric and just like the XZZX ransomware variant of CryptoMix, the .0000 ransomware uses 11 RSA-1024 encrption keys to encrypt the AES assymetric key, used for the encryption of your files. This gives the .0000 ransomware the ability to work as an offline virus without even communicating with the cyber-criminals allowing their command and control server to be exposed. After the encryption process of this CryptoMix ransomware variant has completed, the malware adds the .0000 file extension to the encrypted files and then completely renames them, so that you won’t be able to recognize which file is the most important to you. The files begin appearing like shown in the image below: In order to remove the .0000 ransomware variant of CryptoMix, reccomendations are to focus on on following the removal instructions which we have suggested down below. They are created to help you remove the .0000 ransowmare manually if you have malware removal experience or automatically, which is the most preferred method, according to malware analysts. This is because downloading an advanced anti-malware software and scanning your PC with it automatically will allow you to remove all of the malicious files related to the .0000 file ransomware and protect your computer against future infections in real-time. If you want to restore files that have been encrypted by the .0000 CryptoMix ransomware variant, it is reccomended that you try out the alternative file recovery methods down below in step “2.Restore files encrypted by .0000 CryptoMix”. They are specifically created in order to help you recovery as many files as you can without having to pay the ransom and trust cyber-criminals with your money.
bcdedit /set recoveryenabled No
bcdedit /set {default} bootstatuspolicy ignoreallfailures
bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled No
vssadmin delete shadows /for=
Attention! All Your data was encrypted!
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DECRYPT-ID-.0000 Files Virus Encryption Process
How to Remove .0000 Files Virus and Protect Yourself + Restore Files
