.fmoon Files Virus – Remove MOON DECRYPTOR (+ Restore)

This article aims to help you remove the MOON DECRYPTOR ransomware virus from your computer and restore files that have been encrypted with the .fmoon file extension added.

A new ransomware virus, calling itself MOON or MOON DECRYPTOR has been detected by malware researchers to encrypt files on computers it infects, adding the .fmoon file extension. The virus aims to use the AES and RSA ciphers in order to generate unique decryption keys stored in a decrypter for which the user must pay a hefty ransom to receive. If you are one of the victims of MOON DECRYPTOR ransomware, we strongly advise you to read this article and learn how to remove it and get your files back without having to pay anything.

Threat Summary

Name	.fmoon Virus
Type	Ransomware, Cryptovirus
Short Description	Virus from the file encryption kind. Renders your files temporarily useless until you pay a hefty ransom fee to get them back.
Symptoms	The files are no longer openable with an added .fmoon file extension to them. A “decryptor” pops up with instructions how to pay a ransom fee to get the files back.
Distribution Method	Spam Emails, Email Attachments, Executable files
Detection Tool	See If Your System Has Been Affected by .fmoon Virus Download Malware Removal Tool
User Experience	Join Our Forum to Discuss .fmoon Virus.
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.

How Does MOON DECRYPTOR Spread

In order for this ransomware virus to infect unsuspecting users, the cyber-crooks may trick them into opening an infection file or a web link. Such objects may be spread into multiple different methods, the most often used of which is to infect computers via e-mail spam. Such infection process is usually conducted with the classic social engineering technique – deceiving potential victims that they have received an important file, like an invoice, letter of confirmation, bank account statement, hijacked account report or other type of important file. The messages accompanying the file are also deceptive, for example:

Besides via e-mail, this ransomware virus may also be spread via multiple different methods, for instance if it has been uploaded online as a fake setup of software, game patch, crack or any other seemingly legitimate type of program.

MOON DECRYPTOR – Analysis

Once this virus has been activated on your computer system, it may immediately drop it’s malicious files on the user’s computer. As soon as it drops those virus, the ransomware may immediately focus on modifying your computer system, more particularly insert processes in Windows Task Manager, the usage of which may result in MOON DECRYPTOR to obtaind administrative permissions on your computer. The virus may also modify the Windows Registry Editor of the infected computer, more specifically attack the Run and RunOnce registry keys:

In addition to this, MOON DECRYPTOR ransomware may also delete your shadow volume copy backed up files, by using a batch file which it executes without your knowledge. The commands it may insert in the background are the following:

In addition to this, the virus also sets a ransom note, named MOON DECRYPTOR which appears like the following:

Image Source: id-ransomware.blogspot.bg

Text from the image:

MOON DECRYPTOR
WHAT HAPPENED ???
Oops all your data are encrypted !!
This is a ransomware AES 256 + RS A 1024!! Look at Wikipedia for morę informations
Please pay before 20 minutes oryour datalll be lost forever. I’ll delete a file per minutę after!
Copy and past this link in Internet Explorer or Firefox :
http://10.10.3.1/panel/decipher.php
and enter your informations :
Your UUID :
Encrypted key iBtSvjYAVWaJslcc4Hn/nMIMrg+bUgA0W4g***
If you obtain your passord, take it here and click on RECOVER
button {RECOVER}

MOON DECRYPTOR – Encryption Process

For the file encryption, MOON ENCRYPTOR uses a strong combination of the following encryption algorithms:

• AES (Advanced Encryption Standard).
• RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman).

The AES cipher is used by this virus to encrypt the data in the files themselves. But no all the data of the files is encrypted, only blocks of it. The AES cipher generates decryption keys which are in turn encrypted with the RSA cipher, generating unique private and public keys, that are required for the decryption of the files.

The MOON DECRYPTOR virus targets primarily important files on your computer, such as documents, videos, audio files and other types of files. The file extensions targeted may be most of the following:

→ “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”Source:fileinfo.com

To the files locked by MOON DECRYPTOR, the file extenson .fmoon is added, making them appear like the example below:

→ New Text Document.txt.fmoon

Remove MOON Ransomware and Restore .fmoon Encrypted Files

In order to remove this ransomware from your computer, we strongly suggest that you focus on backing your files beforehand. After doing so, you can go ahead and follow the instructions for the removal below. They are divided in manual and automatic and for maximum effectiveness, security experts always recommend removing viruses, like MOON automatically using the specific removal software for this purpose.

If you want to restore your files, in the event that they have been encrypted by MOON DECRYPTOR virus, you can go ahead and follow the alternative file recovery methods below in step “2. Restore files encrypted by .fmoon Virus.” They are specifically designed to help you recover as many files as possible without having to pay any form of ransom.

Manually delete .fmoon Virus from your computer

Note! Substantial notification about the .fmoon Virus threat: Manual removal of .fmoon Virus requires interference with system files and registries. Thus, it can cause damage to your PC. Even if your computer skills are not at a professional level, don’t worry. You can do the removal yourself just in 5 minutes, using a malware removal tool.

1. Boot Your PC In Safe Mode to isolate and remove .fmoon Virus files and objects

Boot Your PC Into Safe Mode

1. For Windows 7,XP and Vista. 2. For Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. Fix registry entries created by .fmoon Virus on your PC.

For Windows XP, Vista, 7 systems:

1. Remove all CDs and DVDs, and then Restart your PC from the “Start” menu.
2. Select one of the two options provided below:

– For PCs with a single operating system: Press “F8” repeatedly after the first boot screen shows up during the restart of your computer. In case the Windows logo appears on the screen, you have to repeat the same task again.

– For PCs with multiple operating systems: Тhe arrow keys will help you select the operating system you prefer to start in Safe Mode. Press “F8” just as described for a single operating system.

3. As the “Advanced Boot Options” screen appears, select the Safe Mode option you want using the arrow keys. As you make your selection, press “Enter“.

4. Log on to your computer using your administrator account

While your computer is in Safe Mode, the words “Safe Mode” will appear in all four corners of your screen.

Step 1: Open the Start Menu

Step 2: Whilst holding down Shift button, click on Power and then click on Restart.
Step 3: After reboot, the aftermentioned menu will appear. From there you should choose Troubleshoot.

Step 4: You will see the Troubleshoot menu. From this menu you can choose Advanced Options.

Step 5: After the Advanced Options menu appears, click on Startup Settings.

Step 6: Click on Restart.

Step 7: A menu will appear upon reboot. You should choose Safe Mode by pressing its corresponding number and the machine will restart.

Some malicious scripts may modify the registry entries of your computer to change different settings. This is why manual clean up of your Windows Registry Database is strongly recommended. Since the tutorial on how to do this is a bit lenghty, we recommend following our instructive article about fixing registry entries.

2.Find malicious files created by .fmoon Virus on your PC

Find malicious files created by .fmoon Virus

1. For Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. 2. For Windows 7,XP and Vista.

For Newer Windows Operating Systems

Step 1:

On your keyboard press  + R and write explorer.exe in the Run text box and then click on the Ok button.

Step 2:

Click on your PC from the quick access bar. This is usually an icon with a monitor and its name is either “My Computer”, “My PC” or “This PC” or whatever you have named it.

Step 3:

Navigate to the search box in the top-right of your PC’s screen and type “fileextension:” and after which type the file extension. If you are looking for malicious executables, an example may be “fileextension:exe”. After doing that, leave a space and type the file name you believe the malware has created. Here is how it may appear if your file has been found:

N.B. We recommend to wait for the green loading bar in the navination box to fill up in case the PC is looking for the file and hasn’t found it yet.

For Older Windows Operating Systems

In older Windows OS’s the conventional approach should be the effective one:

Step 1:

Click on the Start Menu icon (usually on your bottom-left) and then choose the Search preference.

Step 2:

After the search window appears, choose More Advanced Options from the search assistant box. Another way is by clicking on All Files and Folders.

Step 3:

After that type the name of the file you are looking for and click on the Search button. This might take some time after which results will appear. If you have found the malicious file, you may copy or open its location by right-clicking on it.

Now you should be able to discover any file on Windows as long as it is on your hard drive and is not concealed via special software.

Automatically remove .fmoon Virus by downloading an advanced anti-malware program

1. Remove .fmoon Virus with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool and back up your data

Remove .fmoon Virus with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool

1. Install SpyHunter to scan for and remove .fmoon Virus.2. Scan with SpyHunter to Detect and Remove .fmoon Virus. Back up your data to secure it against infections and file encryption by .fmoon Virus in the future.

Step 1:Click on the “Download” button to proceed to SpyHunter’s download page.

Download

Malware Removal Tool

It is highly recommended to run a scan before purchasing the full version of the software to make sure that the current version of the malware can be detected by SpyHunter.

Step 2: Guide yourself by the download instructions provided for each browser.
Step 3: After you have installed SpyHunter, wait for it to automatically update.

Step1: After the update process has finished, click on the ‘Scan Computer Now’ button.

Step2: After SpyHunter has finished scanning your PC for any .fmoon Virus files, click on the ‘Fix Threats’ button to remove them automatically and permanently.

Step3: Once the intrusions on your PC have been removed, it is highly recommended to restart it.

Back up your data to secure it against attacks in the future

IMPORTANT! Before reading the Windows backup instructions, we highly recommend to back up your data automatically with cloud backup and insure it against any type of data loss on your device, even the most severe. We recommend reading more about and downloading SOS Online Backup .

SOS Online Backup

2. Restore files encrypted by .fmoon Virus

Restore Files Encrypted by .fmoon Virus

Ransomware infections like .fmoon Virus aim to encrypt your files using an encryption algorithm which may be very difficult to directly decrypt. This is why we have suggested several alternative methods that may help you go around direct decryption and try to restore your files. Bear in mind that they may not be 100% effective but they may help you little or a lot in some situations.

Method 1: Scanning your drive’s sectors by using Data Recovery software.
Another method of restoring your files is by trying to bring back your files via data recovery software. Here are some suggestions for preferred data recovery software solutions:

• Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery Technicians License(Pro version with more features)
• Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery
• Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery

Method 2: Trying Kaspersky and EmsiSoft’s decryptors.
If the first method does not work, we suggest trying to use decryptors for other ransomware viruses, in case your virus is a variant of them. The two primary developers of decryptors are Kaspersky and EmsiSoft, links to which we have provided below:

• Kaspersky Decryptors
• Emsisoft Decryptors

Urgent! It is strongly advisable to first remove the .fmoon Virus threat before attempting any decryption, since it may interfere with system files and registries. You can do the removal yourself just in 5 minutes, using an advanced malware removal tool.

Method 3: Using Shadow Explorer

To restore your data in case you have backup set up, it is important to check for shadow copies in Windows using this software if ransomware has not deleted them:

• Shadow Explorer

Method 4: Finding .fmoon Virus decryption key while it communicates it via a network sniffing software.

Another way to decrypt the files is by using a Network Sniffer to get the encryption key, while files are encrypted on your system. A Network Sniffer is a program and/or device monitoring data traveling over a network, such as its internet traffic and internet packets. If you have a sniffer set before the attack happened you might get information about the decryption key. See how-to instructions below:

Instructions on How to Find Decryption Key for Files Encrypted By Ransowmare

Optional: Using Alternative Anti-Malware Tools

Remove .fmoon Virus Using Other Alternative Tools

STOPZilla Anti Malware

1. Download and Install STOPZilla Anti-malware to Scan for And Remove .fmoon Virus.
Step 1: Download STOPZilla by clicking here.
Step 2: A pop-up window will appear. Click on the ‘Save File’ button. If it does not, click on the Download button and save it afterwards.

Step 3: After you have downloaded the setup, simply open it.
Step 4: The installer should appear. Click on the ‘Next’ button.

Step 5: Check the ‘I accept the agreement’ check circle if not checked if you accept it and click the ‘Next’ button once again.

Step 6: Review and click on the ‘Install’ button.

Step 7: After the installation process has completed click on the ‘Finish’ button.

2. Scan your PC with STOPZilla Anti Malware to remove all .fmoon Virus associated files completely.
Step 1: Launch STOPZilla if you haven’t launched it after install.
Step 2: Wait for the software to automatically scan and then click on the ‘Repair Now’ button. If it does not scan automatically, click on the ‘Scan Now’ button.

Step 3: After the removal of all threats and associated objects, you should Restart your PC.

Vencislav Krustev

A network administrator and malware researcher at SensorsTechForum with passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cyber security. Strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.

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