NEW UPDATE MAY 2017 This article is created to help you cope with the latest Wana Decrypt0r update. It will show how to remove the .WNCRYT file virus and restore files encrypted by this threat.

The greatest ransomware threat seen so far has come in a new outbreak. The newly updated version is now appending .WNCRYT file extension and it is not here to mess about. The malware has now been updated to use the AES-128 algorithm. However, the malware writers have somehow managed to utilize it and unleash the WannaCry virus this time via a worm. This will result in the worm spreading despite the efforts of researchers to cut it off by registering attack domains. In case you have been affected by the .WNCRYT ransomware infection, we strongly urge you to read the following material.

SensorsTechForum is currently looking into the latest WannaCry threat and will update this article as soon as more information comes through.

Threat Summary

Name	Wana Decrypt0r 2.0
Type	Ransomware
Short Description	Aims to hold your files hostage for a hefty ransom fee – $300.
Symptoms	The victim witnesses a changed wallpaper with the image above and the program for payment, called “Wana Decrypt0r 2.0” which has a deadline timer and FAQ.
Distribution Method	Via exploits from the “Lost in Translation” leak, multiple botnet operations and an obfuscated worm infection.
Detection Tool	See If Your System Has Been Affected by Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 Download Malware Removal Tool
User Experience	Join our forum to Discuss Wana Decrypt0r 2.0.
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.

.WNCRYT WannaCry – New Information and Activity

According to the latest information from malware analysts, this ransomware virus has not modified much of what it does. However, there have been significant changes on how does it infect. In addition to the previously used botnets to infect victims, the malware has also been reported to infect victims via a worm. Kevin Beaumont (@GossiTheDog) displayed how the ransomware spreads automatically from a computer to a computer:

Once an infection by the .WNCRYT iteration of the WannaCry ransomware virus has already occurred, the virus installs Tor on the infected computer. From there it embeds tor URLs in it’s software for ransom payoff, along with a custom BitCoin address. So far there have been multiple different BitCoin addresses detected for ransom payoff and the Twitter bot @actual_ransom is following every payment processed from the 3 wallets and updates it real-time on every payoff made to the cyber-criminals behind the WannaCry threat. The BitCoin wallets are believed to rise in number since this new variant appeared.

In addition to this activity, the Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 virus also takes advantage of Visual Basic Script (VBS) to perform some tasks on the infected computer. Similar to the other variants, the virus makes data recovery impossible via Windows backups, since it deletes the shadow copies and System Restore points as well.

.WNCRYT File Virus – Encryption

For the encryption process, malware researchers have identified this ransomware virus to use a military-grade encryption algorithm which is particularly chosen, because of it’s safety. The algorithm is named Advanced Encryption Standard and it aims to replace blocks of the encrypted files with encrypted data. What is interesting in this particular case is that the .WNCRYT virus uses the AES-128 bit strength which is used by ransomware threats. It is even amazing how the cyber-criminals have managed to make the encryption process stable. It seems that they have invested great deal of research to make this encryption work.

The encryption aims to replace blocks of code of the original file targeted, which are documents, photos, audio files and other types of files with blocks of data from the cipher. It does not encrypt the whole file, only enough to render the file itself no longer to be able to be opened. The files look like the following after becoming encrypted:

After the encryption, the virus changes the wallpaper and naturally opens it’s ransom note:

What is interesting is that not only it starts automatically on system boot, but it also detects if it is ran on a Sandbox, so the WannaCry ransomware has defensive features against malware researchers as well. Furthermore, after infecting your computer, the .WNCRYT virus also creates a mutex object so that it won’t be able to infect your PC twice.

WannaCry Ransomware – Remove, Restore Files and Protect Yourself

In the event that the inevitable has happened, your first symptom of noticing this virus should be to see the icons of the ransomware on your computer. They look like the following:

If you see those files, you should IMMEDIATELY power off your computer and take out the hard drive from it to allow specialists to salvage what is left of your files without triggering the virus. In case this has already happened, we advise you to look into the instructions below to remove the ransomware. For the removal of the Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 threat, security experts outline the best method to be using an advanced anti-malware software to perform the removal automatically, especially if you lack the experience in manual removal. In order to attempt and restore encrypted files, at the moment there is no decryptor that is free and leaked out into the public, but we have multiple reports of users managing to restore chunks of their files using alternative methods. Such tools you can find in the step “2. Restore files encrypted by .WNCRYT Virus” below.

Manually delete Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 from your computer

Note! Substantial notification about the Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 threat: Manual removal of Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 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 Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 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 Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 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 Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 on your PC

Find malicious files created by Wana Decrypt0r 2.0

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 Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 by downloading an advanced anti-malware program

1. Remove Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool and back up your data

Remove Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool

1. Install SpyHunter to scan for and remove Wana Decrypt0r 2.0.2. Scan with SpyHunter to Detect and Remove Wana Decrypt0r 2.0. Back up your data to secure it against infections and file encryption by Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 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 Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 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 Wana Decrypt0r 2.0

Restore Files Encrypted by Wana Decrypt0r 2.0

Ransomware infections like Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 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 Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 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 Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 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 Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 Using Other Alternative Tools

STOPZilla Anti Malware

1. Download and Install STOPZilla Anti-malware to Scan for And Remove Wana Decrypt0r 2.0.
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 Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 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.

More Posts - Website