Article created to help remove the RanRan ransomware infection and decrypt files encrypted by the virus.

A very unique ransomware infection has been detected by malware researchers. The virus also dubbed RanRan encrypts files on the computers it infects, just like most ransomware viruses out there do. However, this virus is more than that – it is also politically motivated malware that aims to get the victim to publicly admit he or she is hacked by creating a subdomain and agree with political terms. These terms are against the leader of Saudi Arabia, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Despite this, the virus has also been detected to infect in the Philippines, besides Saudi Arabia, which means it may further spread onto multiple different locations. In case your system has been infected by RanRan ransomware using the .zXz file extension, we advise you to read the following article.

Threat Summary

Name	.zXz RanRan
Type	Ransomware, Cryptovirus
Short Description	The RanRan ransomware encrypts your data and then displays a ransom message with instructions for payment.
Symptoms	Sage ransomware encrypts the files and adds the .zXz file extension. A ransom note is dropped on the desktop with politically-motivated requests..
Distribution Method	Spam Emails, Email Attachments, malicious .xls files, .htm Files, .js files, .ZIP archives
Detection Tool	See If Your System Has Been Affected by .zXz RanRan Download Malware Removal Tool
User Experience	Join Our Forum to Discuss .zXz RanRan.
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.

RanRan Ransomware – How Does It Infect

For the infection of this virus, the cyber-criminals behind it may have used malicious files that are uploaded on spammed e-mail messages. These messages are sent to a pre-programmed list of e-mail addresses of potential victims. The e-mails may contain different information, like the name of your account and other data to increase legitimacy. They may also pretend to be different types, for example an e-mail pretending to be suspicious activity on the PayPal account of the victim, provided there is one.

Once a misled victim opens the malicious file attachment, this ransomware infection checks for a specific mutex and if this mutex, also reported as Services 1.0 is present, the virus will stop the infection.

RanRan .zXz Virus – Further Analysis

Once an infection by RanRan ransomware is commenced, the virus dropps a file, named services.exe in the C:\ (System Drive) folder. Once this file has been dropped onto the victim PC, the virus reportedly modifies the Run and RunOnce registry keys to run the services.exe file on system boot. The sub-keys are the following:

→ 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 this has been done, the virus creates multiple different files on the computer and runs the encryption.

RanRan .zXz Virus – Encryption Process

For the encryption of the files, the RanRan ransomware infection looks for multiple types of files on the computers it has infected. Most of those files are usually often used and important documents and other content:

→ .mdf .ldf .edb .pst .ost .doc .docx .pdf .xls .xlsx .ppt .pps .pptx .ppsx .accdb .mdb .zip .rar .txt .jpg .bad .epf .bdp .efp .vsd .mpp .xlt .cmd .lic .me .xlsm .war .bdr .stm .sdb .psd .eml .vdw .vdx .tar .csv .max .png .ai .dwg .dxf .7z .c .cpp .bak .ese .ashx .asmx .soap .svc .bkf .issue .sql .fmb .olb .java .webm .mkv .flv .dbf .mtb .asp .aspx .sln .cs .jar .bmp .iso .resx .exe .tar .dat .rtf .img .gz .vmdk .log .ace .kdbx .rdp .psc .bat .cfg .rmvb .3gp .swf .ipdb .db .cmsc .kmz .edx

But the virus does not just get to the encryption of the files. Before this happens, it stops processes of Databases in order to ensure successful encryption. The processes which this ransomware ends are the following:

→ MSSQLSERVER SQLWriter MSSQL$CONTOSO1 SQLServerAgent MSSQL$SQLEXPRESS Microsoft Exchange Information Store OracleASMService+ASM OracleCSService OracleServiceORCL OracleOraDb10g_home1TNSListener usermanager outlook exchange sql

The encryption of the .zXz ransomware is very innovative, but not undefeated. The ransomware uses different encryption procedure for files with different file sizes. For example, if it encrypts files up to 5 MB it will use one set of encryption keys which it generates. But if it encrypts files more than 3 GB, it will proceed with a completely different decryption key being generated.

After encryption, the RanRan virus adds the .zXz file extension to the files which are rendered no longer able to be opened by it. They may appear like the following:

After the encryption process is complete, the .zXz file virus also drops a ransom note with the following message:

“!!!Congratulations!!!
Welcome to my Ransomare!
Cannot you find the files youneed?
Is the content of the files that you have watched not readable?
I want to play a game with you. Let me explain the rules:
Your documents, photos, databases and other important files have been encrypted with strongest encryption and unique key, generated for this computer.
Private decryption key is stored on a secret internet server and nobody can decrypt your files until you pay and obtain the private key.
But, don’t worry!
It is normal because the files names, as well as the data in your files have been encrypted.
Do not: power off computer, run antivirus program, disable internet connection. Failures during key recovery and file decryption may lead to accidental damage on files.
In order to have relationship with us, and pay the ransom; must go the following steps.
1. Launch a subdomain named:
{subdomain.name}
2. Make a txt file named:
Ransomware.txt including
Hacked!
“Your email address”
We will text you ASAP.”

Unlike other ransomware viruses, this one extorts users to register to a political website, which means that it is one of the few ransomware viruses with a hacktivist element in them.

Fortunately the virus is decryptable, thanks to Palo Alto malware researchers. Keep reading this article to learn how to properly get your files back for free if you have become a victim of this virus.

Remove RanRan .zXz Ransomware and Decrypt Files

Before proceeding with any removal of the RanRan ransomware, recommendations are to back up the .zXz files on another drive, just in case.

Then, we recommend following the instructions from the removal accordion below. They are specifically designed to assist with the full removal of the RanRan ransomware virus from the affected computer. For maximum effectiveness and thoroughness during removal, malware researchers often recommend downloading an advanced anti-malware program which will automatically take care of .zXz ransomware’s virus files on your computer.

After you have removed the RanRan virus, you should follow the instructions on the decryptors’s web page, created by experts at PaloAlto to get the encrypted files back:

PaloAlto Public_Tools RanRan Decryption

Manually delete .zXz RanRan from your computer

Note! Substantial notification about the .zXz RanRan threat: Manual removal of .zXz RanRan 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 .zXz RanRan 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 .zXz RanRan 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 .zXz RanRan on your PC

Find malicious files created by .zXz RanRan

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 .zXz RanRan by downloading an advanced anti-malware program

1. Remove .zXz RanRan with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool and back up your data

Remove .zXz RanRan with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool

1. Install SpyHunter to scan for and remove .zXz RanRan.2. Scan with SpyHunter to Detect and Remove .zXz RanRan. Back up your data to secure it against infections and file encryption by .zXz RanRan 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 .zXz RanRan 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

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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