Antix Ransomware - How to remove

Antix is the name of a typical infection of an encrypting trojan, spread via infected spam e-mails. According to some sources it was first detected in the last week of October (2016), while other sources suggest that Antix ransomware was first discovered in December (2016). The relatively distinct feature of this crypto-malware is that Antix virus is a screen-locking virus, having capabilities of limiting the user’s access to its PC.

How Should One Know that His/Her PC Has Been Infected with Antix Ransomware?

Antix crypto-locker is one of the many asymmetric encryptors, utilizing AES algorithm. It aims at encrypting the most common file types such as PDF and DOC files, for example. The files made unreadable are appended the .??? extension. The file locked by Antix crypto-virus would look like File.pdf.???, where File is the actual name of the file, pdf stands for its normal extension and .??? is the extension, appended by Antix encrypter to mark the encrypted state of the file. After all of the targeted files have been encrypted, the computer’s screen is covered with the following note of the ransom in the white background:

You Have Been Hacked!!!
All your personal files have been encrypted, and your passwords and info have been copied to an offline server. To get your files and passwords back, send “0.25” bitcoin to the bitcoin address below. Failure to pay by March 1st 2017 will result in loss of ALL data and your passwords and info will be leaked to the public.
Google “How to buy bitcoin” or follow the steps below.
1. Click here to open “https://www.coinbase.com/signup”
2. Signup and buy the amount requested below.
3. Send bitcoin to the address below.
4. Wait until Payment is verified.
Once the payment is verified all your data will be decrypted and this program and the offline server will self destruct.
Warning! Any Attempt to get rid of this program or rebooting your machine will result in the loss of all your data and your passwords and info will be posted online!

The screen looks the following:

0.25 BTC, or 194.67 USD, is the size of the ransom demanded by the hackers of Antix file-encrypter from their victims. The term of payment is quite extensive as transfers can be made till the 1st of March of 2017. In addition to this, the coders of Antix malware threaten their victims that they will post the passwords and other confidential and highly sensitive information online, if the payment will not be received till the due date. However, there are now facts or extensive research made as regards the spyware abilities of Antix file-encoder. Consequently, the latter warning may only be a social engineering trick. Though it has been reported that the developers of Antix file-locker has already earned around 4900 USD, there are no statistics as regards the decryption tools supplied on their behalf. Thus, users are warned not to pay for these hackers and not to risk loosing money for nothing.

How to Decrypt Files Encrypted by Antix Ransomware?

Use your backed up copies, check Shadow Copies or invoke professional data recovery tools. A decryptor by cyber security researchers is only to come in the future. Trusting hackers is not the best decision you can possibly make.

How to Remove Antix Ransomware?

Antix ransomware can be removed with such antivirus programs as Spyhunter or Malwarebytes. If you cannot launch neither of the apps, make sure, if you have rebooted your computer in the Safe Mode with networking. The manual removal guide is available at the end of the post. Look it through before you start implementing the steps described, since, regardless its user-friendliness, it still may be a little difficult for an entry-level user to implement.

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

 

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

Step 3. Restore Antix 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 Antix 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 Antix 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.