KillRabbit ransomware - How to remove

KillRabbit is a new ransomware virus hunted in early August 2018. It was also named as RetwyWare ransomware on Twitter by the malware researcher @siri_urz. This encrypting virus acts pretty much the same as any other ransom demanding parasites like Iron ransomware, TripleM or MauriGo, but the difference is that instead of placing .txt ransom notes it drops two .php files, where hackers ask for the payment of US $345 for the encrypted files. All locked files are marked with .killrabbit extension so that the victim could identify which important data they lost to the crooks and would be willing to pay the ransom.

Unfortunately, ransomware caused damage is one of the hardest to fix because even after deleting the virus, the affected files stay locked. After all, paying the hackers would be A wrong move, because not only you cannot trust them to give you the decryption key, but also money will allow them to invest into future development of ransomware to make it even more notorious. Despite the persistent features of KillRabbit ransomware, 2-viruses.com team has found a few ways how to delete the infection and get the encrypted files back.

What is the KillRabbit/Retwyware ransomware

KillRabbit ransomware or Retwyware virus is a treat that slithers into the system from bogus email as a fake Resume, Invoice or Report document (usually PDF or Word because it can hide in macros) and runs various malicious processes in the background while you are figuring out why did the document did not really open or reading the fraudulent message. It takes less for the KillRabbit virus to complete its setup and completely compromises your machine.

The Retryware ransomware, after you click on executing file/enable macros, goes into various Windows directories and makes changes to ensure the persistence, which will help to stay in the system after the restart, at the same time it disables victim’s antivirus so it would not interfere with the further actions. It makes some modifications in the registry as well, for the authorization and also perseverance. After that as many other viruses, it scans the files that are stored on the hard drives, particularly documents, pictures, videos and audio, and encrypts them using the strong AES algorithm.

After all, files are encrypted the KillRabbit virus marks them with a .killrabbit extension to their name and your song file like ‘pianomusic.mp3’ becomes an inaccessible ‘pianomusic.mp3.killrabbit’. This is done to show the victim that all the personal files are locked by the virus to cause some stress and pay the ransom, which is the US $345. KillRabbit virus drops two and not one ransom notes and interesting enough, they are both a .php files and not regular text ones. The first ransom note says:

KillRabbit V2 – User Area
[Unique Key]
[Authorization]
Problems with authorization? Contact us> [email protected]
What Happened?
Oops, it seems the rabbit encrypted all of your files and requires a ransom for their decryption.
Do not worry, all your files will be decrypted after payment of the repayment.

The second ransom file says:

KillRabbit V2 – the Control Panel
• Decrypter
• Payment  Module
• Support
• ChatBot
Unique ID: xxxxxxxxx
Deadline:
Amount Redemption: 345$
Transaction ID
Number The of your deleted files is: 0

These files give the information about the further actions that the victim is expected to do if one wants to get the files back. The timer for the ransom to be paid and a number of deleted files are there to push the compromised users even further to paying the hackers. For more detailed technical information about KillRabbit virus please take a look at its VirusTotal.

How is the KillRabbit virus distributed

KillRabbit malware belongs to a ransomware group of viruses, which seem to be one of the most dangerous infections compared to just hijackers or adware, but surprisingly it doesn’t require much technical knowledge of computers and encryption to develop and spread it. Although KillRabbit is not a Hidden, there are plenty of explanations and guides how to make the virus that almost anyone could do it, but when it comes to distributing it, there is a whole different story.

There are many possible ways on how KillRabbit can spread such as P2P networks, exploits, torrents, other malware, ads and etc. But the most common technique is malspam. Socially engineered emails are sent to thousands of people, hoping that they will press the included hyperlink or open the malicious attachment. These bogus letters pretend that they are sent from the government, bank, hospital, landlord, attorney, employee and etc, therefore, are very believable. The message usually says that they are sending something important that you have to look at, but you can only do it if you press on a link.

So why would crooks spend their time writing emails to people? Ransomware viruses were primarily developed to infect both home users and companies (actually recently they have been targeting a lot of healthcare facilities and banks), and we all know, that you cannot install any new program or search shady websites with malicious ads with a company’s computers, so spam emails were the best spreading solution. Furthermore, other spreading methods require technical skills on how to inject virus into a program for drive-by download attack and etc, and not all malware developers have a degree in computer science. For more read datto.com

How to solve the KillRabbit ransomware caused damage

The best what 2-viruses team can suggest you is to not waste the precious time and simply get the anti-malware tool. So-called anti-spyware are specifically designed to detect malware and eliminate it from your PC from all possible directories. Basically, it is a medicine for virtual viruses. The great thing is that it detects even the threats that are not even visible, like crypto miners and Trojans. Therefore, it will easily spot something like KillRabbit ransomware that shows off to the victim.

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to delete KillRabbit ransomware for free and restore the files

While manual removal of KillRabbit ransomware will require much more effort and computer knowledge than automatic, it is still possible to get rid of the virus without having a special program. Below we designed special instructions on how to delete KillRabbit aka Retwyware ransomware and if you will follow them step by step there should be no problems for you to get rid of it yourself.

On the other hand, we must mention, that malware spreads malware and you cannot be for sure that your computer is only infected by the KillRabbit virus and was not brought by some other Trojan in your system, or worse, didn’t download any new threats. For that we do suggest that once you have the current situation under control, please, pick some security tool and run a scan, to be sure that there are no other parasites inside your PC.

As for the file restore, below we also left guide on how to recover the encrypted data from the Shadow Copies and with the special programs. Since there is no decryptor for the KillRabbit ransomware yet, we can only suggest trying out these restore methods and if they don’t work, first remove the virus and keep the compromised data safe until the malware researchers will make a decrypting tool. This shouldn’t take long since cybersecurity professionals are keeping up with hackers pretty well.

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

 

Step 2. Complete removal of RetwyWare

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 KillRabbit ransomware. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore killrabbit 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 RetwyWare 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 KillRabbit 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.