COINLOCKER Virus 🔐 (.EXE Files) — How to Remove?

What is known about the Coinlockervirus?

Coinlocker will append its specific .exe extension to the title of every encoded file. For example, a file named “photo.jpg” will be turned into “photo.jpg.exe”. In the same manner, the Excel table named “table.xlsx” will become “table.xlsx.exe”, and so on.

In each folder that contains the encoded files, a bitdecrypter.txt file will appear. It is a ransom money memo. It contains information about the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other information. The ransom note usually contains a description of how to purchase the decryption tool from the tamperers. That is how they do it.

Name	Coinlocker Virus
Extension	.exe
Ransomware note	bitdecrypter.txt
Detection¹	BScope.TrojanDownloader.Deyma, Mal/Kryptik-BX, Ransom:Win32/StopCrypt.ST!MTB
Symptoms	Your files (photos, videos, documents) get a .exe extension and you can’t open them.
Fix Tool	GridinSoft Anti-MalwareSee If Your System Has Been Affected by Coinlocker virus

In the screenshot below, you can see what a folder with files encrypted by the Coinlocker looks like. Each filename has the “.exe” extension added to it.

An example of encrypted .exe files.

How did Coinlocker ransomware end up on my PC?

There are currently three most exploited ways for criminals to have ransomware acting in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan injection and peer networks.

If you access your mailbox and see letters that look like familiar notifications from utility services providers, postal agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose mailer is unknown to you, beware of opening those letters. They are very likely to have a malicious item enclosed in them. So it is even more dangerous to download any attachments that come with letters like these.

Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan horse scheme². A Trojan is an object that infiltrates into your PC pretending to be something different. For instance, you download an installer of some program you want or an update for some service. However, what is unpacked reveals itself a harmful program that encodes your data. As the installation wizard can have any name and any icon, you have to make sure that you can trust the resource of the things you’re downloading. The best thing is to trust the software developers’ official websites.

As for the peer-to-peer networks like torrents or eMule, the danger is that they are even more trust-based than the rest of the Web. You can never know what you download until you get it. Our suggestion is that you use trustworthy resources. Also, it is reasonable to scan the directory containing the downloaded files with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is complete.

How to remove the Coinlocker virus?

Often criminals would unblock few of your files to prove that they do have the decryption program. As Coinlocker virus is a relatively new ransomware, security software engineers have not yet found a method to undo its work. Nevertheless, the decryption tools are constantly upgraded, so the effective countermeasure may soon arrive.

Understandably, if the tamperers succeed in encoding someone’s essential files, the desperate person will most likely comply with their demands. Despite that, paying to racketeers does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still dangerous. After getting the money, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption code to the injured party. There were reports about malefactors simply disappearing after getting the money without even writing back.

The best countermeasure to ransomware is to have aan OS restore point or the copies of your essential files in the cloud disk or at least on an external drive. Obviously, that might be not enough. Your most important thing could be that one you were working on when it all went down. Nevertheless, it is something. It is also reasonable to scan your PC for viruses with the antivirus program after the OS restoration.

There are other ransomware products, besides Coinlocker, that work similarly. Examples of those are Oflg, Ofww, Aawt, and some others. The two main differences between them and the Coinlocker are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is almost identical: files become inaccessible, their extensions altered, ransom notes are found in every folder containing encrypted files.

Some lucky people were able to decode the blocked files with the help of the free software provided by anti-malware specialists. Sometimes the racketeers accidentally send the decoding code to the wronged in the ransom readme. Such an epic fail allows the user to restore the files. But of course, one should never expect such a chance. Remember, ransomware is a tamperers’ technology to lay their hands on the money of their victims.

How to avert ransomware attack?

You can protect yourself from ransomware attack within several easy steps:

Ignore any emails from unknown senders with strange addresses, or with content that has likely no connection to something you are waiting for (how can you win in a money prize draw without even taking part in it?). In case the email subject is more or less something you are expecting, check all elements of the questionable letter with caution. A fake email will always have a mistake.
Never use cracked or untrusted programs. Trojans are often spreaded as a part of cracked products, possibly as a “patch” preventing the license check. Understandably, dubious programs are very hard to distinguish from reliable software, because trojans may also have the functionality you need. Try to find information about this program on the anti-malware forums, but the optimal way is not to use such software.
And finally, to be sure about the safety of the objects you downloaded, scan them with GridinSoft Anti-Malware. This program will be a perfect shield for your personal computer.

There is no better way to recognize, remove and prevent ransomware than to use an anti-malware software from GridinSoft">⁵.

Download Removal Tool.

You can download GridinSoft Anti-Malware by clicking the button below:

Download GridinSoft Anti-Malware

Run the setup file.

When setup file has finished downloading, double-click on the setup-antimalware-fix.exe file to install GridinSoft Anti-Malware on your computer.

An User Account Control asking you about to allow GridinSoft Anti-Malware to make changes to your device. So, you should click “Yes” to continue with the installation.

Press “Install” button.

Once installed, Anti-Malware will automatically run.

Wait for the Anti-Malware scan to complete.

GridinSoft Anti-Malware will automatically start scanning your system for Coinlocker infections and other malicious programs. This process can take a 20-30 minutes, so I suggest you periodically check on the status of the scan process.

Click on “Clean Now”.

When the scan has finished, you will see the list of infections that GridinSoft Anti-Malware has detected. To remove them click on the “Clean Now” button in right corner.

Frequently Asked Questions

🤔 How can I open “.exe” files?Is it possible to open“.exe” files?

There’s no way to do it, unless the files “.exe” files are decrypted.

🤔 I really need to decrypt those “.exe” files ASAP. How can I do that?

If the “.exe” files contain some really important information, then you probably have them backed up. If not, there is still a function of System Restore but it needs a Restore Point to be previously saved. There are other ways to beat ransomware, but they take time.

🤔 You have advised using GridinSoft Anti-Malware to get rid of the Coinlocker virus. Does it mean that all my files, currently encrypted, will be removed too?

Of course not. Unlike the ransomware program itself, the encrypted files do not jeopardize your system.

With the help of GridinSoft Anti-Malware, you can clean your PC off the actual viruses. The ransomware that has infected your system is probably still functional and it scans your system periodically to encrypt any new files you might create on your PC after the attack. As it has been said above, the Coinlocker ransomware does not come alone. It installs backdoors and keyloggers that can take your account passwords by trespass and provide hackers with easy access to your PC after some time.

🤔 What should I do if the Coinlocker virus has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation code.

In such an unfortunate situation, you need to prepare a memory stick with a pre-installed Trojan Killer. Use Safe Mode to do the cleaning. The point is that the ransomware runs automatically as the system launches and encrypts any new files created or imported into your system. To stop this process – use Safe Mode, which allows only the vital programs to run upon system start. Consider reading our manual on booting Windows in Safe Mode.

🤔 And what should I do now?

Some of the blocked files can be found elsewhere.

If you exchanged your critical files by email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
You might have shared images or videos with your friends or relatives. Just ask them to post those pictures back to you.
If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Internet, you can try doing it again.
Your messengers, social media pages, and cloud storage might have all those files as well.
Maybe you still have the needed files on your old computer, a notebook, mobile, memory stick, etc.

HINT: You can employ data recovery programs⁶ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware encrypts the copies of your files, deleting the original ones. In the tutorial below, you can see how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but be advised: you can do it only after you eradicate the virus with an anti-malware program.

Also, you can contact the following governmental fraud and scam sites to report this attack:

In the United States: On Guard Online;
In Canada: Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre;
In the United Kingdom: Action Fraud;
In Australia: SCAMwatch;
In New Zealand: Consumer Affairs Scams;
In France: Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d’information;
In Germany: Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik;
In Ireland: An Garda Síochána;

To report the attack, you can contact local executive boards. For instance, if you live in USA, you can have a talk with FBI Local field office, IC3 or Secret Service.

References

Encyclopedia of threats.
You can read more on Trojans, their use and types in the Trojan-dedicated section of GridinSoft official website.
You can read more on spyware variants and nature in the respective section of GridinSoft official website.
GridinSoft Anti-Malware Review from HowToFix site:
More information about GridinSoft products:
Here’s the list of the top 10 file recovery tools of 2021.