Geek's Advice

NEER ransomware aims to take victim’s files hostage by encrypting them

NEER ransomware is a malicious computer virus that originates from STOP/DJVU malware gang. This virus aims to encrypt all personal files on victim’s computer using RSA Salsa20 cipher, mark each file with .neer extension and drop _readme.txt notes in every containing folder. As a consequence, file previously called 1.jpg appears as 1.jpg.neer after the cyber attack and becomes impossible to open. The aforementioned ransom note contains a message from virus’ developers who state that all files have been locked using military-grade algorithm and that the only way to decrypt .neer files is pay a specified ransom to cybercriminals. According to them, the decryption costs $490 if the victim meets all the conditions within 3 days from infection timestamp, or $980 later. The criminals suggest contacting them via email and provide two addresses: manager@mailtemp.ch and helpmanager@airmail.cc.

NEER ransomware was developed to function as a virtual extortion tool. Its primary purpose is to use complex encryption ciphers to modify victim’s files in a way so that they could no longer be accessed or used. Since many of us keep important documents, valuable photos, videos or audio recordings on our computers, losing these in a second can seem like a disaster (especially if you don’t tend to create backups on a regular basis). Therefore, cybercriminals provide a ‘solution’ – pay money or forget about those files forever. In other words, they try to extort the computer victim after illegally taking one’s files hostage.

However, there are some good news for victims who have lost some important files – audio and video files can be restored with minimal loss at the beginning of the file because this ransomware tends to encrypt the very first 150KB of each file. This is done in order to speed up the encryption procedure, yet make files inaccessible. However, due to the said file format specifics, they can be repaired as explained in this guide.

As explained in _readme.txt note, the virus’ operators want the victim to contact them and transfer money according to given instructions within 3 days. This ensure that the victim gets a 50% discount on NEER decryption tool which means that the price for the tools will be $490. However, the note also informs that if the victim fails to do so, the price will be $980. It goes without saying that the attackers demand the money in cryptocurrency rather than US dollars because they want the transaction to be untraceable. In addition, the ransom note suggests that the criminals can provide test decryption on one small file that the victim chooses to send them. The file, however, cannot contain any valuable information.

Geek’s Advice team experts as well as FBI do NOT recommend paying the ransom due to the following reasons:

• Criminals have a tendency to lie in order to get what they want. In other words, there is absolutely no guarantee that you will receive some tools for file decryption after paying the ransom.
• Ransomware-type virus operators collect millions of US dollars each year. Such amounts of money might attract other people to join in. The more money they collect, the bigger the reach and impact of ransomware gets each year.
• Paying a ransom to cybercriminals might be illegal in your country of residence.
• Variants of STOP/DJVU ransomware family such as NEER virus run AZORULT Trojan on the infected computer. This is a well-known information stealer.

Things ransomware has done to your computer

NEER ransomware firstly executes winupdate.exe process to display a deceptive Windows update prompt for the victim. Apparently, the criminals do this to conceal the real cause of a sudden system slowdown. Then the ransomware launches an executable file named with random 4-characters which starts scanning the entire computer system and encrypting target files. Additionally, the malicious algorithm is designed to drop _readme.txt notes in every newly opened computer directory. Next, the virus deletes Volume Shadow Copies that are tied to System Restore points and can be used to restore previous versions of file. For this, the malware runs the following command using Command Prompt:

_{vssadmin.exe Delete Shadows /All /Quiet}

Once the ransomware ensures that the victim won’t be able to recover files using Windows in-built tools, it then adds a list of domains to Windows HOSTS file to block a set of websites so that the victim couldn’t reach relevant information online. Most of blocked websites publish articles or guides about computers and information security. If the victim attempts to visit one of these domains, one might run into DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN error in web browser. Finally, the ransomware drops bowsakkdestx.txt and PersonalID.txt files on the computer that contain public encryption key and victim’s personal ID used to identify the victim.

Another illegal action done by this ransomware is installation of AZORULT trojan, a widely known Remote Access Trojan and password stealer. This malicious virus can be used to steal private information such as Skype, Steam, Telegram login credentials, cryptocurrency wallets, browser cookies, saved passwords, browsing history and more. Moreover, the attacker can remotely view victim’s files and download more malware to the computer. It is pretty clear that with access to such sensitive information, cybercriminals can create thousands of ways to attack the victim repeatedly, either by blackmailing him/her or using various social engineering techniques to force the victim do what they want.

That said, we strongly recommend you to remove NEER ransomware virus along with other threats using automatic virus removal software. For this matter and further protection of your computer system, we strongly recommend using INTEGO Antivirus, a robust antivirus software with fair price and no less than 99.5% malware detection rate. Additionally, do not forget to scan with RESTORO to repair virus damage on Windows OS files.

Ransomware Summary

Ransomware distribution explained

Viruses that fall into ransomware category most commonly reach victims’ computers in a form of a malicious download or email attachment. When it comes to family of STOP/DJVU malware, its variants such as NEER ransomware spread in a form of malicious torrent downloads mainly. Almost all victims report downloading it along a software or game crack. Others report getting the infection along KMSPico virus. Some other programs that users attempted to download illegally and were the source of ransomware infection are (keep in mind that these programs are legitimate, yet their cracked versions may contain malware):

• Air Explorer Pro;
• Corel Draw;
• Adobe Photoshop;
• Cubase;
• Adobe Illustrator and others.

Cybercriminals often tend to inject malware into popular software cracks knowing that victims will try to open and install these no matter what. Even worse, some users choose to ignore their security software warnings. This is one of the key factors that makes this malware distribution technique extremely successful. However, we strongly advise you to refrain from getting software this way. Even if everything seems fine after you install your desired software, you might already be infected with silent malware that runs in the background. For instance, you might get infected with a cryptocurrency miner or a rootkit, or any other malware that has a timer set on it. In other words, some malware variants can be programmed to execute only after a given period of time.

Another well-known and popular ransomware distribution technique is deceptive email spam with malicious attachments. Cybercriminals choose various message topics only to trick the potential victim into opening attached contents (either file or a link) that leads to ransomware infection. They might pretend to be someone from a well-known company such as eBay, DPD, Amazon or another. Usually, the email message politely asks to urgently view attached invoice/document/payment information and reply as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the attachment can contain a script set to download and execute malware on victim’s computer. For this reason, we strongly advise you to avoid opening any emails that you did not wait or expect to receive. Nowadays the criminals even manage to spoof the sender’s email address to deceive the victim, so we strongly suggest that you learn more about this technique and ways to identify a spoofed email here.

Finally, cybersecurity experts warn that criminals from other ransomware gangs have been trying to take advantage of STOP/DJVU ransomware victims by uploading fake decryption tools to various shady websites. Once opened, these will double-encrypt your .neer files and completely corrupt them. One of ransomware families known for such distribution technique is called ZORAB.

Remove NEER ransomware virus and decrypt .neer files

If you’re looking for a decryption tool, you must first secure your computer and remove NEER ransomware virus remains along with other malware immediately. For this matter, we strongly advise getting INTEGO Antivirus antivirus that has excellent malware detection rate and offers real-time protection both for your computer and for you as you browse online. To repair virus damage on Windows OS files, consider scanning with RESTORO.

Once NEER virus removal is complete, we advise taking the following actions:

• Report cybercrime incident to your local authority. You can find some references below the article.
• Use data backups to restore your files in case you have created them prior to the attack.
• Use these instructions to decrypt or repair files affected by STOP/DJVU versions.
• Change your passwords for sites saved in your browser. This is recommended due to the fact that Azorult Trojan is capable of stealing them. Do not forget to change Steam, Telegram and Skype passwords as well.

OUR GEEKS RECOMMEND

Our team recommends a two-step rescue plan to remove ransomware and other remaining malware from your computer, plus repair caused virus damage to the system:

STEP 1. REMOVE AUTOMATICALLY WITH ROBUST ANTIVIRUS

REMOVE & PROTECT WITH INTEGO

Get INTEGO ANTIVIRUS for Windows to remove ransomware, Trojans, adware and other spyware and malware variants and protect your PC and network drives 24/7.. This VB100-certified security software uses state-of-art technology to provide protection against ransomware, Zero-Day attacks and advanced threats, Intego Web Shield blocks dangerous websites, phishing attacks, malicious downloads and installation of potentially unwanted programs.

Use INTEGO Antivirus to remove detected threats from your computer.

Read full review here.

STEP 2. REPAIR VIRUS DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER

DOWNLOAD RESTORO

RESTORO provides a free scan that helps to identify hardware, security and stability issues and presents a comprehensive report which can help you to locate and fix detected issues manually. It is a great PC repair software to use after you remove malware with professional antivirus. The full version of software will fix detected issues and repair virus damage caused to your Windows OS files automatically.

RESTORO uses AVIRA scanning engine to detect existing spyware and malware. If any are found, the software will eliminate them.

Read full review here.

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Norbert Webb

Norbert Webb is the head of Geek’s Advice team. He is the chief editor of the website who controls the quality of content published. The man also loves reading cybersecurity news, testing new software and sharing his insights on them. Norbert says that following his passion for information technology was one of the best decisions he has ever made. “I don’t feel like working while I’m doing something I love.” However, the geek has other interests, such as snowboarding and traveling.