Geek's Advice

VGKF ransomware aims to encrypt your files on computer

VGKF ransomware is the newest virus addition to the infamous STOP/DJVU ransomware family. The malware encrypts personal data on the victim’s computer using Salsa20+RSA-2048 cryptography and appends .vgkf extension. After a cyber assault, a file originally called christmas_photo.jpg will appear as christmas_photo.jpg.vgkf. Changed file extensions and blank file icons are the primary indicators that your data was encrypted. Additionally, the virus drops _readme.txt in every folder. This note delivers a message from cybercriminals who inform that information (videos, photos, documents, spreadheets, etc.) stored in the computer is locked and can’t be accessed anymore. They demand to contact them and pay money for VKGF decryption tool.

Developers of the Vgkf ransomware do not seek to destroy your computer files. They use encryption to “secure” data. This means that files can only be decrypted with the help of a matching decryption key. Criminals promise that they can fix the situation quickly if all demands from the ransom note would be fulfilled.

Cybercriminals suggest that the “only option” to recover the encrypted data is to pay for a decryption tool, which they will provide to the victim once the money transfer is confirmed. The ransom note also introduces the pricing of data decryption – if the victim writes to the attackers within 72 hours and pays, the decryption costs 50% less, price being set to $490. Otherwise, if the victim delays the payment, the ransom demand will rise to $980. The victim is advised to respond to the supplied emails: manager@mailtemp.ch and helpsupportmanager@airmail.cc for further information on the decryption and how to transfer the payment.

If the victim decides to contact the criminals via email, one will be informed that ransom payments can only be made in cryptocurrency and that equivalent amount in Bitcoins must be transmitted to a specific wallet address that the attackers provide. They approve just this money transfer option to hide their footprints and avoid being tracked by law enforcement agencies. The authors of this malware also suggest sending one small encrypted file for test decryption to demonstrate that they actually can do it. This is done to encourage the victim to pay a ransom, not to recover sensitive data, therefore the _readme.txt note warns not to send files that contain valuable data.

Paying a ransom to DJVU ransomware developers makes no guarantees that they will recover your lost files after the VGKF virus attack. Cybersecurity experts and FBI advise against ransom payments as this can lead to more problems. First of all, the attackers will identify you as a easy target who is willing to pay up, which encourages them to try and blackmail you further. Second, all money transferred to them helps them to grow, gain power and funds to attack more computer users.

As we mentioned before, communication with cybercriminals will lead to more problems. Even if they decide to provide you with functional decryption tools, your computer-security and privacy related problems won’t end there. It is known that variants of STOP/DJVU ransomware tend to infect computers with additional information-stealing threats such as AZORULT and VIDAR Trojans. Your Windows OS system may work like before infection, but Trojan will do its job silently. Besides their ability to view, delete or drop additional files on the computer, these Trojans are capable of collecting the following information:

• Browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge Opera and etc) – saved passwords;
• Banking details;
• Credit/Debit card informtion;
• Cryptocurrency wallets;
• Steam/Telegram login credentials.

As mentioned previously, access to such data can lead to further blackmailing and even financial damage. That said, we recommend you not to delay malware removal procedure any more. To remove VGKF ransomware virus professionally, use the instructions provided below the article to boot your PC in Safe Mode. From there, you can run a robust antivirus solution. If you’re unsure which one to use, our team recommends INTEGO Antivirus. It has excellent malware detection rates and can stop further malware attacks successfully. Additionally, we advise downloading RESTORO to detect and repair virus-damage on Windows OS files.

Ransomware Summary

REMOVE MALWARE & REPAIR VIRUS DAMAGE

Ransomware distribution explained

Most victims who become infected by STOP/DJVU family ransomware tend to browse websites known to have bad reputation. Downloading illegal software, searching for software cracks, cracks generators, license activators and so on is the quickest way to get infected with ransomware and other serious computer threats. Attempts to get paid software for free has a side effect – hackers always camouflage worms, computer viruses like Vgkf ransomware, Trojans in such torrents. Downloading files via torrents is condemned by local authorities because the content in them is illegal and out of the control of the original content creators. Below, we provide a list of popular and often illegally sought for Windows software that were reported to contain variants of this ransomware strain: 

• Cubase;
• Adobe Photoshop;
• Fifa22;
• Tenorshare 4ukey;
• Internet Download Manager (IDM);
• AutoCAD;
• Windows Operating System;
• Adobe Photoshop;
• VMware Workstation;
• Adobe PDF;
• Grand Theft Auto V;
• KMSPico (illegal Windows activation tool).

Please remember that legitimate software developers work hard to provide quality programs and games to computer users, plus they provide security updates and new functionalities regularly, which should encourage you to pay for legitimate software licenses. If you try to obtain pirated versions of popular software, you risk putting your computer, data stored on it and your privacy at risk.

Another way to get infected by ransomware actually has nothing in common with the bad behaviour of computer users online. Cybercriminals create professional emails and attach some maliciously crafted files to them. The ransomware payload can be hidden in Word files, HTML files, Excel sheets, or PDFs. Once the victim opens the attached document and, if enabled, disables Protected mode, the malicious script in these files will be launched. As a result, it will download and run the ransomware executable on the computer.

You should only open email attachments if you are 100% positive about their safety. Therefore, our recommendation is to ask yourself questions such as “Did I expect this email to reach me?,” “Do I have any business with this company/sender?” and so on. It is better to double-check or even do a phone call to the company the emails claims to come from.

Cybercriminals may use email address spoofing techniques to hide original sender’s email address and display a forged one that belongs to a legitimate company. The victim can receive an official-looking email from well-known companies like Netflix, eBay, DHL, FedEx, UPS, Amazon, etc., with tracking details, invoice, order confirmation, delivery time, and so on. Do not get scammed and if such email reaches you by surprise, do not click on inserted links or attached files. Watch out for instant red flags such as unfamiliar or vague greeting lines, such as “Dear valued customer” or “Esteemed eBay client.” Legitimate companies know your name and use it to address you.

When it comes to data decryption options, STOP/DJVU ransomware victims infected with the brand new virus extension must be patient. Same recommendation applies to victims affected by other recent versions (Dehd, Loov, Miia.) It is impossible to find a legal decryption tool straight after the threat release. To developers of decryptor tools, it will take a long time to find the right key for recovery. All desperate victim’s attempts to find a solution will lead to fake STOP/DJVU decryptors that might contain another ransomware strains, such as ZORAB. It will make it even more harmful to locked files. All data can be damaged forever irreversibly or become double encrypted.

What this ransomware does during the attack on the computer

This section will give further information to people who are curious about the level of harm that was done to their computer operating system during the Vgkf virus attack. This information may help to remove the ransomware and repair the PC manually. Once the malicious file is activated, it starts invasion into the computer’s Windows OS. The virus launches files, build.exe or build2.exe, and winupdate.exe. It will then begin capturing all of the computer’s information, including its geolocation, region, city, time zone, zip code, longitude, and latitude. All stolen information will be transferred online to the hacker’s central server. The virus also connects to https[:]//api.2ip.ua/geo.json, and the result is placed in the geo.json file. Some examples of it are shown down below.

Another critical document dropped by the virus is called information.txt. It provides more details about victims’ computer: hardware information, active processes and also all about software installed on it.

It is not proved officially why, but the virus bypasses encrypting files on computers that are located in the following list of countries: Russian Federation, Crimea, Belarus, Ukraine, Syria, Kazachstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. If it detects that country’s code placed in geo.json file matches one from the exception list, the threat will stop any further activity. Otherwise, it will proceed with malicious activities. In this case, their server will provide unique victims ID on PersonalID.txt and bowsakkdestx.txt file, which also contains encryption key also obtained from the Command&Control server. This vital information is directly linked to the automatically created decryption key. The correct key is the only possible way to unlock lost data. There is no way to duplicate the key. That’s why it is impossible to use it more than one time, or, in other words, each victim of online encryption key can only decrypt their files using a unique decryption (private) key matching the encryption key. This cannot be said about victim’s of offline encryption (this encryption is used in case the virus fails to obtain the encryption key from its C&C server).

The question is how to recognize which type of encryption was used during the attack? It is very easy to recognize even for a beginner. You should take a look at your ID in C:/SystemID/PersonalID.txt file created by the ransomware. If the last two characters are t1, it indicates offline encryption case, any another variant is considered online encryption.

The final result of the ransomware attack is that computer users cannot open files with any application. Encrypted files will also have additional extensions appended to their filenames. The extension depends on the ransomware variant. For instance, a file previously called Holidays.jpg will appear as Holidays.jpg.vgkf and every affected file folder will contain a ransom note called _readme.txt.

Some STOP/DJVU ransomware editions have extra functions, for example, deleting of Volume Shadow Copies which makes it impossible to use Windows OS function known as System Restore Points. It helps to recover computer data and files to date when the restore point was created. Hackers also created their own blacklist of websites, and this list will be uploaded to Windows HOSTS file. Web browsers won’t load the blocked websites, showing DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN error; you can fix it by reading provided guide.

Remove VGKF Ransomware and Recover Your Files

If you don’t have antivirus software or you are using it, but it didn’t detect this virus, our suggestion is to download one of the most powerful security solutions for Windows users – INTEGO Antivirus. Use it to remove VGKF ransomware virus remains and other malware and also protect your PC from further attacks and malicious files. We also recommend using RESTORO as a tool to identify and repair virus damage to Windows OS files.

To feel secure, we strongly recommend changing all existing passwords you use on this machine (online and offline). Use your backups from HDD, flash, or cloud storage to recover lost data. Also we recommend reporting this cyber attack incident to local law enforcement institutions to help them track and investigate criminals. Exam this informative article – Decrypt files encrypted by certain STOP/DJVU variants to check the newest extensions available to decrypt.

Below you can find guidelines on how to complete VGKF virus removal safely.

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.