ABYSS Ransomware 🔐 (.ABYSS File) — Removal Guide

The Abyss virus falls under the ransomware type of infection. Malware of such sort encrypts all the data on your PC (images, text files, excel sheets, music, videos, etc) and appends its specific extension to every file, creating the WhatHappened.txt files in every folder containing encrypted files.

Abyss virus: what is known so far?

Abyss adds its specific .Abyss extension to the title of each encoded file. For example, a file named “photo.jpg” will be changed to “photo.jpg.Abyss”. Just like the Excel sheet with the name “table.xlsx” will end up as “table.xlsx.Abyss”, and so forth.

In every folder containing the encrypted files, a WhatHappened.txt text document will be created. It is a ransom money note. It contains information about the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other information. The ransom note most probably contains a description of how to buy the decryption tool from the racketeers. You can obtain this tool after contacting Tor website through email. That is how they do it.

Abyss Summary:

The WhatHappened.txt document coming in package with the Abyss malware states the following:

We are the Abyss.

Your company Servers are crypted and your data has been stolen to our servers.


Good news for you:

1) We can restore your entire system.
2) We are not interested in publishing your information.
3) Our motivation is purely financial.
4) We are open to negotiations.
5) We are ready to maintain complete confidentiality of this incident.

Let\'s explain the further steps in the situation:

You can seek help from authorities - unfortunately, this path will not lead to a constructive resolution of the situation.
They will not assist you with decryption, seize your servers for OPsec, and your company\'s operations will be halted.
Subsequently, the date will be disclosed, leading to fines, legal actions, and reputational damage.
OR
You initiate negotiations with us, and we reach a mutually beneficial and constructive solution for both parties.
You pay a specified amount and receive the full decryption, support throughout the decryption process,
proofs that all information on our servers has been deleted, and a guarantee that it will never resurface,
ensuring no one learns about this incident.

To initiate negotiations, please download the Tor Browser using their official website: hxxps://www.torproject.org/
use these credentials to enter the Chat for text negotiation: hxxp://jqlcrn2fsfvxlngdq53rqyrwtwfrulup74xyle54bsvo3l2kgpeeijid.onion/x89yk54gGqjJ8ZAduh5dioahO1TXRA
There will be no bad news for your company after successful negotiations for both sides. But there will be plenty of those bad news if case of failed negotiations, so don’t think about how to avoid it.
Just focus on negotiations, payment and decryption to make all of your problems solved by our specialists within 1 day after payment received: servers and data restored, everything will work good as new.

In the picture below, you can see what a directory with files encrypted by the Abyss looks like. Each filename has the “.Abyss” extension appended to it.

How did my computer get infected with Abyss ransomware?

There are many possible ways of ransomware injection.

There are currently three most exploited ways for evil-doers to have the Abyss virus planted in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan introduction and peer file transfer.

• Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan file model. A Trojan is a program that infiltrates into your PC disguised as something legal. For example, you download an installer for some program you want or an update for some software. But what is unpacked turns out to be a harmful program that corrupts your data. As the update wizard can have any name and any icon, you have to make sure that you can trust the source of the stuff you’re downloading. The optimal way is to trust the software developers’ official websites.
• As for the peer-to-peer file transfer protocols like torrent trackers or eMule, the threat 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. So you’d better be using trustworthy websites. Also, it is reasonable to scan the folder containing the downloaded files with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is complete.

How do I get rid of ransomware?

It is important to note that besides encrypting your files, the Abyss virus will most likely deploy Vidar Stealer on your machine to seize your credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned program can derive your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

How сan I avert ransomware infection?

Abyss ransomware has no superpower, neither does any similar malware.

You can defend your PC from its attack within three easy steps:

• Ignore any emails from unknown mailboxes with unknown addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are waiting for (how can you win in a money prize draw without even taking part in it?). If the email subject is more or less something you are waiting for, check all elements of the suspicious email with caution. A hoax letter will always have a mistake.
• Never use cracked or untrusted programs. Trojan viruses are often shared as an element of cracked software, possibly under the guise of “patch” which prevents the license check. Understandably, untrusted programs are difficult to tell from trustworthy ones, as trojans may also have the functionality you seek. You can try to find information on this program on the anti-malware forums, but the optimal way is not to use such software.

Frequently Asked Questions

🤔 How can I open “.Abyss” files?Can I somehow access “.Abyss” files?

Unfortunately, no. You need to decipher the “.Abyss” files first. Then you will be able to open them.

🤔 The encrypted files are very important to me. How can I decrypt them quickly?

It’s good if you have fаr-sightedly saved copies of these important files elsewhere. In case you haven’t, there is still a chance that you do have a Restore Point from some time ago to roll back the whole system to the moment when it had no virus yet, but already had your files. All other solutions require time.

🤔 What to do if the Abyss ransomware has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation code.

🤔 What can I do right now?

Some of the encrypted data can be found elsewhere.

• If you sent or received your important files through email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
• You might have shared images or videos with your friends or family members. Simply ask them to send those pictures back to you.
• If you have initially got any of your files from the Internet, you can try doing it again.
• Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud storage might have all those files too.
• It might be that you still have the needed files on your old computer, a laptop, mobile, external storage, etc.

USEFUL TIP: You can use file recovery programs¹ to get your lost data back since ransomware arrests the copies of your files, deleting the original ones. In the video below, you can see how to use PhotoRec for such a recovery, but remember: you won’t be able to do it before you kill the ransomware itself with an antivirus program.

1. Here’s the list of Top 10 Data Recovery Software Of 2023.