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

The Coinlocker virus belongs with the ransomware type of malicious agent. Malware of such sort encrypts all the data on your computer (photos, text files, excel tables, music, videos, etc) and appends its own extension to every file, leaving the bitdecrypter.txt files in every directory with the encrypted files.

What is known about the Coinlockervirus?

☝️ A scientifically accurate description for the Coinlocker would be “a ransomware malicious agent”.

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.

Coinlocker abstract:

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.

How did Coinlocker ransomware end up on my PC?

There is a huge number of possible ways of ransomware infiltration.

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.

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?

It is crucial to note that besides encrypting your files, the Coinlocker virus will probably install the Azorult Spyware on your PC to seize your credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned spyware² can derive your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

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?

Coinlocker ransomware doesn’t have a endless power, so as any similar malware.

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.

Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft³

Download Removal Tool.

Run the setup file.

Press “Install” button.

Once installed, Anti-Malware will automatically run.

Wait for the Anti-Malware scan to complete.

Click on “Clean Now”.

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.

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

🤔 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 programs⁵ 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.

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