CookiesHelper Ransomware: Removal, Decryption, Advises

Cookieshelper virus falls within the Mallox ransomware family. Ransomware of this type encrypts all user’s data on the PC (photos, documents, excel tables, music, videos, etc) and adds its specific extension to every file, leaving the FILE RECOVERY.txt files in every folder which contains the encrypted files.

What is known about the Cookieshelper virus?

☝️ Cookieshelper is a Mallox family ransomware-type virus.

Cookieshelper adds its .cookieshelper extension to every file’s name. For instance, a file named “photo.jpg” will be turned into “photo.jpg.cookieshelper”. Just like the Excel file with the name “table.xlsx” will be renamed to “table.xlsx.cookieshelper”, and so forth.

In every folder that contains the encoded files, a FILE RECOVERY.txt text document will be created. It is a ransom money note. Therein you can find information about the ways of paying the ransom and some other information. The ransom note most probably contains instructions on how to buy the decryption tool from the racketeers. You can obtain this decrypting software after contacting [email protected] by email. That is it.

Cookieshelper Summary:

The FILE RECOVERY.txt document accompanying the Cookieshelper states the following:

YOUR FILES ARE ENCRYPTED !!!

TO DECRYPT, FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS:

You have to pay for decryption in Bitcoins. The price depends on how fast you write to us. After payment we will send you the decryption tool that will decrypt all your files.
Free decryption as guarantee
Before paying you can send us up to 1 file for free decryption. The total size of files must be less than 1Mb (non archived), and files should not contain valuable information. (databases,backups, large excel sheets, etc.)

Attention!
Do not rename encrypted files.
Do not try to decrypt your data using third party software, it may cause permanent data loss.
If you delete a file with an extension (_TMP) This will cause this file to permanently damage!!!!!


Decryption of your files with the help of third parties may cause increased price (they add their fee to our) or you can become a victim of a scam.

If you want to restore them, write us to the e-mail
[email protected]
Write this ID in the title of your message
ID:-

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

How did Cookieshelper ransomware end up on my PC?

There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware infiltration.

Nowadays, there are three most popular methods for hackers to have the Cookieshelper virus planted in your system. These are email spam, Trojan injection and peer networks.

• Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan horse scheme. A Trojan is an object that infiltrates into your PC disguised as something different. Imagine, you download an installer of some program you want or an update for some program. However, what is unboxed turns out to be a harmful program that compromises your data. As the update wizard can have any name and any icon, you’d better be sure that you can trust the resource of the files you’re downloading. The best thing is to use 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 Internet. You can never guess what you download until you get it. So you’d better be using trustworthy websites. Also, it is a good idea to scan the directory containing the downloaded objects with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is done.

How to remove ransomware?

It is crucial to note that besides encrypting your data, the Cookieshelper virus will probably deploy Vidar Stealer on your PC to seize your credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That program can extract your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling data.

How to avert ransomware attack?

Cookieshelper ransomware doesn’t have a superpower, so as any similar malware.

You can protect your computer from its attack in several easy steps:

• Never open any letters from unknown mailers with strange addresses, or with content that has likely no connection to something you are expecting (how can you win in a lottery without even taking part in it?). If the email subject is more or less something you are waiting for, scrutinize all elements of the suspicious email with caution. A fake letter will always have a mistake.
• Do not use cracked or unknown programs. Trojan viruses are often shared as an element of cracked products, possibly as a “patch” preventing the license check. Understandably, potentially dangerous programs are difficult to distinguish from trustworthy software, as trojans may also have the functionality you need. Try searching for information about this software product on the anti-malware forums, but the optimal way is not to use such programs at all.

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

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 should I do if the Cookieshelper ransomware has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation key.

🤔 What could help the situation right now?

Many of the blocked files might still be at your disposal

• If you sent or received your important files by email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
• You might have shared images or videos with your friends or family members. Just ask them to send those images back to you.
• If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Web, you can try doing it again.
• Your messengers, social media pages, and cloud disks might have all those files as well.
• Maybe you still have the needed files on your old computer, a portable device, mobile, memory stick, etc.

USEFUL TIP: You can use file recovery utilities² to get your lost data back since ransomware arrests the copies of your files, removing 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 eradicate the virus with an antivirus program.

1. My files are encrypted by ransomware, what should I do now?
2. Here’s the list of Top 10 Data Recovery Software Of 2023.