The Elitebot virus falls within the Makop ransomware family. Malware of such sort encrypts all user’s data on the computer (images, text files, excel sheets, music, videos, etc) and appends its extra extension to every file, creating the +README-WARNING+.txt text files in every directory containing encrypted files.
What is known about the Elitebotvirus?
☝️ A scientifically accurate description for the Elitebot would be “a Makop family ransomware-type malicious agent”.
The scheme of renaming is this: [victimID].[contact_email].bot. In the course of encryption, a file named, for instance, “report.docx” will be renamed to “report.docx.[2AF20FA3].[elitebot@msgden.net].bot”.
In each folder with the encoded files, a +README-WARNING+.txt text document will appear. It is a ransom money note. 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 racketeers. You can obtain this decryptor after contacting elitebot@msgden.net through email. That is how they do it.
Elitebot summary:
| Name | Elitebot Virus |
| Ransomware family1 | Makop ransomware |
| Extension | .bot |
| Ransomware note | +README-WARNING+.txt |
| Contact | elitebot@msgden.net |
| Detection | Win32/Injector.DDXX, MSIL/Filecoder.LokiLocker.D, MSIL/Grenam-A |
| Symptoms | Your files (photos, videos, documents) have a .bot extension and you can’t open them. |
| Fix Tool | See If Your System Has Been Affected by Elitebot virus |
The +README-WARNING+.txt document accompanying the Elitebot malware states the following:
I ASK YOU to read this MESSAGE to the end, so as not to miss the details Good afternoon, my name is ELITEBOT. Your files on the server are fine, please don\'t worry. First of all, I am the same person as you, but we are on different sides of earning methods. I don\'t want you to lose files, databases or that valuable data would leak to the Internet. Therefore, I offer you an honest cooperation, after which everyone will get what he wants. I will reveal the details and problems of protecting your network. I will give you security tips that will help you become more protected from external factors. I will restore all files to their original working state. Let me give you back everything that was blocked. But to do this, minimize attempts to restore with your own hands, this causes irreparable harm in 90% of cases, after which recovery is impossible. I hope you will not take it openly hostile, this is life and you need to learn from mistakes. As a demonstration, I am ready to restore 1-3 files of up to 10mb in different formats to you. The price of restoration is not high and NEGOTIABLE I think that with calm communication we will find mutual understanding and the right way out. If you still have questions, please write to the mail - elitebot@msgden.net - if I do not answer you within 24 hours, please write to the emergency email - bot_elite@proton.me Telegram (Temporary): hxxps://t.me/elite_bot_z hxxps://msg.adamant.im/ - id client (-) Request a demo video of the recovery in the telegram or by mail
In the picture below, you can see what a directory with files encrypted by the Elitebot looks like. Each filename has the “.bot” extension added to it.
That is how encrypted “.bot” files look.
How did Elitebot ransomware end up on my PC?
There are many possible ways of ransomware injection.
There are currently three most popular methods for hackers to have the Elitebot virus working in your system. These are email spam, Trojan injection and peer-to-peer networks.
If you access your inbox and see letters that look just like notifications from utility services providers, postal agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose sender is unknown to you, be wary of opening those emails. They are most likely to have a ransomware item attached to them. So it is even riskier to open any attachments that come with emails like these.
Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan file model2. A Trojan is an object that infiltrates into your computer pretending to be something legal. Imagine, you download an installer for some program you need or an update for some service. But what is unboxed reveals itself a harmful agent that corrupts your data. Since the installation package can have any name and any icon, you’d better be sure that you can trust the resource of the stuff you’re downloading. The best thing is to trust 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 know what you download until you get it. So you’d better be using trustworthy websites. Also, it is a good idea to scan the folder containing the downloaded files with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is done.
How to remove the Elitebot virus?
It is important to note that besides encrypting your data, the Elitebot virus will probably install the Azorult Spyware on your PC to seize your credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That spyware3 can extract your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling data.
Often tamperers would decrypt few of your files so you know that they do have the decryption tool. Since Elitebot virus is a relatively recent ransomware, safety measures developers have not yet found a way to reverse its work. However, the decoding tools are constantly updated, so the effective countermeasure may soon be available.
Sure thing, if the criminals succeed in encrypting someone’s critical data, the desperate person will probably fulfill their demands. However, paying to criminals does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your files back. It is still risky. After receiving the money, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption code to the victim. There were reports about ransomware developers just vanishing after getting the money without even writing back.
The best safety measure against ransomware is to have aan OS restore point or the copies of your critical files in the cloud storage or at least on an external storage. Obviously, that might be not enough. Your most important thing could be that file you were working upon when it all went down. But at least it is something. It is also wise to scan your drives with the antivirus program after the OS is rolled back.
There are other ransomware products, besides Elitebot, that work similarly. Examples of those are Hkgt, Lltt, Llqq, and some others. The two major differences between them and the Elitebot are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is the same: files become encoded, their extensions changed, ransom notes are found in every directory containing encrypted files.
Some lucky users were able to decode the arrested files with the aid of the free software provided by anti-ransomware experts. Sometimes the hackers mistakenly send the decryption key to the victims in the ransom readme. Such an extraordinary fail allows the injured part to restore the files. But obviously, one should never rely on such a chance. Remember, ransomware is a criminals’ instrument to pull the money out of their victims.
How to avoid ransomware infiltration?
Elitebot ransomware has no endless power, neither does any similar malware.
You can defend yourself from ransomware infiltration within three 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 participating in it?). In case the email subject is likely something you are waiting for, check all elements of the dubious email carefully. A fake email will surely contain a mistake.
- Avoid using cracked or untrusted programs. Trojans are often shared as a part of cracked products, possibly under the guise of “patch” which prevents the license check. Understandably, potentially dangerous programs are difficult to tell from trustworthy software, because trojans sometimes have the functionality you seek. Try to find information on this program on the anti-malware message boards, but the optimal way is not to use such programs at all.
- And finally, to be sure about the safety of the objects you downloaded, check them with GridinSoft Anti-Malware. This software will be a perfect defense for your system.
Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft4
There is no better way to recognize, remove and prevent ransomware than to use an anti-malware software from GridinSoft5.
Download Removal Tool.
You can download GridinSoft Anti-Malware by clicking the button below:
Run the setup file.
When setup file has finished downloading, double-click on the setup-antimalware-fix.exe file to install GridinSoft Anti-Malware on your system.
An User Account Control asking you about to allow GridinSoft Anti-Malware to make changes to your device. So, you should click “Yes” to continue with the installation.
Press “Install” button.
Once installed, Anti-Malware will automatically run.
Wait for the Anti-Malware scan to complete.
GridinSoft Anti-Malware will automatically start scanning your PC for Elitebot infections and other malicious programs. This process can take a 20-30 minutes, so I suggest you periodically check on the status of the scan process.
Click on “Clean Now”.
When the scan has completed, you will see the list of infections that GridinSoft Anti-Malware has detected. To remove them click on the “Clean Now” button in right corner.
FAQ
🤔 Are the “.bot” files accessible?
Negative. That is why ransomware is so frustrating. Until you decode the “.bot” files you will not be able to access them.
🤔 The encrypted files are very important to me. How can I decrypt them quickly?
If the “.bot” files contain some really important information, then you probably have them backed up. 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. There are other ways to beat ransomware, but they take time.
🤔 Will GridinSoft Anti-Malware remove all the encrypted files alongside the Elitebot virus?
No way! The encrypted files are not harmful, so they won’t be deleted.
GridinSoft Anti-Malware will delete the viruses from your PC. The ransomware that has attacked your PC is probably still functional and launching checks from time to time to encrypt any new files you might create on your PC after the attack. As it has already been said, the Elitebot malware comes with the company. It installs backdoors and keyloggers that can take your account passwords by trespass and provide hackers with easy access to your system in the future.
🤔 What to do if the Elitebot malware has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation code.
If that happened, you need to prepare a flash memory drive with a pre-installed Trojan Killer. Use Safe Mode to execute the procedure. You see, the ransomware runs automatically as the system launches and encodes any new files created or brought into your PC. To stop this function – use Safe Mode, which allows only the essential applications to run automatically. Consider reading our manual on booting Windows in Safe Mode.
🤔 What could help the situation right now?
Some of the blocked files can be located elsewhere.
- If you sent or received your critical files via email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
- You may have shared photographs 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 to do it again.
- Your messengers, social media pages, and cloud storage might have all those files as well.
- It might be that you still have the needed files on your old PC, a laptop, phone, flash memory, etc.
USEFUL TIP: You can use file recovery utilities6 to get your lost data back since ransomware encodes the copies of your files, deleting the authentic ones. In the video below, you can see how to use PhotoRec for such a restoration, but be advised: you can do it only after you remove the ransomware itself 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.
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Brendan SmithHow to Remove ELITEBOT Ransomware & Recover PC
Name: ELITEBOT Virus
Description: ELITEBOT Virus is a ransomware-type infections. This virus encrypts important personal files (video, photos, documents). The encrypted files can be tracked by a specific .bot extension. So, you can't use them at all.
Operating System: Windows
Application Category: Virus
User Review
( votes)References
- My files are encrypted by ransomware, what should I do now?
- You can read more on Trojans, their use and types in the Trojan-dedicated section of GridinSoft official website.
- You can read more on spyware variants and nature in the respective section of GridinSoft official website.
- GridinSoft Anti-Malware Review from HowToFix site: https://howtofix.guide/gridinsoft-anti-malware/
- More information about GridinSoft products: https://gridinsoft.com/comparison
- Here are Best Data Recovery Software Of 2023.
