FAHOE Virus (.FAHOE Files of Ransomware) — How to remove virus?

The Fahoe virus belongs to the CONTI ransomware family. Ransomware of this type encrypts all the data on your PC (photos, documents, excel tables, music, videos, etc) and adds its own extension to every file, leaving the readme.txt text files in each directory which contains the encrypted files.

What is Fahoe?

☝️ A strictly correct denomination for the Fahoe is “a CONTI family ransomware-type infection”.

Fahoe will append its own .FAHOE extension to the title of every encrypted file. For example, an image entitled “photo.jpg” will be altered to “photo.jpg.FAHOE”. In the same manner, the Excel file with the name “table.xlsx” will end up as “table.xlsx.FAHOE”, and so on.

In each folder containing the encoded files, a readme.txt notebook document will appear. It is a ransom money memo. Therein you can find information on the ways of paying the ransom and some other remarks. The ransom note usually contains a description of how to buy the decryption tool from the racketeers. That is pretty much the scheme of the crime.

Fahoe outline:

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

How did my machine catch Fahoe ransomware?

There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware injection.

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

If you access your mailbox and see emails that look like familiar notifications from utility services companies, postal agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose sender is unknown to you, beware of opening those letters. They are very likely to have a ransomware file enclosed in them. Thus it is even riskier to download any attachments that come with letters like these.

As for the 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. Our suggestion is that you use trustworthy websites. Also, it is reasonable to scan the folder containing the downloaded items with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is finished.

How do I get rid of the Fahoe virus?

It is important to inform you that besides encrypting your files, the Fahoe virus will most likely install the Azorult Spyware on your machine to get access to credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That spyware³ can derive your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

Often criminals would decode few of your files so you know that they really have the decryption program. Since Fahoe virus is a relatively recent ransomware, anti-malware developers have not yet found a method to undo its work. However, the anti-ransomware instruments are frequently upgraded, so the effective countermeasure may soon arrive.

Understandably, if the criminals do the job of encoding victim’s essential files, the desperate person will probably comply with their demands. Despite that, paying a ransom gives no guarantee that you’re getting your files back. It is still risky. After receiving the ransom, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption key to the victim. There were reports of racketeers simply vanishing after getting the ransom without even bothering to reply.

The best countermeasure to ransomware is to have a system restore point or the copies of your essential files in the cloud storage or at least on an external disk. Surely, that might be insufficient. The most crucial thing could be that file you were working upon when it all went down. Nevertheless, it is something. It is also advisable to scan your PC for viruses with the anti-malware utility after the OS is rolled back.

Fahoe is not the only ransomware of its kind, since there are other specimens of ransomware out there that act in the same manner. For instance, Nnqp, Mljx, Hudf, and some others. The two main differences between them and the Fahoe are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is the same: documents become inaccessible, their extensions changed, ransom notes emerge in each folder containing encrypted files.

Some fortunate victims were able to decrypt the blocked files with the help of the free tools provided by anti-ransomware experts. Sometimes the hackers mistakenly send the decoding code to the victims in the ransom readme. Such an extraordinary fail allows the injured part to restore the files. But of course, one should never rely on such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a criminals’ technology to lay their hands on the money of their victims.

How do I avert ransomware injection?

Fahoe ransomware has no superpower, so as any similar malware.

You can defend your system from ransomware attack taking three easy steps:

• Ignore any emails from unknown mailboxes with strange addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are expecting (can you win in a money prize draw without participating in it?). In case the email subject is more or less something you are expecting, check all elements of the questionable email with caution. A hoax email will always have a mistake.
• Never use cracked or unknown software. Trojan viruses are often spreaded as a part of cracked software, possibly as a “patch” preventing the license check. But dubious programs are very hard to distinguish from reliable software, because trojans may also have the functionality you seek. You can try searching for information about this software product on the anti-malware forums, but the best solution is not to use such software.

Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft⁴

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”.

FAQ

🤔 How can I open “.FAHOE” files?Are the “.FAHOE” files accessible?

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

🤔 What should I do to make my files accessible as fast as possible?

If the “.FAHOE” files contain some really important information, then you probably have them backed up. Otherwise, you might try to employ System Restore. The only question is whether you have saved any Restore Points that would be helpful now. All other solutions require time.

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

🤔 What can I do right now?

Some of the blocked data can be located elsewhere.

• If you exchanged your critical files through email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
• You might have shared photographs or videos with your friends or relatives. Just ask them to send those pictures back to you.
• If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Web, you can try downloading them again.
• Your messengers, social media pages, and cloud disks might have all those files too.
• Maybe you still have the needed files on your old PC, a notebook, cellphone, flash memory, etc.

USEFUL TIP: You can employ file recovery programs⁶ to get your lost data back since ransomware blocks the copies of your files, removing the authentic ones. In the video below, you can learn how to use PhotoRec for such a restoration, but be advised: you won’t be able to do it before you remove the ransomware itself with an antivirus 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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