The K1ng virus falls under the Dharma ransomware family. Ransomware of such sort encrypts all the data on your computer (photos, documents, excel sheets, audio files, videos, etc) and adds its own extension to every file, leaving the info.txt text files in each directory containing encrypted files.
What is K1ng virus?
☝️ A strictly accurate designation for the K1ng is “a Dharma family ransomware-type malicious agent”.
The pattern of renaming is the following: id-xxxxxx.[contact_email].k1ng. During the encryption, a file named, for instance, “report.docx” will be changed to “report.docx.id-9ECFA84E.[king2022@tutanota.com].k1ng”.
In each directory containing the encrypted files, a info.txt text document will appear. It is a ransom money memo. It contains information about the ways of paying the ransom and some other information. The ransom note most probably contains a description of how to buy the decryption tool from the tamperers. You can get this tool after contacting king2022@tutanota.com via email. That is how they do it.
K1ng summary:
| Name | K1ng Virus |
| Ransomware family1 | Dharma ransomware |
| Extension | .k1ng |
| Ransomware note | info.txt |
| Contact | king2022@tutanota.com |
| Detection | BScope.TrojanDownloader.Smoke, Ransom:Win32/StopCrypt.SLF!MTB, VirTool:Win32/CeeInject!LA |
| Symptoms | Your files (photos, videos, documents) have a .k1ng extension and you can’t open them. |
| Fix Tool | See If Your System Has Been Affected by K1ng virus |
The info.txt document accompanying the K1ng malware states the following:
all your data has been locked us You want to return? write email king2022@tutanota.com or king2022@onionmail.com
In the picture below, you can see what a folder with files encrypted by the K1ng looks like. Each filename has the “.k1ng” extension added to it.
An example of encrypted .k1ng files.
How did my machine catch K1ng ransomware?
There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware injection.
Nowadays, there are three most exploited ways for hackers to have the K1ng virus acting in your system. These are email spam, Trojan introduction and peer-to-peer networks.
If you access your inbox and see letters that look just like notifications from utility services companies, postal agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose mailer is unknown to you, beware of opening those letters. They are most likely to have a harmful file attached to them. Thus it is even more dangerous to open any attachments that come with letters like these.
Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan file model2. A Trojan is an object that gets into your computer disguised as something else. Imagine, you download an installer for some program you want or an update for some software. However, what is unpacked reveals itself a harmful agent that corrupts your data. As the installation wizard can have any title and any icon, you have to make sure that you can trust the resource of the things you’re downloading. The best way is to use the software developers’ official websites.
As for the peer-to-peer file transfer protocols like torrent trackers 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. Our suggestion is that you use trustworthy resources. Also, it is a good idea to scan the folder containing the downloaded objects with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is complete.
How to remove the K1ng virus?
It is crucial to inform you that besides encrypting your files, the K1ng virus will most likely deploy the Azorult Spyware 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 data.
Sometimes racketeers would decode few of your files to prove that they do have the decryption tool. As K1ng virus is a relatively recent ransomware, security software developers have not yet found a way to reverse its work. Nevertheless, the decryption tools are frequently upgraded, so the effective countermeasure may soon arrive.
Understandably, if the malefactors succeed in encoding someone’s essential data, the desperate person will probably fulfill their demands. Despite that, paying a ransom does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your data back. It is still dangerous. After getting the ransom, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption code to the victim. There were reports of racketeers just vanishing after getting the money 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 drive or at least on an external disk. Obviously, that might be not enough. The most crucial thing could be that file you were working on when it all started. But at least it is something. It is also wise to scan your PC for viruses with the antivirus program after the OS restoration.
K1ng is not the only ransomware of its kind, since there are other specimens of ransomware out there that act in the same manner. Examples of those are Qqmt, Qqjj, Qqkk, and some others. The two basic differences between them and the K1ng are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is the same: files become blocked, their extensions altered, ransom notes appear in every folder containing encoded files.
Some lucky victims were able to decode the blocked files with the help of the free software provided by anti-ransomware specialists. Sometimes the criminals accidentally send the decryption code to the wronged in the ransom readme. Such an extraordinary fail allows the injured part to restore the files. But obviously, one should never expect such a chance. Remember, ransomware is a tamperers’ tool to pull the money out of their victims.
How do I avert ransomware injection?
K1ng ransomware doesn’t have a superpower, neither does any similar malware.
You can armour your computer from its attack 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 waiting for (how can you win in a money prize draw without participating in it?). In case the email subject is likely something you are expecting, scrutinize all elements of the questionable email with caution. A hoax letter will surely contain a mistake.
- Do not use cracked or unknown software. Trojan viruses are often distributed as an element of cracked products, possibly as a “patch” preventing the license check. Understandably, potentially dangerous programs are difficult to tell from trustworthy ones, as trojans sometimes have the functionality you need. Try to find information on this software product on the anti-malware message boards, but the optimal way is not to use such programs at all.
- And 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 personal computer.
Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft3
There is no better way to recognize, remove and prevent ransomware than to use an anti-malware software from GridinSoft4.
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 computer.
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 K1ng 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
🤔 Are the “.k1ng” files accessible?
Negative. That is why ransomware is so frustrating. Until you decode the “.k1ng” 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 “.k1ng” 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. There are other ways to beat ransomware, but they take time.
🤔 If GridinSoft deletes the K1ng malware, will it also delete my files that were encrypted?
Absolutely not! The encrypted files are not harmful, so they won’t be deleted.
GridinSoft Anti-Malware will remove the infections from your system. The malware that has infected your computer is most likely still functional and it scans your system every so often to arrest any new files you might create on your computer after the attack. As it has been mentioned above, the K1ng malware does not come alone. It installs backdoors and keyloggers that can steal your account credentials and provide criminals with easy access to your PC in the future.
🤔 What to do if the K1ng ransomware has blocked my PC and I can’t get the activation key.
In such a case, you need to prepare a memory stick with a pre-installed Trojan Killer. Use Safe Mode to execute the procedure. The point is that the ransomware runs automatically as the system launches and encrypts any new files created or imported into your system. To block this process – use Safe Mode, which allows only the vital programs to run upon system boot. Consider reading our manual on booting Windows in Safe Mode.
🤔 What can I do right now?
Many of the blocked files might still be at your disposal
- If you sent or received your important files via email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
- You may have shared images or videos with your friends or family members. Just ask them to post those images back to you.
- If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Web, you can try downloading them 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 notebook, mobile, memory stick, etc.
USEFUL TIP: You can employ file recovery utilities5 to get your lost data back since ransomware blocks 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 be advised: you won’t be able to do it before you kill the virus 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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Brendan SmithHow to Remove K1NG Ransomware & Recover PC
Name: K1NG Virus
Description: K1NG Virus is a ransomware-type infections. This virus encrypts important personal files (video, photos, documents). The encrypted files can be tracked by a specific .k1ng 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.
- 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.
