Virus analyst GrujaRS was the person who originally discovered the Karma virus, which belongs to the Karma Group ransomware family. A harmful program of such sort encrypts all the data on your PC (images, documents, excel sheets, audio files, videos, etc) and appends its specific extension to every file, creating the KARMA_V2-ENCRYPTED.txt text files in every directory containing encrypted files.
What is known about the Karma Group?
☝️ A scientifically accurate description for the Karma is “a Karma Group family ransomware malicious agent”.
Karma will append its extra .KARMA_V2 extension to every file’s title. For instance, a file entitled “photo.jpg” will be turned into “photo.jpg.KARMA_V2”. Likewise, the Excel sheet with the name “table.xlsx” will become “table.xlsx.KARMA_V2”, and so on.
In every folder with the encrypted files, a KARMA_V2-ENCRYPTED.txt notebook document will be found. It is a ransom money memo. Therein you can find information on the ways of paying the ransom and some other information. The ransom note most probably contains instructions on how to purchase the decryption tool from the racketeers. You can get this decoding tool after contacting [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] via email. That is it.
Karma summary:
| Name | Karma Ransomware |
| Ransomware family1 | Karma Group ransomware |
| Extension | .KARMA_V2 |
| Ransomware note | KARMA_V2-ENCRYPTED.txt |
| Contact | [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] |
| Detection | Trojan.NetProxy, NSIS/TrojanDownloader.Chindo.AJ, Trojan.Phorpiex |
| Symptoms | Your files (photos, videos, documents) have a .KARMA_V2 extension and you can’t open them. |
| Fix Tool | See If Your System Has Been Affected by Karma virus |
The KARMA_V2-ENCRYPTED.txt document accompanying the Karma ransomware states the following:
Your network has been breached by Karma ransomware group. We have extracted valuable or sensive data from your network and encrypted the data on your systems. Decryption is only possible with a private key that only we posses. Our group's only aim is to financially benefit from our brief acquaintance,this is a guarantee that we will do what we promise. Scamming is just bad for business in this line of work. Contact us to negotiate the terms of reversing the damage we have done and deleting the data we have downloaded. We advise you not to use any data recovery tools without leaving copies of the initial encrypted file. You are risking irreversibly damaging the file by doing this. If we are not contacted or if we do not reach an agreement we will leak your date to journalists and publish it on our website. hxxp://3nvzqyo614wkrzumzuSaod7zbosq4ipgf7ifgj3hsvbcrSvcasordvqd.onion/ If a ransom is payed we will provide the decryption key and proof that we deleted you data. When you contact us we will provide you proof that we can decrypt your files and that we have downloaded your data. How to contact us: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
In the screenshot below, you can see what a directory with files encrypted by the Karma looks like. Each filename has the “.KARMA_V2” extension added to it.
That is how encrypted “.KARMA_V2” files look.
How did my machine catch Karma ransomware?
There is a huge number of possible ways of ransomware infiltration.
There are currently three most exploited methods for hackers to have the Karma virus acting in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan introduction and peer file transfer.
If you open your mailbox and see emails that look just like notifications from utility services companies, postal agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose addresser is strange to you, be wary of opening those letters. They are most likely to have a harmful file attached to them. So it is even more dangerous to download any attachments that come with emails like these.
As for the peer file transfer protocols like BitTorrent 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. Our suggestion is that you use trustworthy websites. Also, it is a good idea to scan the folder containing the downloaded items with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is finished.
How do I get rid of the Karma virus?
It is crucial to inform you that besides encrypting your files, the Karma virus will probably install the Azorult Spyware on your computer to get access to credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned program can derive your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling data.
Often racketeers would unblock few of your files so you know that they really have the decryption tool. As Karma virus is a relatively recent ransomware, anti-malware developers have not yet found a method to reverse its work. However, the anti-ransomware tools are constantly updated, so the solution may soon be available.
Of course, if the tamperers succeed in encrypting victim’s critical files, the hopeless person will probably fulfill their demands. However, paying to racketeers does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still risky. After obtaining the money, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption code to the injured party. There were reports about ransomware developers just vanishing after getting the money without even writing back.
The best solution against ransomware is to have an OS restore point or the copies of your critical files in the cloud drive or at least on an external storage. Of course, that might be insufficient. Your most crucial thing could be that file you were working upon when it all went down. But at least it is something. It is also reasonable to scan your drives with the anti-malware utility after the OS restoration.
There are other ransomware products, besides Karma, that work similarly. For instance, Rigj, Mljx, Hudf, and some others. The two basic differences between them and the Karma are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is the same: files become encoded, their extensions changed, ransom notes emerge in every directory containing encoded files.
Some fortunate users were able to decrypt the blocked files with the help of the free software provided by anti-ransomware specialists. Sometimes the hackers accidentally send the decryption code to the wronged in the ransom readme. Such an epic fail allows the victim to restore the files. But of course, one should never rely on such a chance. Remember, ransomware is a tamperers’ instrument to pull the money out of their victims.
How to avert ransomware attack?
Karma ransomware has no endless power, so as any similar malware.
You can defend yourself from ransomware injection within three easy steps:
- Never open any emails from unknown mailboxes with strange addresses, or with content that has likely no connection to something you are waiting for (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, check all elements of the dubious letter carefully. A hoax letter will always contain a mistake.
- Never use cracked or untrusted software. Trojan viruses are often shared as an element of cracked software, possibly as a “patch” which prevents the license check. But dubious programs are very hard to distinguish from reliable ones, as trojans may also have the functionality you need. You can try searching for information on this program on the anti-malware message boards, but the best way is not to use such programs at all.
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 “.KARMA_V2” files?Are the “.KARMA_V2” files accessible?
Negative. That is why ransomware is so frustrating. Until you decode the “.KARMA_V2” files you will not be able to access them.
🤔 I really need to decrypt those “.KARMA_V2” files ASAP. How can I do that?
If the “.KARMA_V2” 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. The rest of the methods require patience.
🤔 What actions should I take if the Karma malware has blocked my PC and I can’t get the activation code.
🤔 And what should I do now?
Many of the encrypted files might still be within your reach
- If you exchanged your important files by email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
- You may have shared photographs or videos with your friends or family members. Simply ask them to give those images 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 drives might have all those files too.
- Maybe you still have the needed files on your old computer, a notebook, phone, flash memory, etc.
HINT: You can use data recovery utilities5 to get your lost data back since ransomware encodes the copies of your files, removing the original ones. In the tutorial below, you can see how to use PhotoRec for such a recovery, but remember: you can do it only after you eradicate 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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