KNIGHT Virus 🔐 (.KNIGHT_L Files) — How to Remove?

The Knight virus falls under the ransomware type of malicious agent. Malware of this type encrypts all the data on your computer (images, text files, excel sheets, audio files, videos, etc) and appends its extra extension to every file, leaving the How To Restore Your Files.txt files in each directory which contains the encrypted files.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

When we talk about the intrusion of unfamiliar programs into your computer’s work, the proverb “Forewarned is forearmed” describes the situation as accurately as possible. Gridinsoft Anti-Malware is exactly the tool that is always useful to have in your armory: fast, efficient, up-to-date. It is appropriate to use it as an emergency help at the slightest suspicion of infection.

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What is known about the Knight virus?

Knight will append its specific .knight_l extension to every file’s title. For example, an image entitled “photo.jpg” will be renamed to “photo.jpg.knight_l”. Likewise, the Excel sheet named “table.xlsx” will be renamed to “table.xlsx.knight_l”, and so forth.

In every folder that contains the encrypted files, a How To Restore Your Files.txt text document will be found. It is a ransom money memo. It contains information about 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. You can obtain this decryptor after contacting brahma2023@onionmail.org by email. That is basically the scheme of the malefaction.

Knight Summary:

The How To Restore Your Files.txt document coming in package with the Knight malware states the following:

All your documents, company files, images, etc (and there are a lot of company data) have been encrypted and the extension has been changed to .knight_l .


The recovery is only possible with our help.


US $5000 in Bitcoin is the price for restoring all of your data. This is the average monthly wage for 1 employee in your company. So don\'t even think about negotiating. That would only be a waste of time and you will be ignored.


Send the Bitcoin to this wallet:14JJfrWQbud8c8KECHyc9jM6dammyjUb3Z   (This is your only payment address, please don\'t pay BTC to other than this or you won\'t be able to get it decrypted!)


After completing the Bitcoin transaction, send an email at: - (Download and install TOR Browser (hxxps://www.torproject.org/).[If you don\'t know how to use it, do a Google search!]).You will get an answer as soon as possible.

 

I expect a message from you with the transfer of BTC Confirmation (TXID). So we can move forward to decrypt all your data. TXID is very important because it will help us identify your payment and connect it to your encrypted data.Do not use that I am here to waste mine or your time.


How to buy the BTC?


hxxps://www.binance.com/en/how-to-buy/bitcoin


hxxps://www.coinbase.com/how-to-buy/bitcoin


Note:


Your data are uploaded to our servers before being encrypted,


Everything related to your business (customer data, POS Data, documents related to your orders and delivery, and others).


If you do not contact us and do not confirm the payment within 4 days, we will move forward and will announce the sales of the extracted data.


ID: -

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

An example of encrypted .knight_l files.

How did Knight ransomware end up on my PC?

There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware injection.

Nowadays, there are three most exploited methods for evil-doers to have ransomware working in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan injection and peer file transfer.

• If you open your inbox and see emails that look just like notifications from utility services providers, postal agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose mailer is unknown to you, beware of opening those emails. They are very likely to have a malware file attached to them. Therefore, it is even riskier to download any attachments that come with emails like these.
• Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan virus model. A Trojan is an object that infiltrates into your computer disguised as something legal. Imagine, you download an installer for some program you need or an update for some program. However, what is unboxed turns out to be a harmful program that corrupts your data. As the installation package can have any name and any icon, you’d better be sure that you can trust the resource of the things you’re downloading. The best thing is to use the software developers’ official websites.
• 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 Web. 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 files with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is done.

How to remove ransomware?

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

Remove Knight with Gridinsoft Anti-Malware

We have also been using this software on our systems ever since, and it has always been successful in detecting viruses. It has blocked the most common Ransomware as shown from our tests with the software, and we assure you that it can remove Knight as well as other malware hiding on your computer.

To use Gridinsoft for remove malicious threats, follow the steps below:

1. Begin by downloading Gridinsoft Anti-Malware, accessible via the blue button below or directly from the official website gridinsoft.com.

2.Once the Gridinsoft setup file (setup-gridinsoft-fix.exe) is downloaded, execute it by clicking on the file.

3.Follow the installation setup wizard's instructions diligently.

4. Access the "Scan Tab" on the application's start screen and launch a comprehensive "Full Scan" to examine your entire computer. This inclusive scan encompasses the memory, startup items, the registry, services, drivers, and all files, ensuring that it detects malware hidden in all possible locations.

Be patient, as the scan duration depends on the number of files and your computer's hardware capabilities. Use this time to relax or attend to other tasks.

5. Upon completion, Anti-Malware will present a detailed report containing all the detected malicious items and threats on your PC.

6. Select all the identified items from the report and confidently click the "Clean Now" button. This action will safely remove the malicious files from your computer, transferring them to the secure quarantine zone of the anti-malware program to prevent any further harmful actions.

8. If prompted, restart your computer to finalize the full system scan procedure. This step is crucial to ensure thorough removal of any remaining threats. After the restart, Gridinsoft Anti-Malware will open and display a message confirming the completion of the scan.

Remember Gridinsoft offers a 6-day free trial. This means you can take advantage of the trial period at no cost to experience the full benefits of the software and prevent any future malware infections on your system. Embrace this opportunity to fortify your computer's security without any financial commitment.

Trojan Killer for “Knight” removal on locked PC

In situations where it becomes impossible to download antivirus applications directly onto the infected computer due to malware blocking access to websites, an alternative solution is to utilize the Trojan Killer application.

There is a really little number of security tools that are able to be set up on the USB drives, and antiviruses that can do so in most cases require to obtain quite an expensive license. For this instance, I can recommend you to use another solution of GridinSoft - Trojan Killer Portable. It has a 14-days cost-free trial mode that offers the entire features of the paid version. This term will definitely be 100% enough to wipe malware out.

Trojan Killer is a valuable tool in your cybersecurity arsenal, helping you to effectively remove malware from infected computers. Now, we will walk you through the process of using Trojan Killer from a USB flash drive to scan and remove malware on an infected PC. Remember, always obtain permission to scan and remove malware from a computer that you do not own.

Step 1: Download & Install Trojan Killer on a Clean Computer:

1. Go to the official GridinSoft website (gridinsoft.com) and download Trojan Killer to a computer that is not infected.

2. Insert a USB flash drive into this computer.

3. Install Trojan Killer to the "removable drive" following the on-screen instructions.

4. Once the installation is complete, launch Trojan Killer.

Step 2: Update Signature Databases:

5. After launching Trojan Killer, ensure that your computer is connected to the Internet.

6. Click "Update" icon to download the latest signature databases, which will ensure the tool can detect the most recent threats.

Step 3: Scan the Infected PC:

7. Safely eject the USB flash drive from the clean computer.

8. Boot the infected computer to the Safe Mode.

9. Insert the USB flash drive.

10. Run tk.exe

11. Once the program is open, click on "Full Scan" to begin the malware scanning process.

Step 4: Remove Found Threats:

12. After the scan is complete, Trojan Killer will display a list of detected threats.

13. Click on "Cure PC!" to remove the identified malware from the infected PC.

14. Follow any additional on-screen prompts to complete the removal process.

Step 5: Restart Your Computer:

15. Once the threats are removed, click on "Restart PC" to reboot your computer.

16. Remove the USB flash drive from the infected computer.

Congratulations on effectively removing Knight and the concealed threats from your computer! You can now have peace of mind, knowing that they won't resurface again. Thanks to Gridinsoft's capabilities and commitment to cybersecurity, your system is now protected.

Often racketeers would decrypt some of your files to prove that they really have the decryption tool. As Knight virus is a relatively new ransomware, safety measures designers have not yet found a method to reverse its work. Nevertheless, the decoding instruments are frequently upgraded, so the solution may soon be available.

Of course, if the hackers succeed in encoding someone’s critical data, the desperate person will most likely fulfill their demands. Nevertheless, paying to racketeers does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your files back. It is still dangerous. After getting the money, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption key to the injured party. There were reports of malefactors just disappearing after getting the money without even writing back.

The best solution against ransomware is to have a system restore point or the copies of your critical files in the cloud storage or at least on an external drive. Surely, that might be insufficient. The most important thing could be that file you were working on when it all went down. But at least it is something. It is also reasonable to scan your PC for viruses with the anti-malware utility after the system restoration.

Knight 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, Tasa, Taoy, Alock, and some others. The two basic differences between them and the Knight are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is almost identical: documents become encoded, their extensions altered, ransom notes emerge in every directory containing encoded files.

Some fortunate users were able to decrypt the arrested files with the help of the free tools provided by anti-ransomware experts. Sometimes the hackers accidentally send the decryption code to the wronged in the ransom note. Such an epic fail allows the victim to restore the files. But of course, one should never rely on such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a criminals’ tool to pull the money out of their victims.

How do I avoid ransomware injection?

Knight ransomware has no endless power, so as any similar malware.

You can armour your system from ransomware infiltration in several easy steps:

• Ignore any letters from unknown mailers with unknown 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 more or less something you are waiting for, check all elements of the suspicious email with caution. A hoax email will always contain a mistake.
• Avoid using cracked or unknown programs. Trojan viruses are often spreaded as an element of cracked software, most likely as a “patch” preventing the license check. But potentially dangerous programs are very hard to distinguish from trustworthy software, because trojans may also have the functionality you seek. You can try to find information about 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 files you downloaded, use GridinSoft Anti-Malware. This software will be a powerful armor for your system.

FAQ

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

Negative. That is why ransomware is so frustrating. Until you decode the “.knight_l” files you will not be able to access them.

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

Hopefully, you have made a copy of those important files. 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.

🤔 If GridinSoft deletes the Knight malware, will it also delete my files that were encrypted?

Absolutely not! The encrypted files are not harmful, so they won’t be deleted.

With the help of GridinSoft Anti-Malware, you can clean your system off the actual viruses. The ransomware that has infiltrated your system is probably still active and it scans your system every so often to encode any new files you might create on your PC after the infection. As it has been mentioned above, the Knight virus does not come alone. It installs backdoors and keyloggers that can steal your account credentials and provide hackers with easy access to your computer in the future.

🤔 What to do if the Knight malware has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation code.

In such an unfortunate situation, you need to prepare a flash memory drive with a pre-installed Trojan Killer. Use Safe Mode to perform the cleaning. You see, the ransomware runs automatically as the system launches and encodes any new files created or imported into your system. To stop this function – use Safe Mode, which allows only the vital applications to run automatically. Consider reading our manual on booting Windows in Safe Mode.

🤔 What can I do right now?

Many of the encrypted files might still be within your reach

• If you sent or received your critical files through email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
• You may have shared photographs or videos with your friends or family members. Just ask them to send those images back to you.
• If you have initially got any of your files from the Internet, you can try downloading them again.
• Your messengers, social media pages, and cloud disks might have all those files as well.
• It might be that you still have the needed files on your old computer, a laptop, cellphone, external storage, etc.

HINT: You can use data recovery utilities¹ to get your lost data back since ransomware arrests the copies of your files, removing the authentic ones. In the video below, you can learn how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but remember: you won’t be able to do it before you remove the virus with an antivirus program.

1. Here’s the list of Top 10 Data Recovery Software Of 2023.