KUKANOSSOSANOS Ransomware — How to remove malware?

The Kukanossosanos virus falls within the Zeppelin ransomware family. Harmful software of this type encrypts all user’s data on the computer (photos, text files, excel sheets, audio files, videos, etc) and appends its extra extension to every file, creating the !!! ALL YOUR FILES ARE ENCRYPTED !!!.TXT files in every folder with the encrypted files.

What is Kukanossosanos?

☝️ A strictly correct description for the Kukanossosanos would be “a Zeppelin family ransomware infection”.

The pattern of renaming is this: @KUKANOSSOSANOS.[victim\’s_ID]. As a part of encryption, a file named, for example, “report.docx” will be turned into “[email protected]”.

In every directory containing the encoded files, a !!! ALL YOUR FILES ARE ENCRYPTED !!!.TXT file will be created. 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 buy the decryption tool from the Kukanossosanos developers. That is how they do it.

Kukanossosanos outline:

In the image below, you can see what a directory with files encrypted by the Kukanossosanos looks like. Each filename has the “.@KUKANOSSOSANOS.[victim\’s_ID]” extension appended to it.

How did my machine catch Kukanossosanos ransomware?

There is a huge number of possible ways of ransomware injection.

Nowadays, there are three most exploited methods for evil-doers to have the Kukanossosanos virus settled in your system. These are email spam, Trojan injection and peer-to-peer file transfer.

If you access your inbox and see letters that look like familiar notifications from utility services providers, delivery agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose sender is unknown to you, beware of opening those emails. They are most likely to have a ransomware file attached to them. So it is even riskier to open 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 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 items with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is finished.

How do I get rid of the Kukanossosanos virus?

It is crucial to inform you that besides encrypting your files, the Kukanossosanos virus will probably install the Azorult Spyware on your PC to get access to credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned spyware³ can extract your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

Sometimes criminals would unblock few of your files so you know that they really have the decryption tool. As Kukanossosanos virus is a relatively recent ransomware, safety measures developers have not yet found a way to reverse its work. Nevertheless, the anti-ransomware tools are constantly updated, so the effective countermeasure may soon arrive.

Of course, if the criminals do the job of encrypting victim’s critical files, the hopeless person will probably fulfill their demands. However, paying a ransom gives no guarantee that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still risky. After getting the ransom, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption key to the injured party. There were reports about ransomware developers simply vanishing after getting the ransom without even bothering to reply.

The best solution against ransomware is to have aan OS restore point or the copies of your essential files in the cloud disk or at least on an external storage. Of course, that might be not enough. The most important thing could be that file you were working upon when it all happened. But at least it is something. It is also wise to scan your PC for viruses with the antivirus program after the OS is rolled back.

Kukanossosanos 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, Dehd, Zaqi, Sbpg, and some others. The two major differences between them and the Kukanossosanos are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is the same: documents become encoded, their extensions altered, ransom notes appear in every folder containing encrypted files.

Some lucky people were able to decode the arrested files with the aid of the free software provided by anti-malware developers. Sometimes the racketeers accidentally send the decoding code to the wronged in the ransom note. Such an epic fail allows the victim to restore the files. But obviously, one should never rely on such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a tamperers’ technology to pull the money out of their victims.

How do I avert ransomware attack?

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

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

• Never open any emails from unknown mailers with strange addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are waiting for (can you win in a lottery without even taking part in it?). In case the email subject is likely something you are waiting for, check all elements of the suspicious email carefully. A fake email will surely have mistakes.
• Avoid using cracked or unknown software. Trojans are often shared as a part of cracked products, possibly as a “patch” which prevents the license check. Understandably, untrusted programs are difficult to tell from reliable software, because trojans sometimes have the functionality you seek. You can try to find information about this software product on the anti-malware message boards, but the optimal solution is not to use such programs at all.

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”.

Frequently Asked Questions

🤔 Can I somehow access “.@KUKANOSSOSANOS.[victim\’s_ID]” files?

Negative. That is why ransomware is so frustrating. Until you decode the “.@KUKANOSSOSANOS.[victim\’s_ID]” files you will not be able to access them.

🤔 I really need to decrypt those “.@KUKANOSSOSANOS.[victim\’s_ID]” files ASAP. How can I do that?

Hopefully, you have made a copy of those important files. 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. All other solutions require time.

🤔 What should I do if the Kukanossosanos malware has blocked my PC and I can’t get the activation code.

🤔 What could help the situation right now?

Some of the encrypted files can be located elsewhere.

• If you exchanged your important files via 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 doing it again.
• Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud drives might have all those files too.
• It might be that you still have the needed files on your old PC, a notebook, phone, memory stick, etc.

HINT: You can employ data recovery programs⁶ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware arrests the copies of your files, deleting the original ones. In the tutorial below, you can see how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but remember: you won’t be able to do it before you eradicate the virus with an antivirus program.

Also, you can contact the following official 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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