The Mnx virus falls under the Phobos ransomware family. A harmful program of this type encrypts all user’s data on the PC (images, documents, excel sheets, audio files, videos, etc) and appends its own extension to every file, creating the info.txt text files in every folder containing encrypted files.
What is Mnx virus?
☝️ A scientifically accurate designation for the Mnx is “a Phobos family ransomware malicious agent”.
The renaming will be done by this scheme: id[xxxxxxx].[contact_email].MNX. During the encryption, a file entitled, for instance, “report.docx” will be renamed to “report.docx.id[9ECFA84E-3426].[[email protected]].MNX”.
In each directory with the encrypted files, a info.txt file will be found. It is a ransom money memo. Therein you can find information about the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other remarks. The ransom note most probably contains instructions on how to purchase the decryption tool from the Mnx developers. You can obtain this tool after contacting [email protected]. through email. That is how they do it.
Mnx abstract:
| Name | Mnx Virus |
| Ransomware family1 | Phobos ransomware |
| Extension | .MNX |
| Ransomware note | info.txt |
| Contact | [email protected]. |
| Detection | Malware-Cryptor.InstallCore.5, Trojan:Win32/SmokeLoader.PA!MTB, Ransom.BlackCat |
| Symptoms | Your files (photos, videos, documents) get a .MNX extension and you can’t open them. |
| Fix Tool | See If Your System Has Been Affected by Mnx virus |
The info.txt file accompanying the Mnx ransomware states the following:
!!!All of your files are encrypted!!! To decrypt them send e-mail to this address: [email protected]. If we don\'t answer in 24h., send e-mail to this address: [email protected]
In the picture below, you can see what a folder with files encrypted by the Mnx looks like. Each filename has the “.MNX” extension appended to it.
An example of encrypted .MNX files.
How did my machine catch Mnx ransomware?
There are many possible ways of ransomware infiltration.
There are currently three most exploited ways for evil-doers to have ransomware acting in your system. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer file transfer.
If you open your inbox and see letters that look like familiar notifications from utility services companies, delivery agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose addresser is strange to you, beware of opening those letters. They are very likely to have a harmful item enclosed in them. So it is even more dangerous to download any attachments that come with letters like these.
As for the peer-to-peer networks 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 reasonable to scan the directory containing the downloaded objects with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is done.
How do I get rid of the Mnx virus?
It is important to note that besides encrypting your files, the Mnx virus will probably deploy the Azorult Spyware on your computer to seize your credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That program can derive your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.
Often tamperers would unblock few of your files so you know that they indeed have the decryption program. Since Mnx virus is a relatively recent ransomware, safety measures engineers have not yet found a way to undo its work. Nevertheless, the anti-ransomware tools are frequently upgraded, so the effective countermeasure may soon be available.
Of course, if the hackers succeed in encoding someone’s critical files, the hopeless 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 money, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption code to the victim. There were reports about racketeers simply disappearing after getting the ransom without even writing back.
The optimal safety measure against ransomware is to have aan OS restore point or the copies of your essential files in the cloud storage or at least on an external disk. Of course, that might be insufficient. Your most important thing could be that file you were working upon when it all started. Nevertheless, it is something. It is also advisable to scan your drives with the antivirus program after the OS restoration.
There are other ransomware products, besides Mnx, that work similarly. Examples of those are Fatp, Powd, Bowd, and some others. The two basic differences between them and the Mnx are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is almost identical: files become encoded, their extensions altered, ransom notes emerge in each directory containing encrypted files.
Some lucky people were able to decrypt the blocked files with the aid of the free software provided by anti-ransomware developers. Sometimes the hackers mistakenly send the decoding key to the victims in the ransom readme. Such an epic fail allows the injured part to restore the files. But naturally, 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 сan I avoid ransomware injection?
Mnx ransomware has no endless power, so as any similar malware.
You can defend your PC from ransomware injection taking three easy steps:
- Never open any emails from unknown mailboxes with unknown addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are expecting (how can you win in a money prize draw without participating in it?). In case the email subject is more or less something you are waiting for, scrutinize all elements of the dubious letter carefully. A hoax letter will always have a mistake.
- Never use cracked or unknown software. Trojan viruses are often shared as a part of cracked products, most likely as a “patch” preventing the license check. Understandably, potentially dangerous programs are very hard to distinguish from reliable software, because trojans sometimes have the functionality you need. Try to find information about this software product on the anti-malware forums, but the optimal way is not to use such software.
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”.
FAQ
🤔 Can I somehow access “.MNX” files?
Unfortunately, no. You need to decipher the “.MNX” files first. Then you will be able to open them.
🤔 I really need to decrypt those “.MNX” files ASAP. How can I do that?
It’s good if you have fаr-sightedly saved copies of these important files elsewhere. 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. There are other ways to beat ransomware, but they take time.
🤔 What actions should I take if the Mnx malware 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 sent or received your critical files by email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
- You might have shared photographs or videos with your friends or relatives. Simply ask them to post those images back to you.
- If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Web, you can try to do 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 computer, a notebook, phone, memory stick, etc.
USEFUL TIP: You can employ data recovery utilities5 to get your lost data back since ransomware arrests the copies of your files, removing the authentic ones. In the tutorial below, you can learn how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but remember: you can do it only after 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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