NURRI Virus File 🔐 [[email protected]].NURRI Removal

The Nurri virus belongs under the Phobos ransomware family. Malware of such sort encrypts all user’s data on the computer (photos, documents, excel tables, music, videos, etc) and adds its extra extension to every file, creating the info.hta text files in each folder with the encrypted files.

Nurri virus: what is known so far?

☝️ A strictly correct denomination for the Nurri would be “a Phobos family ransomware-type malicious agent”.

The pattern of renaming is the following: .NURRI. During the encryption, a file entitled, for example, “report.docx” will be renamed to “report.docx.id[10CDF649-1B43].[[email protected]].NURRI”.

In every directory containing the encoded files, a info.hta text document will be found. It is a ransom money memo. Therein you can find information on the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other information. The ransom note usually contains a description of how to purchase the decryption tool from the tamperers. You can obtain this tool after contacting @HostUppp (Telegram), [email protected] through email. That is pretty much the scheme of the crime.

Nurri Overview:

The info.hta file accompanying the Nurri malware provides the following discouraging information:

All your files have been encrypted!
All your files have been encrypted due to a security problem with your PC. If you want to restore them, write us to the e-mail [email protected]
Write this ID in the title of your message -
If you do not receive a response within 24 hours, please contact us by Telegram.org account: @HostUppp
You have to pay for decryption in Bitcoins. The price depends on how fast you write to us. After payment we will send you the tool that will decrypt all your files.
Free decryption as guarantee
Before paying you can send us up to 3 files for free decryption. The total size of files must be less than 4Mb (non archived), and files should not contain valuable information. (databases,backups, large excel sheets, etc.)
How to obtain Bitcoins
The easiest way to buy bitcoins is LocalBitcoins site. You have to register, click \'Buy bitcoins\', and select the seller by payment method and price.
hxxps://localbitcoins.com/buy_bitcoins
Also you can find other places to buy Bitcoins and beginners guide here:
hxxp://www.coindesk.com/information/how-can-i-buy-bitcoins/
Attention!
Do not rename encrypted files.
Do not try to decrypt your data using third party software, it may cause permanent data loss.
Decryption of your files with the help of third parties may cause increased price (they add their fee to our) or you can become a victim of a scam.

In the image below, you can see what a directory with files encrypted by the Nurri looks like. Each filename has the “.NURRI” extension added to it.

How did Nurri ransomware end up on my PC?

There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware infiltration.

There are currently three most exploited ways for hackers to have the Nurri virus planted in your system. These are email spam, Trojan injection and peer file transfer.

Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan horse scheme. A Trojan is a program that infiltrates into your machine pretending to be something legal. Imagine, you download an installer for some program you need or an update for some program. But what is unboxed turns out to be a harmful agent that encrypts your data. Since the installation file can have any name and any icon, you’d better be sure that you can trust the source of the stuff you’re downloading. The optimal way is to use the software developers’ official websites.

As for the peer file transfer protocols like torrent trackers or eMule, the threat 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. So you’d better be using trustworthy resources. Also, it is a good idea to scan the folder containing the downloaded files with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is done.

How do I get rid of the Nurri virus?

It is crucial to inform you that besides encrypting your files, the Nurri virus will probably deploy Vidar Stealer on your PC to seize your credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned spyware can extract your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

Sometimes racketeers would decode few of your files to prove that they really have the decryption program. Since Nurri virus is a relatively new ransomware, safety measures designers have not yet found a way to undo its work. Nevertheless, the anti-ransomware tools are constantly updated, so the solution may soon arrive.

Of course, if the malefactors succeed in encoding someone’s critical files, the hopeless person will probably comply with their demands. Nevertheless, paying to criminals gives no guarantee that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still dangerous. After receiving the money, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption code to the injured party. There were reports of hackers just vanishing after getting the money without even bothering to reply.

The optimal countermeasure to ransomware is to have aan OS restore point or the copies of your critical files in the cloud storage or at least on an external drive. Of course, that might be not enough. 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 drives with the antivirus program after the OS is rolled back.

Nurri 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, Agpo, Tgvv, Bhgr, and some others. The two major differences between them and the Nurri are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is almost identical: files become blocked, their extensions changed, ransom notes are created in each folder containing encoded files.

Some lucky users were able to decrypt the blocked files with the aid of the free software provided by anti-malware developers. Sometimes the racketeers mistakenly send the decryption key to the wronged in the ransom note. Such an extraordinary fail allows the user to restore the files. But of course, one should never expect such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a tamperers’ technology to lay their hands on the money of their victims.

How to avoid ransomware injection?

Nurri ransomware doesn’t have a superpower, neither does any similar malware.

You can protect your computer from its attack taking 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 expecting (how can you win in a lottery without participating in it?). In case the email subject is likely something you are waiting for, check all elements of the dubious email with caution. A fake email will surely contain mistakes.
• Avoid using cracked or unknown software. Trojans are often spreaded as an element of cracked software, most likely under the guise of “patch” which prevents the license check. Understandably, dubious programs are very hard to tell from reliable software, as trojans may also have the functionality you seek. You can try to find information on this software product on the anti-malware forums, but the best way is not to use such programs at all.

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

🤔 Are the “.NURRI” files accessible?

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

🤔 The encrypted files are very important to me. How can I decrypt them quickly?

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. All other solutions require time.

🤔 What should I do if the Nurri virus has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation code.

🤔 And what should I do now?

Some of the encrypted data can be located elsewhere.

• If you sent or received your important files through email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
• You might have shared photographs or videos with your friends or family members. Simply ask them to post those pictures 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 storage might have all those files as well.
• Maybe you still have the needed files on your old computer, a notebook, phone, external storage, etc.

USEFUL TIP: You can use data recovery programs⁴ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware blocks the copies of your files, removing 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 kill the ransomware itself with an antivirus program.

1. My files are encrypted by ransomware, what should I do now?
2. Here’s the list of Top 10 Data Recovery Software Of 2023.