TRASH PANDA Virus 🔐 (.MONOCHROME Files) — How to Remove?

The Trash panda virus belongs with the ransomware type of malicious agent. Ransomware of such sort encrypts all user’s data on the PC (photos, documents, excel sheets, audio files, videos, etc) and appends its specific extension to every file, creating the [random_string]-readme.html text files in every directory containing encrypted files.

Trash panda virus: what is known so far?

Trash panda appends its extra .monochrome extension to the name of every encoded file. For example, an image named “photo.jpg” will be changed to “photo.jpg.monochrome”. In the same manner, the Excel sheet named “table.xlsx” will end up as “table.xlsx.monochrome”, and so forth.

In each directory with the encrypted files, a readme.html text file will appear. It is a ransom money note. It contains information about the ways of paying the ransom and some other remarks. The ransom note most probably contains a description of how to purchase the decryption tool from the tamperers. You can get this decoding tool after contacting Tox chat through Tor browser. That is how they do it.

It is also worth noting that this note has a random string in its name. This string looks like a hash of some sort, probably the one malware has created to distinguish your system from others. For example, in our case the readme file had a name of 138k349c9732m09it504vn19q74330h8-readme.html

Trash panda Summary:

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

How did my computer get infected with Trash panda ransomware?

There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware injection.

There are currently three most popular ways for hackers to have ransomware planted in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer-to-peer networks.

• If you open your mailbox and see letters that look like familiar notifications from utility services providers, postal agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose sender is unknown to you, be wary of opening those letters. They are very likely to have a harmful item attached to them. Therefore, it is even riskier to open any attachments that come with letters like these.
• Another option for ransom hunters is a Trojan virus scheme. A Trojan is a program that gets into your computer pretending to be something else. For example, you download an installer of some program you need or an update for some service. However, what is unboxed turns out to be a harmful program that corrupts your data. Since the installation wizard can have any name and any icon, you have to make sure that you can trust the resource of the files you’re downloading. The optimal way is to trust the software developers’ official websites.
• As for the peer-to-peer file transfer protocols like torrents or eMule, the threat is that they are even more trust-based than the rest of the Web. 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 items with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is finished.

How to remove ransomware?

It is important to inform you that besides encrypting your files, the Trash panda virus will probably install Vidar Stealer on your machine to get access to credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That spyware can extract your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

How do I avert ransomware attack?

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

You can protect yourself from ransomware injection 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 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 suspicious letter with caution. A fake email will always contain a mistake.
• Do not use cracked or unknown software. Trojans are often shared as an element of cracked software, most likely as a “patch” preventing the license check. But potentially dangerous programs are difficult to distinguish from trustworthy ones, as trojans may also have the functionality you need. You can try to find information about this software product on the anti-malware forums, but the optimal solution is not to use such software.

Frequently Asked Questions

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

There’s no way to do it, unless the files “.monochrome” files are decrypted.

🤔 I really need to decrypt those “.monochrome” files ASAP. How can I do that?

It’s good if you have fаr-sightedly saved copies of these important files elsewhere. Otherwise, you might try to employ System Restore. The only question is whether you have saved any Restore Points that would be helpful now. There are other ways to beat ransomware, but they take time.

🤔 What to do if the Trash panda ransomware has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation code.

🤔 And what should I do now?

Some of the encrypted files 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 may have shared images or videos with your friends or family members. Simply ask them to post 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 media pages, and cloud storage might have all those files too.
• It might be that you still have the needed files on your old PC, a laptop, mobile, external storage, etc.

HINT: You can use data recovery utilities¹ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware encrypts the copies of your files, removing the original ones. In the video below, you can learn how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but be advised: you won’t be able to do it before you eradicate the ransomware itself with an antivirus program.

1. Here are Best Data Recovery Software Of 2023.