How Can I Remove Phobos Ransomware From My Windows PC

What do you know about Phobos Ransomware?

 

Phobos Ransomware is reported as a new file-encoder virus which was discovered by the malware researchers on October 21st, 2017. It is especially programmed by the team of racketeers in order to target the English-speaking computer users mainly located in North America and Western Europe. The main campaign used by the hackers to distribute the malware over the Internet is identified as a malicious spam email campaign. Such type of junk emails mainly attached a document which is macro-enabled and when the targeted system users download and open the attached file, it immediately installs the nasty payload of Phobos Ransomware onto their machine. Initial analysis on this malware revealed that it does not appear to be related with any kind of previously detected ransomware viruses.

Phobos Ransomware

Working Principles of Phobos Ransomware Virus

Cyber criminals specifically designed this ransomware to encode the important files like images, databases, Office documents, eBooks, videos, presentations, music and spreadsheets by using a custom AES-256 cipher. The malware has been identified to communicate with the TOR based 'C&C' (Command & Control) servers, in the same way that other hazardous file-encrypting used to get money from the victimized PC users. Right after the successful invasion of Phobos Ransomware, it displays a program window named 'Your files are encrypted' onto the compromised system screen which has designed with a logo 'PHOBOS' placed in the bottom right corner of the displayed notification. Once it encrypts the files stored onto the targeted machine, it appends their name by adding a weird file extension and those file will no longer be accessible.

How To Deal with Phobos Ransomware?

This ransomware is known to rename the files stored on affected machine with the following pattern: '..ID[eight random characters].[[email protected]].PHOBOS'. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this article, it may not be possible to rescue the data enciphered by Phobos Ransomware, but you can rebuild it. Cyber security investigators warn the system users to employ the services of credible backup manager and then use backup copies in order to retrieve their sensitive and vital data which was encoded by this Ransomware. However, do not trust the hacker's team behind this malware or try to write an email to the con artists email address i.e. '[email protected]'. Most importantly, you can take the help from a credible and modern system security solutions to eliminate Phobos Ransomware effectively from your PC.

Free Scan your Windows PC to detect Phobos Ransomware

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Remove Phobos Ransomware From Your PC

Step 1: Remove Phobos Ransomware in Safe Mode with Command Prompt

  • First of all disconnect your PC with network connection.
  • Click restart button and keep pressing F8 key regularly while system restart.

F8-keyboard

 
  • You will see “Windows Advanced Options Menu” on your computer screen.

Windows Advanced Options Menu

  • Select “Safe Mode with Command Prompt” and press Enter key.

safe mode with command promt

  • You must login your computer with Administrator account for full privilege.

daver

  • Once the Command Prompt appears then type rstrui.exe and press Enter

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  • Now follow the prompts on your screen to complete system restore.

Step 2: Remove Phobos Ransomware using MSConfig in Safe Mode:

  • Power off your computer and restart again.
  • While booting press the “F8 key” continuously to open “Windows Advanced Options Menu”.

F8-keyboard

  • Use the arrow keys to select “Safe Mode” option and press Enter key.

Safe mode

  • Once system get started go to Start menu. Type “msconfig” in the search box and launch the application.

msconfig01

  • Go to the Startup tab and look for files from %AppData% or %Temp% folders using rundll32.exe. See an example below:

C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe C:\Users\username\appdata\local\temp\regepqzf.dll,H1N1

  • Disable all the malicious entries and save the changes.
  • Now restart your computer normally.

Step 3 : Kill Malicious Process Related To Phobos Ransomware

  • Press Alt+Ctrl+Del buttons together.

ctrl+alt+del

  • It will open the Task manager on your screen.
  • Go to Process Tab and find Phobos Ransomware related process.
  • Click the End Process Now button to stop the running process.

Step 4 : Remove Phobos Ransomware Virus From Registry Entry

  • Press “Windows + R” key together to open Run Box.

Win+R

  • Type “regedit” and click OK button.

Type-regedit-to-open-registry

  • Find and remove Phobos Ransomware related entries.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServicesOnce

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\Run

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Runonce

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServicesOnce

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\Run

Now hopefully you have completely removed the Phobos Ransomware virus from your computer. If you are still get ransom message from the threat or unable to access your files, then it means that virus still remain into your computer. In such situation you don’t have any other option except removing this virus using any powerful malware removal tool.

Whereas if you have any backup of your infected or encrypted files, then you can also reinstall your Windows OS. This will erase all your files and data as along with the Phobos Ransomware infection. You will get a completely empty computer system with no files. Now you can use your backup to get your files. If you don’t have any backup then using malware removal tool is a better option for you.

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If you have any query or question regarding your computer, then you can easily ask your problem to our experts. Go to the Ask Any Question page and get the answer for your query directly from out experts.

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