An infection with the dangerous XZZX Virus leads to serious security issues. Victims can restore and protect their computers by following our complete removal guide.
Remove XZZX Virus and Restore PC
Manual Removal Guide
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Distribution of XZZX Virus
The XZZX Virus is a new virus which has been sighted in a limited attack campaign. At the moment the security researchers cannot determine the primary infection strategy. We presume that the most widely used tactics are going to be employed.
Among them are the email messages created in an automated way and sent to large lists of potential victims. The XZZX Virus can be directly attached to the messages. This is one of the easiest way for the criminals to attempt the infection. However a lot of email hosting providers usually capture the signatures of the virus and as such discard such messages or label them as dangerous or spam. Other infection methods related to this one is the option of inserting hyperlinks in the body content of the messages. The links are usually labeled as leading to a familiar website or a file of user interest. Redirects can redirect to hacker-controlled sites, infected payloads or other instances that can lead to an XZZX Virus infection.
The computer criminals behind the malware can create malicious sites or download portals which distribute malware of different kinds, including the XZZX Virus. A popular option is the use of infected documents which may be of different types ‒ spreadsheets, rich text documents, presentations and databases. They are modified to initiate the virus once the built-in scripts are run. Usually when the files are opened a notification will ask the users to run the macros (scripts). If this is done the infection follows.
The hacker-controlled sites are specialist portals that have been created either manually or automatically by the criminals behind the XZZX Virus. They can either directly distribute the threat by initiating various scripts or automated operations or link to such instances. Redirects are usually caused by email interaction, ad networks or other browsing activity. However one of the main sources is the availability of browser hijackers. They are malicious addons made for the most popular web browsers ‒ Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, Microsoft Edge and Safari. Once installed they not only infect the users with the malware, but also redirect the victims to a hacker-controlled site. Depending on the configuration the browser hijackers can also steal sensitive information such as any stored passwords, account credentials, history, bookmarks, form data and settings.
Impact of XZZX Virus
The XZZX Virus is the latest strain coming associated with the dangerous CryptoMix malware family. According to the initial security analysis the new version contains different patterns and is made by an unknown hacker or criminal collective. CryptoMix is among the most popular choices when it comes to creating new virus samples.
The reason why the XZZX virus has attained a reasonable level of popularity is because the CryptoMix code is frequently traded on the underground hacker markets. Along with other popular infections such as the Hidden Tear family there are numerous tutorials and guides on how to customize the base engine and create further versions and updates to it. This exact version is believed to be modeled after the “Revenge” version which was launched against targets in March this year.
Following its patterns the virus executes a built-in sequence of commands. They can be customized and adapted depending on the intended targets. It has been discovered that the XZZX virus runs several post-infection commands that seek to disable security software installed on the computer. This is done by executing script commands that disable the service instances and the real time protection applications.
The next step is to disable certain Windows features that are used for system recovery. The XZZX virus code follows the typical patterns of removing the Shadow Volume copies of all local files. These measures are taken in order to prevent data recovery without the use of a professional solution.
As the XZZX virus is modular additional modules can be bundled in the virus strains including the following:
- Surveillance ‒ Advanced Cryptomix ransomware strains and updated versions of the XZZX virus can include a Trojan component that gives the criminals the ability to spy on the users in real time. Some forms may also be able to record the mouse movement and keystrokes of the victims.
- Malicious Code Execution ‒ The criminals can bundle malicious commands that can run either automatically or when certains conditions are met.
- Persistent Installation ‒ Some versions of the XZZX virus are able to install themselves in such a way that counters manual removal attempts.
Once all prerequisite conditions are met the ransomware engine is started. The security experts note that due to the varied types of CryptoMix base engines, the victims may not only find that their files are renamed with the .XZZX extension but also encoded by an algorithm.
The security analysts were able to extract a list of the target file type extensions from a captured sample. The XZZX virus is able to process the following data:
.1CD, .3DM, .3DS, .3FR, .3G2, .3GP, .3PR, .7Z, .7ZIP, .AAC, .AB4, .ABD, .ACC,.ACCDB, .ACCDE,
.ACCDR, .ACCDT, .ACH, .ACR, .ACT, .ADB, .ADP, .ADS, .AGDL, .AI, .AIFF, .AIT, .AL, .AOI, .APJ,
.APK, .ARW, .ASCX, .ASF, .ASM, .ASP, .ASPX, .ASSET, .ASX, .ATB, .AVI, .AWG, .BACK, .BACKUP,
.BACKUPDB, .BAK, .BANK, .BAY, .BDB, .BGT, .BIK, .BIN, .BKP, .BLEND, .BMP, .BPW, .BSA, .C,
.CASH, .CDB, .CDF, .CDR, .CDR3, .CDR4, .CDR5, .CDR6, .CDRW, .CDX, .CE1, .CE2, .CER, .CFG,
.CFN, .CGM, .CIB, .CLASS, .CLS, .CMT, .CONFIG, .CONTACT, .CPI, .CPP, .CR2, .CRAW, .CRT, .CRW,
.CRY, .CS, .CSH, .CSL, .CSS, .CSV, .D3DBSP, .DAC, .DAS, .DAT, .DB .DB_JOURNAL, .DB3, .DBF, .DBX,
.DC2, .DCR, .DCS, .DDD, .DDOC, .DDRW, .DDS, .DEF, .DER, .DES, .DESIGN, .DGC, .DGN, .DIT, .DJVU,
.DNG, .DOC, .DOCM, .DOCX, .DOT, .DOTM, .DOTX, .DRF, .DRW, .DTD, .DWG, .DXB, .DXF, .DXG, .EDB, .EML,
.EPS, .ERBSQL, .ERF, .EXF, .FDB, .FFD, .FFF, .FH, .FHD, .FLA, .FLAC, .FLB, .FLF, .FLV, .FLVV, .FORGE,
.FPX, .FXG, .GBR, .GHO, .GIF, .GRAY, .GREY, .GROUPS, .GRY, .H, .HBK, .HDD, .HPP, .HTML, .IBANK, .IBD,
.IBZ, .IDX, .IIF, .IIQ, .INCPAS, .INDD, .INFO, .INFO_, .IWI, .JAR, .JAVA, .JNT, .JPE, .JPEG, .JPG, .JS,
.JSON, .K2P, .KC2, .KDBX, .KDC, .KEY, .KPDX, .KWM, .LACCDB, .LBF, .LCK, .LDF, .LIT, .LITEMOD, .LITESQL,
.LOCK, .LTX, .LUA, .M, .M2TS, .M3U, .M4A, .M4P, .M4V, .MA, .MAB, .MAPIMAIL, .MAX, .MBX, .MD, .MDB, .MDC,
.MDF, .MEF, .MFW, .MID, .MKV, .MLB, .MMW, .MNY, .MONEY, .MONEYWELL, .MOS, .MOV, .MP3, .MP4, .MPEG, .MPG,
.MRW, .MSF, .MSG, .MTS, .MYD, .ND, .NDD, .NDF, .NEF, .NK2, .NOP, .NRW, .NS2, .NS3, .NS4, .NSD, .NSF, .NSG,
.NSH, .NVRAM, .NWB, .NX2, .NXL, .NYF, .OAB, .OBJ, .ODB, .ODC, .ODF, .ODG, .ODM, .ODP, .ODS, .ODT, .OGG, .OIL,
.OMG, .ONE, .ORF, .OST, .OTG, .OTH, .OTP, .OTS, .OTT, .P12, .P7B, .P7C, .PAB, .PAGES, .PAS, .PAT, .PBF, .PCD,
.PCT, .PDB, .PDD, .PDF, .PEF, .PFX, .PHP, .PIF, .PL, .PLC, .PLUS_MUHD, .PM!, .PM, .PMI, .PMJ, .PML, .PMM, .PMO,
.PMR, .PNC, .PND, .PNG, .PNX, .POT, .POTM, .POTX, .PPAM, .PPS, .PPSM, .PPSX, .PPT, .PPTM, .PPTX, .PRF, .PRIVATE,
.PS, .PSAFE3, .PSD, .PSPIMAGE, .PST, .PTX, .PUB, .PWM, .PY, .QBA, .QBB, .QBM, .QBR, .QBW, .QBX, .QBY, .QCOW, .QCOW2,
.QED, .QTB, .R3D, .RAF, .RAR, .RAT, .RAW, .RDB, .RE4, .RM, .RTF, .RVT, .RW2, .RWL, .RWZ, .S3DB, .SAFE, .SAS7BDAT,
.SAV, .SAVE, .SAY, .SD0, .SDA, .SDB, .SDF, .SH, .SLDM, .SLDX, .SLM, .SQL, .SQLITE, .SQLITE3, .SQLITEDB, .SQLITE-SHM, .SQLITE-WAL, .SR2, .SRB, .SRF, .SRS, .SRT, .SRW, .ST4, .ST5, .ST6, .ST7, .ST8, .STC, .STD, .STI, .STL, .STM, .STW, .STX,
.SVG, .SWF, .SXC, .SXD, .SXG, .SXI, .SXM, .SXW, .TAX, .TBB, .TBK, .TBN, .TEX, .TGA, .THM, .TIF, .TIFF, .TLG, .TLX,
.TXT, .UPK, .USR, .VBOX, .VDI, .VHD, .VHDX, .VMDK, .VMSD, .VMX, .VMXF, .VOB, .VPD, .VSD, .WAB, .WAD, .WALLET, .WAR, .WAV, .WB2, .WMA, .WMF, .WMV, .WPD, .WPS, .X11, .X3F, .XIS, .XLA, .XLAM, .XLK, .XLM, .XLR, .XLS, .XLSB, .XLSM, .XLSX, .XLT, .XLTM, .XLTX, .XLW, .XML, .XPS, .XXX, .YCBCRA, .YUV, .ZIP
The ransomware note is crafted in a file called _HELP_INSTRUCTION.TXT which reads the following message:
Hello!
Attention! All Your data was encrypted!
For specific informartion, please send us an email with Your ID number:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Please send email to all email addresses! We will help You as soon as possible!
DECRYPT-ID-[id] number
From the mesage it seems that the criminals behind the XZZX virus have created several addresses in case any of them is take down. They also require that the victims specify their unique infection ID (UIID).
We recommend that all users abstain from communicating with the hackers and use our full XZZX Virus removal guide below to recover their data and delete the active infections.
Remove XZZX Virus and Restore PC
WARNING! Manual removal of the XZZX Virus requires being familiar with system files and registries. Removing important data accidentally can lead to permanent system damage. If you don’t feel comfortable with manual instructions, download a powerful anti-malware tool that will scan your system for malware and clean it safely for you.
SpyHunter anti-malware tool will diagnose all current threats on the computer. By purchasing the full version, you will be able to remove all malware threats instantly. Additional information about SpyHunter / Help to uninstall SpyHunter
XZZX Virus – Manual Removal Steps
Start the PC in Safe Mode with Network
This will isolate all files and objects created by the ransomware so they will be removed efficiently. The steps bellow are applicable to all Windows versions.
1. Hit the WIN Key + R
2. A Run window will appear. In it, write msconfig and then press Enter
3. A Configuration box shall appear. In it Choose the tab named Boot
4. Mark Safe Boot option and then go to Network under it to tick it too
5. Apply -> OK
Remove XZZX from Windows
Here’s a way to remove the program. This method will work regardless if you’re on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista or XP. Simply selecting the program and pressing delete won’t work, as it’ll leave a lot of small files. That’s bad because these leftovers can linger on and cause all sorts of problems. The best way to delete a program is to uninstall it. Here’s how you can do that:
1. Hold the “Windows” button (It’s between CTRL and Alt on most keyboards) and press “R”. You’ll see a pop-up window.
2. In the textbox, type “appwiz.cpl”, then press“ Enter ”.
3. The “Programs and features” menu should now appear. It’s a list of all the programs installed on the PC. Here you can find the program, select it, and press “Uninstall“.
Remove XZZX Virus From Your Browser
Before resetting your browser’s settings, you should know that this action will wipe out all your recorded usernames, passwords, and other types of data. Make sure to save them in some way.
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1. Start Mozilla Firefox. In the upper right corner, click on the Open menu icon and select “Add-ons“.
2. Inside the Add-ons Manager select “Extensions“. Search the list of extensions for suspicious entries. If you find any, select them and click “Remove“.
3. Click again on the Open menu icon, then click “Options“.
4. In the Options window, under “General” tab, click “Restore to Default“.
5. Select “Search” in the left menu, mark the unknown search engine and press “Remove”.
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1. Start Google Chrome. On the upper-right corner, there a “Customize and Control” menu icon. Click on it, then click on “Settings“.
2. Click “Extensions” in the left menu. Then click on the trash bin icon to remove the suspicious extension.
3. Again in the left menu, under Chrome, Click on “Settings“. Go under “On Startup” and set a new page.
4. Afterward, scroll down to “Search“, click on “Manage search engines“.
5. In the default search settings list, find the unknown search engine and click on “X“. Then select your search engine of choice and click “Make default“. When you are ready click “Done” button in the right bottom corner.
2. In the “Manage add-ons” window, bellow “Add-on Types“, select “Toolbars and Extensions“. If you see a suspicious toolbar, select it and click “Remove“.
3. Then again in the “Manage Add-ons” window, in “Add-on Types“, Select “Search Providers“. Chose a search engine and click “Set as default“. Select the unknown search engine and click “Remove and Close”.
4. Open the Tools menu, select “Internet Options”.
5. In the “General” tab, in “Home page”, enter your preferred page. Click “Apply” and “OK”.
Repair Windows Registry
1. Again type simultaneously the WIN Key + R key combination
2. In the box, write regedit and hit Enter
3. Type the CTRL+ F and then write the malicious name in the search type field to locate the malicious executable
4. In case you have discovered registry keys and values related to the name, you should delete them, but be careful not to delete legitimate keys
Click for more information about Windows Registry and further repair help
