Karo Ransomware

Posted by Lisa Blanc on July 11, 2017

What is Karo Ransomware?

If your files with .txt, .sql, .cpp, .html, .java, .mdb, and .ruby extensions can no longer be opened and contain a new extension .ipygh, Karo Ransomware is the one that should be blamed for encrypting them, you should know. It is a malicious application, also known as a crypto-threat, which illegally enters users’ PCs and locks some files seeking to extract money from computer users. It encrypts the above-listed extensions not without reason as well. Cyber criminals know well that users consider these files the most valuable, and, consequently, they believe that it might be easier to obtain money from users by locking them. Even though the encryption of files is the major activity this malicious application performs on users’ computers, it is not the only one. For example, research conducted by experts at anti-spyware-101.com has revealed that this ransomware infection connects to the Internet, communicates with its C&C server, checks the version of the OS used, and tries to find out some technical information, for example, how many processors the machine has and whether it uses Virtual Box (a virtual machine). What is more, it downloads TOR on users’ PCs without their permission and, finally, issues several commands, e.g. cmd.exe /c taskkill.exe /f /im sqlwriter.exe to terminate certain processes. Judging from all these activities it performs on those affected PCs, it is a serious malicious application. Fortunately, it does not mean that it is impossible to delete it from the system, so remove it the second you discover this infection on your computer.testtest

What does Karo Ransomware do?

Karo Ransomware has been developed and enters users’ PCs having only one goal – to obtain money from them easily, so it encrypts users’ files the first thing after the successful entrance. Luckily, it does not encrypt files located in all directories. It locks them in three directories only: %USERPROFILE%\Desktop, %USERPROFILE%\Music, and %USERPROFILE%\Pictures, so we can assure you that your PC will work normally after its successful entrance. A bunch of encrypted files with new extensions is not the only sign showing that Karo Ransomware is inside the system. If this threat ever slithers onto your computer, you will also find a ReadMe.html file with a ransom note on Desktop. It is a file which explains users why they can no longer open their files and what they can do about that. As expected, it demands a ransom. The size of the ransom is unknown, but we are sure you will find out how much you have to send to cyber criminals in exchange for the unlocked files and how to do that if you open the TOR browser and launch the URL found in the ransom note. The version tested by specialists at anti-spyware-101.com did not contain the address, so we believe that corrupt versions of Karo Ransomware exist too. If you encounter such a version, you could not send money to cyber criminals and decrypt your files, but it is surely not the end of the world because sending money to malware developers is always a bad idea. In this case, delete the ransomware infection from your PC and try out alternative data recovery methods, e.g. restore files from a backup or use a free tool for restoring files – we cannot promise that the latter method will necessarily work though.

Where does Karo Ransomware come from?

According to specialists, Karo Ransomware should be spread via spam email campaigns, but, of course, other methods might be used to spread it too. For example, it might be dropped on computers by Trojan infections or users might download it from P2P pages instead of beneficial software they expect to get. Once Karo Ransomware is inside the system, it places a file svchost.exe (it imitates a legitimate Windows OS process) in %APPDATA and drops Notepad.lnk in several different directories. Also, it creates a Tor folder in %TEMP% and downloads this browser from the web without the user’s knowledge. Because of the abundance of different malicious components, it will not be easy to erase this infection from the system, but, of course, it will not be impossible to completely remove it for sure.

How to delete Karo Ransomware

If you have some knowledge about computers and malware removal, we are sure you will not find the manual removal of Karo Ransomware a hard task because you will only need to erase its files manually by following our step-by-step instructions. This infection can also be deleted automatically – adopt this method if you are an inexperienced user. In this case, your first task will be to acquire the scanner.

Remove Karo Ransomware

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and open Task Manager.
  2. Click Processes.
  3. Check the entire list of processes and kill those associated with the ransomware infection.
  4. Close Task Manager.
  5. Open the Windows Explorer (tap Win+E).
  6. Delete the Tor folder from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp, %APPDATA%, and %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data.
  7. Delete the main file svchost.exe from %APPDATA%.
  8. Check %USERPROFILE%\Desktop, %USERPROFILE%\Downloads, and %TEMP%.
  9. Remove suspicious files from them.
  10. Delete the ransom note ReadMe.html from %USERPROFILE%\Desktop.
  11. Remove Notepad.lnk from the following directories:
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