What is Retadup?
Retadup is a vicious threat that was used to distribute cryptocurrency miners, ransomware, and other malicious applications. Luckily, cybersecurity experts were able to deactivate the malware, and it should no longer be distributed. In this article, we talk about how the threat works and what harm it could cause to you and your computer if you leave it unattended. Also, we discuss what safety precautions one ought to take after detecting this malicious application on their system. Plus, at the end of this article, we display instructions showing how to locate files belonging to the malware and how to erase them to get rid of Retadup manually. Needless to say that using a legitimate antimalware tool might be faster to deal with this worm, especially if you had no experience with such vicious infections so far.
Where does Retadup come from?
As explained at the beginning, Retadup was deactivated and should no longer be spread. It is essential to mention that this threat was first seen back in 2017. At that time, it was distributed by dropping infected files in shared drives. After opening such a file, a malware would settle in and start its malicious activities. Researchers say that most of the infected devices did not have antimalware software, which could have prevented the worm from entering them. Thus, we recommend installing a legitimate antimalware tool if you wish to avoid similar threats. Besides, it is vital to make sure you do not launch any files that come from unknown/unreliable sources or seem suspicious. It is best to scan such data with a chosen security tool so it could tell you if you should or should not open it.
How does Retadup work?
Upon entering a system, Retadup should create a couple of files in the C: disk. They are supposed to have long titles from 21 random characters. One of the files should be a text document, and the other ought to be an executable file. After the malicious application creates the described data, it ought to start doing what it was programmed to do. To be more accurate, the worm was created to carry and install particular threats in its victims’ computers. In recent years, the malicious application was used to spread Monero cryptocurrency miners.
Also, some versions were noticed to drop Stop Ransomware, which is a file-encrypting threat that enciphers data and shows a note asking to pay for decryption. The other malicious application that Retadup was noticed to drop was called Arkei. Our researchers say that this malware is a password stealer. Thus, as you can imagine, such a threat could steal various login credentials. To protect your data from being misused, we recommend checking if the work installed Arkei on your system. If you locate the password stealer or just want to be safe, you should replace passwords that might have been compromised as soon as your computer is malware-free again.
How to eliminate Retadup?
The worm can be removed manually by completing the steps available below this paragraph or with a chosen antimalware tool. Truth to be told, we recommend using a legitimate antimalware tool because if you located Retadup on your system, it is likely there are other malicious applications on it. By performing a full system scan with your chosen tool you could identify them and erase them all by pressing the given deletion button.
Erase Retadup
- Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete.
- Choose Task Manager.
- Click the Processes tab.
- Look for a process that could belong to the worm.
- Select it and press the End Task button.
- Click Windows key+E.
- Navigate to the C: disk.
- Find a couple of files with random titles from 21 characters: one .txt and one .exe file, for example, aitwmdiinwwjubdvqhpea.exe.
- Right-click the malicious .txt and .exe files separately and press Delete to erase them.
- Close File Explorer.
- Empty Recycle Bin.
- Restart your computer.
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