What is “Mool”?
Ransomware is a kind of virus that crypted your documents and then forces you to pay to restore them. Note that DJVU (aka STOP) ransomware family was first revealed and analyzed by virus analyst Michael Gillespie">2.
Mool is basically similar to other representatives of ransomware like: Ooss, Mmnn, Rooe. It crypted all popular file types. Hence, you cannot open the your documents or photos. Mool adds its own “.mool” extension into all files. For example, the file “video.avi”, will be changed into “video.avi.mool”. As soon as the encryption is accomplished, Mool creates a special text file “_readme.txt” and adds it into all folders that contain the modified files.
| Ransomware family3 | DJVU/STOP4 ransomware |
| Extension | .mool |
| Ransomware note | _readme.txt |
| Ransom | From $490 to $980 (in Bitcoins) |
| Contact | , |
| Detection5 | Spyware.Arkei, Win32/Kryptik.HBEH, Trojan.AgentWDCR.SVC (B) |
| Symptoms | Your files (photos, videos, documents) have a .mool extension and you can’t open it |
| Fix Tool | See If Your System Has Been Affected by .mool file virus |
This text asking payment is for get files back via decryption key:
The scary alert demanding from users to pay the ransom to decrypt the compromised data contains these frustrating warnings
The cryptography algorithm used by Mool is AES-256. So, if your files got encrypted with a specific decryption key, which is totally distinct and there are no other copies. The sad reality is that it is impossible to restore the information without the unique key available.
In case if Mool worked in online mode, it is impossible for you to gain access to the AES-256 key. It is stored on a remote server owned by the criminals who promote the Mool virus.
For receiving decryption key the payment should be $980. To obtain the payment details the victims are encouraged by the message to contact the frauds by email (), or via Telegram.
Do not pay for Mool!
_readme.txt file also indicates that the computer owners must get in touch with the Mool representatives during 72 hours starting from the moment of files where crypted. On the condition of getting in touch within 72 hours users will be granted a 50% rebate, thus the ransom amount will be minimized down to $490). However, stay away from paying the ransom!
I certainly recommend that you do not contact these frauds and do not pay. The one of the most real working solution to recover the lost data – just using the available backups, or use Decrypter tool.
The peculiarity of all such viruses apply a similar set of actions for generating the unique decryption key to recover the ciphered data.
Thus, unless the ransomware is still under the stage of development or possesses with some hard-to-track flaws, manually recovering the ciphered data is a thing you can’t really perform. The only solution to prevent the loss of your valuable data is to regularly make backups of your crucial files.
Note that even if you do maintain such backups regularly, they ought to be put into a specific location without loitering, not being connected to your main workstation.
For instance, the backup may be kept on the USB flash drive or some alternative external hard drive storage. Optionally, you may refer to the help of online (cloud) information storage.
Needless to mention, when you maintain your backup data on your common device, it may be similarly ciphered as well as other data.
For this reason, locating the backup on your main computer is surely not a good idea.
