How to Remove Honor Ransomware (Crypto-Malware/Ransowmare)

What is Honor ransomware? And how does it implement its attack?

Honor ransomware is a file-encrypting threat which was first discovered on February 8, 2018. After its infiltration on a targeted computer, it connects to its Command and Control server to download additional malicious files. After that, it implements a series of unwanted activities in the system. Its primary malicious file has been reported to have the following parameters:
SHA-256: e3ba5cad3da4c50412cd2bc2cfaa5332cf2578a913b14d81cafc1465a12e301b
Name: honor’s malware.exe
Size: 15 KB
During its attack, Honor ransomware may schedule system tasks so it can automatically run on system boot. After that, it will look for certain files to encrypt. According to researchers, it targets files which have the following extensions:
.PNG .PSD .PSPIMAGE .TGA .THM .TIF .TIFF .YUV .AI .EPS .PS .SVG .INDD .PCT .PDF .XLR .XLS .XLSX .ACCDB .DB .DBF .MDB .PDB .SQL .APK .APP .BAT .CGI .COM .EXE .GADGET .JAR .PIF .WSF .DEM .GAM .NES .ROM .SAV CAD Files .DWG .DXF GIS Files .GPX .KML .KMZ .ASP .ASPX .CER .CFM .CSR .CSS .HTM .HTML .JS .JSP .PHP .RSS .XHTML. DOC .DOCX .LOG .MSG .ODT .PAGES .RTF .TEX .TXT .WPD .WPS .CSV .DAT .GED .KEY .KEYCHAIN .PPS .PPT .PPTX ..INI .PRF Encoded Files .HQX .MIM .UUE .7Z .CBR .DEB .GZ .PKG .RAR .RPM .SITX .TAR.GZ .ZIP .ZIPX .BIN .CUE .DMG .ISO .MDF .TOAST .VCD SDF .TAR .TAX2014 .TAX2015 .VCF .XML Audio Files .AIF .IFF .M3U .M4A .MID .MP3 .MPA .WAV .WMA Video Files .3G2 .3GP .ASF .AVI .FLV .M4V .MOV .MP4 .MPG .RM .SRT .SWF .VOB .WMV 3D .3DM .3DS .MAX .OBJ R.BMP .DDS .GIF .JPG .CRX .PLUGIN .FNT .FON .OTF .TTF .CAB .CPL .CUR .DESKTHEMEPACK .DLL .DMP .DRV .ICNS .ICO .LNK .SYS .CFG
In its encryption, Honor ransomware utilizes the AES encryption algorithm though it isn’t clear yet what mode it uses. It then generates a unique asymmetric decryption key which is saved along with a secret key which is probably encrypted by the RSA cipher as well as a unique identifier. Once it completes the encryption process, Honor ransomware appends the .honor extension to the encrypted files.
How does Honor ransomware spread its malicious files?
Just like a typical ransomware threat, Honor ransomware spreads its malicious files via spam emails. These malware-laden emails have convincing statements to get users’ attention and to get them to download the infected email attachment which may be a macro-enabled document used to launch Honor ransomware in the system.
To remove Honor ransomware, refer to the removal steps below.
Step 1: Open the Task Manager by simply tapping Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys on your keyboard.
Step 2: Under the Task Manager, go to the Processes tab and look for any suspicious-looking process which takes up most of your CPU’s resources and is most likely related to Honor ransomware.

Step 3: After that, close the Task Manager.
Step 4: Tap Win + R, type in appwiz.cpl and click OK or tap Enter to open Control Panel’s list of installed programs.
Step 5: Under the list of installed programs, look for Honor ransomware or anything similar and then uninstall it.

Step 6: Next, close Control Panel and tap Win + E keys to launch File Explorer.
Step 7: Navigate to the following locations below and look for Honor ransomware’s malicious components such as honor’s malware.exe as well as other suspicious files and then delete all of them.

%TEMP%
%WINDIR%\System32\Tasks
%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Templates\
%USERPROFILE%\Downloads
%USERPROFILE%\Desktop

Step 8: Close the File Explorer.
Before you proceed to the next steps below, make sure that you are tech savvy enough to the point where you know exactly how to use and navigate your computer’s Registry. Keep in mind that any changes you make will highly impact your computer. To save you the trouble and time, you can just use PC Cleaner Pro, this system tool is proven to be safe and excellent enough that hackers won’t be able to hack into it. But if you can manage Windows Registry well, then, by all means, go on to the next steps.
Step 9: Tap Win + R to open Run and then type in regedit in the field and tap enter to pull up Windows Registry.

Step 10: Navigate to the following path:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Step 11: Delete the registry keys and sub-keys created by Honor ransomware.
Step 12: Close the Registry Editor and empty your Recycle Bin.
Try to recover your encrypted files using the Shadow Volume copies
Restoring your encrypted files using Windows’ Previous Versions feature will only be effective if Honor ransomware hasn’t deleted the shadow copies of your files. But still, this is one of the best and free methods there is, so it’s definitely worth a shot.
To restore the encrypted file, right-click on it and select Properties, a new window will pop-up, then proceed to Previous Versions. It will load the file’s previous version before it was modified. After it loads, select any of the previous versions displayed on the list like the one in the illustration below. And then click the Restore button.

It is important to make sure that nothing is left behind and that Honor ransomware is completely removed use the following antivirus program. To use it, refer to the instructions below.
Perform a full system scan using SpyRemover Pro. To do so, follow these steps:

Turn on your computer. If it’s already on, you have to reboot
After that, the BIOS screen will be displayed, but if Windows pops up instead, reboot your computer and try again. Once you’re on the BIOS screen, repeat pressing F8, by doing so the Advanced Option shows up.

To navigate the Advanced Option use the arrow keys and select Safe Mode with Networking then hit
Windows will now load the SafeMode with Networking.
Press and hold both R key and Windows key.

If done correctly, the Windows Run Box will show up.
Type in explorer http://www.fixmypcfree.com/install/spyremoverpro

A single space must be in between explorer and http. Click OK.

A dialogue box will be displayed by Internet Explorer. Click Run to begin downloading the program. The installation will start automatically once a download is done.