All files are showing up as symbols in Notepad++

[Zeba Hasan]

Hi,

I’m not sure what happened, but all of a sudden all of my files when I try editing in Notepad++ are showing up as symbols. Below is a copy of some of the file in Notepad++.

PK   Ä ¡L£¬†´  À( ( (filename)½ëvÛF²(üÖÚrÊ“M‹àå³Y3qÆVˉgÆŸWDBG$A¤.~€ýbûžêûÝ@t±‘Ù;±A »ºººªº®ãÿw³˜{Wá:žE˃†ÿ´ÕðÂå$šÎ–çíæ¬9lxÿïùýå¿þ2þ?ͦwºÍ§^»åý§þði«ë÷ŸúNÏKÿ§Ù„!Æ×Ñúò4Š.½h=;Ÿ-ƒySLÜzÚkxq´]OÂ&žä fy
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[Peter Brand]

That looks like the file is a zip file; they normally start with the bytes “PK”. What is the file’s extension?

[Ty Ty]

I’m also experiencing the above error, how to edit, normal like the original? My file was originally a .txt file, but when it encountered a virus, it was encrypted and converted to a .CRAB file. Please help, I can not read all the old files.

[PeterJones]

@Ty-Ty : if it was a ransomware/virus that did it, your best bet is to restore from your backup. (You do have a backup of all your critical files, don’t you?)

If it truly is encrypted, there’s not much else you can do, unless you happen to know the encryption key. If it’s ransomware, the malicious software has probably started telling you who to pay to recover your data – don’t. Once you pay them, there’s no guarantee they’ll actually supply (or even still have) the decryption key. There are probably some white-hat [good-guy] companies out that you may be able to pay to break the encryption, and decrypt/rescue your files… but these forums are not your best bet for finding such (and with the skill of the malware authors nowadays, there’s often not much even professionals can do).

I did a google on .CRAB files, and found this article in the Sensors Tech Forum… I don’t know how reputable that site is, so you’ll want to do some research yourself, but that may at least be a place to start.

[David Bailey]

Ty Ty,

Since that file is very probably a ZIP file, but possibly with another file suffix, I suggest you copy it to a file with a name such as test.zip, and then try to open it with explorer. It may or may not contain your files, which may or may not be readable - depending exactly what has happened.

[Ben Wallas]

FBI published GandCrab master decryption keys https://geeksadvice.com/fbi-published-gandcrab-master-decryption-keys/

[PeterJones]

“GandCrab” malware hasn’t really been active since 2019. Since this forum is dedicated to Notepad++, not to general computer safety and solving virus/malware infections, I don’t know that we really need to be adding any more links years after the fact.

This topic will be locked as “off topic”

To future readers:

• If you found this post because you were searching the internet for solutions for GandCrab infections, my best advice to you is to look in places other than a discussion forum focused on a specific text editor: this Community Forum in general, or this topic in particular, will not become a link farm to list every possible site to help you. I’d suggest moving on.
• If you are a Notepad++ user, and like the person who started this topic, you suddenly start seeing all your files turn into .crab files: this isn’t Notepad++'s fault: you have been infected with malware, and the Notepad++ Community are not the experts to help you remove said infection.