FileFix Professional is ransomware that requires you to purchase it in order to fix files that have been encrypted on your computer. This program is advertised through a Trojan that has a filename of C:\Windows\system32\fpfstb.dll. When you are infected with this Trojan, every time you open a Office document, PDF, etc, it will encrypt the file so that it becomes unreadable by it's normal application. When you try to open these files, this same Trojan will display an alert stating that your file is corrupted and that you should click on the alert in order to fix the file. When you click on this alert, it will automatically download and install FileFix Professional on to your computer. The current text of this alert is:

Windows File Protection

Windows detected that some of your MS Office and media files are corrupted. Click here to download and install recommended file repair application.

When FileFix Professional runs it will scan your computer for encrypted files and then allow you to fix only one of these corrupted files. Unfortunately, if the Trojan is still installed on your computer it would just encrypt it again when you access the document.

 

 

FileFix Professional 2009 showing corrupted documents
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 3 images you can view.

 

 

Below is a removal guide that will remove FileFix and the fpfstb.dll Trojan. Unfortunately, it does not fix the files that were encrypted on your computer. While we wait for AV vendors to figure out a way to decrypt your files, I have come up with a convoluted method of fixing your encrypted files. Please use the removal guide below to remove the Trojan and the FileFix program from your computer. Then follow these instructions in order to repair your files:

 

Julia Wolf from FireEye, has been able to come up with a decryption routine that can be used to repair the files encrypted by FileFix. Using Julia's decryption technique a program was created called Anti FileFix by Bobby, from Malzilla.org, that can scan your computer for encrypted files and then decrypt them for you automatically. This program can be downloaded from here:

 

Anti FileFix Download Link

 

In order to use the program you should follow these steps:

1. Run Anti FileFix
   
   
2. When the program opens, click on the Select Folder button and then select the folder you would like to scan. If you wish to scan an entire drive, then select the particular drive letter. When the drive is selected, press the OK button.
   
   
3. At this point you can click on the Scan button in order for the program to scan your computer for encrypted files. This mode does not decrypt these files. On the other hand, if you wish to find and decrypt any files that Anti FileFix finds, then you should click on the Scan and Fix button.

When the files are decrypted, they will be decrypted into a new filename in the same folder with _fixed(1) appended to the original filename. So if the file was named test.doc, the decrypted version will be test_fixed(1).doc. If you just need to decrypt one or two files, then you can continue to use the web decryption tool created by FireEye.

I would like to thank Julia Wolf, from FireEye, for creating the decryption and identification routines and Bobby, from Mazilla.org, for creating the bulk decryption scanner.

 

Threat Classification:

• Information on Rogue Programs & Scareware
• Trojan Horses

 

Advanced information:

View FileFix Professional files.
View FileFix Professional Registry Information.

 

Entries for this program found in the Uninstall Programs control panel:

FileFix Professional 2009

 

Tools Needed for this fix:

• Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

 

Guide Updates:

03-19-09 - Initial guide creation.
03-20-09 - Updated to include the new decryption tool by FireEye.
03-21-09 - Updated to include instructions on how to decrypt your files with Anti FileFix.

 

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Automated Removal Instructions for FileFix Professional using Malwarebytes Anti-Malware:

 

1. Print out these instructions as we will need to close every window that is open later in the fix.
   
   
2. Download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, or MBAM, from the following location and save it to your desktop:
   
   Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Download Link (Download page will open in a new window)
   
   


3. Once downloaded, close all programs and Windows on your computer, including this one.
   
   
4. Double-click on the icon on your desktop named mbam-setup.exe. This will start the installation of MBAM onto your computer.
   
   
5. When the installation begins, keep following the prompts in order to continue with the installation process. Do not make any changes to default settings and when the program has finished installing, make sure you leave both the Update Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes Anti-Malware checked. Then click on the Finish button.
   
   
6. MBAM will now automatically start and you will see a message stating that you should update the program before performing a scan. As MBAM will automatically update itself after the install, you can press the OK button to close that box and you will now be at the main program as shown below.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. On the Scanner tab, make sure the the Perform full scan option is selected and then click on the Scan button to start scanning your computer for FileFix Professional related files.
   
   
8. MBAM will now start scanning your computer for malware. This process can take quite a while, so we suggest you go and do something else and periodically check on the status of the scan. When MBAM is scanning it will look like the image below.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. When the scan is finished a message box will appear as shown in the image below.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   You should click on the OK button to close the message box and continue with the FileFixProfessional removal process.
   
   
10. You will now be back at the main Scanner screen. At this point you should click on the Show Results button.
    
    
11. A screen displaying all the malware that the program found will be shown as seen in the image below. Please note that the infections found may be different than what is shown in the image.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    You should now click on the Remove Selected button to remove all the listed malware. MBAM will now delete all of the files and registry keys and add them to the programs quarantine. When removing the files, MBAM may require a reboot in order to remove some of them. If it displays a message stating that it needs to reboot, please allow it to do so. Once your computer has rebooted, and you are logged in, please continue with the rest of the steps.
    
    
12. When MBAM has finished removing the malware, it will open the scan log and display it in Notepad. Review the log as desired, and then close the Notepad window.
    
    
13. You can now exit the MBAM program.
    

Your computer should now be free of the FileFixProfessional program. If your current anti-virus solution let this infection through, you may want to consider purchasing the PRO version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to protect against these types of threats in the future.

If you are still having problems with your computer after completing these instructions, then please follow the steps outlined in the topic linked below:

Preparation Guide For Use Before Using Malware Removal Tools and Requesting Help

 

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Associated FileFix Professional Files:

C:\Program Files\FileFix Professional 2009
C:\Program Files\FileFix Professional 2009\unins000.dat
C:\Program Files\FileFix Professional 2009\unins000.exe
C:\Program Files\FileFix Professional 2009\wizard.exe
C:\Program Files\FileFix Professional 2009\wizard.url
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\FileFix Professional 2009.lnk
%UserProfile%\Desktop\FileFix Professional 2009.lnk
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\FileFix Professional 2009
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\FileFix Professional 2009\FileFix Professional 2009 on the Web.lnk
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\FileFix Professional 2009\FileFix Professional 2009.lnk
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\FileFix Professional 2009\Uninstall FileFix Professional 2009.lnk

File Location Notes:

%UserProfile% refers to the current user's profile folder. By default, this is C:\Documents and Settings\<Current User> for Windows 2000/XP, C:\Users\<Current User> for Windows Vista/7/8, and c:\winnt\profiles\<Current User> for Windows NT.

 

Associated FileFix Professional Windows Registry Information:

%UserProfile%HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\FileFix Professional 2009_is1

 

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BleepingComputer.com can not be held responsible for problems that may occur by using this information. If you would like help with any of these fixes, you can ask for malware removal assistance in our Virus, Trojan, Spyware, and Malware Removal Logs forum.

If you have any questions about this self-help guide then please post those questions in our Am I infected? What do I do? and someone will help you.