Extract text from Ransomware encrypted files (CADQ)
To convert CADQ Encrypted files to another format, you need Emsisoft Decryptor or other Encoded software.
To convert other file formats to the "Ransomware Encrypted Data" file type, you need software like Emsisoft Decryptor or a similar tool.
The .CADQ file extension indicates a file that has been maliciously encrypted by the Cadq ransomware, a notorious variant of the STOP/Djvu malware family. When a Windows computer is infected, the ransomware targets documents, archives, and media files, scrambling their contents and appending the .cadq extension to the original filename (for example, turning invoice.pdf into invoice.pdf.cadq).
Because this is a cryptographic lockbox rather than a standard file format, there is no official software designed to 'open' it. Cybersecurity firms occasionally update tools like the Emsisoft Decryptor for STOP Djvu to restore files, but this only works if the malware used an 'offline' encryption key.
Users desperately try to convert .CADQ files back to their original target formats like JPG, PDF, or DOCX. However, a severe real-world disadvantage of this format is that it is fundamentally broken. Standard online converters will fail immediately because the ransomware destroys the file's structural header, making it unrecognizable to normal parsing engines.
This file format is exceptionally difficult to open or convert because the data is locked behind military-grade encryption. Only the original mathematical key can properly reassemble the data. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or conversion may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your CADQ file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted PDF files.
If you want to convert CADQ file to BASE64, HEX, BIN, ENC, CRYPT, AES, DES, RSA, PGP, GPG, ASC or KEY, you can use Emsisoft Decryptor or similar software from the "Ransomware Encrypted File" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert CER, BIN, PEM, DER, KEY, P7S, PFX, ENC, P12, BASE64, P7B or HEX files to CADQ, try Emsisoft Decryptor or another comparable tool in the "Ransomware Encrypted File" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our CADQ converter.