This case study documents the high-capacity restoration of a 77 GB Sybase SQL Anywhere 12.0 database following a major server breach by the .faust ransomware. By leveraging the internal page architecture of the .db file, the AS Data Recovery team successfully bypassed the encryption layer to achieve a 100% data recovery rate.
Client & Data Information
- Client Name: Confidential
- Data Type: Sybase SQL Anywhere 12.0 (.db)
- Data Capacity: 77 GB
- Ransomware Extension: .faust
- Primary Issue: Full Server Encryption / Database Corruption
Incident Summary
The client’s server was compromised by the .faust ransomware, which encrypted all production files and appended the .faust extension to the primary 77 GB Sybase Anywhere database. This specific variant of ransomware typically encrypts the file headers and injects encrypted blocks throughout the file to prevent the database engine from mounting the storage. The client’s business was completely halted, and the original backups were also compromised.
Technical Analysis
Upon forensic analysis of the encrypted .db file, AS Data Recovery engineers identified:
- Header and Trailer Destruction: The ransomware destroyed the file’s “Superblocks,” which contain critical metadata about the database version and page size.
- Internal Integrity: Despite the file extension change and header damage, deep-sector scanning revealed that the internal data pages (where the actual table rows reside) remained physically intact within the middle segments of the 77 GB file.
- Page Signature Matching: Using our proprietary Sybase parsing tools, we identified the unique page signatures (0x01 for data pages) that allow for a binary extraction regardless of the encrypted file header.
Recovery Solution
The recovery strategy focused on Page-Level Forensic Carving. Since the database was “blind” without its headers, our engineers bypassed the Sybase SQL Anywhere kernel entirely. We used low-level parsing to scan the raw 77 GB binary stream, identifying and extracting healthy data pages. These pages were then decrypted (where necessary) and reassembled into a valid relational structure.
Recovery Process
- Forensic Imaging: Created a sector-by-sector clone of the 77 GB encrypted database to ensure no further damage occurred during the parsing process.
- Signature Analysis: Utilized AS Data Recovery’s specialized Sybase 12.0 tool to identify the database page size (typically 4KB or 8KB) and locate the data dictionary pages.
- Low-Level Row Extraction: Extracted raw binary records from the isolated data pages, bypassing the encrypted file-level metadata.
- Database Reconstruction: Imported the extracted records into a fresh, unencrypted Sybase SQL Anywhere 12.0 instance.
- Final Integrity Audit: Performed a comprehensive check of all indexes, triggers, and table relationships, confirming a 100% data recovery rate.
Recovery Results
- Recovery Integrity: 100% (Lossless restoration)
- Recovered Volume: 77 GB
- System Status: Database fully operational and migrated to a secure environment.
- Total Recovery Time: 8 Hours
Expert Reminder from AS Data Recovery: Ransomware like .faust often targets the first few megabytes of a file to make it appear unrecoverable. Do not attempt to decrypt the file using public tools, as they can cause irreversible corruption to the internal data pages. Contact AS Data Recovery professionals immediately. We provide specialized recovery for Sybase Anywhere databases of any size, even when headers are missing.