Seems more and more people are getting hijacked or getting riddled with spyware and can't get rid of the pests.
I put together a little article to help you start fighting back and regaining control of your computer.
** Later on, you'll be asked to stay off the net and close all Windows Applications, including your browser (i.e. Internet Explorer), so you may want to PRINT this out.
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01.
Update and run any anti-virus (AV), anti-trojan (AT), and anti-spyware (AS) products you already have installed on your computer. Do full scans of your computer.
Record exactly the malware names, and file names and locations, of any malware the scans turn up. Quarantine then repair, rename or delete any malware found.
If the scanners say you have
Trojan-Spy.HTML.Smitfraud.c malware infection and/or any of it’s variants,
Win32.puper, AVGold, Security iGuard, Spyware Vanisher, quicknavigate.com, updateSearches.com, startsearches.net, Virtual Maid, Search Maid, RazeSpyware, SpySheriff, PSGuard, SpyAxe, WinHound, SpyFalcon, AlfaCleaner, SpywareStrike... SpywareQuake, VirusBurst, Video ActiveX Object, SpyDawn, SpyLocked, then you should download a free tool called SmitRem.
http://tinyurl.com/95tzv
Save the file to your desktop. Double click it to extract the contents to a folder of it’s own.
Restart your computer in safe mode, logon to the user account that is infected, open the smitRem folder and double click the
RunThis.bat file to start the tool.
Also download Malwarebytes' Anti_malware
http://tinyurl.com/ynjtrs to your desktop.
Great removal instructions can be found here:
http://tinyurl.com/2pdtb5
Panda ActiveScan online should be run following the use of this tool, since it can detect and often repair anything not found and removed with the tool.
http://tinyurl.com/455j
If you've been infected by
Antispyware2008, Antivirus XP 2008, go to this link:
http://tinyurl.com/4ooc5t
If the scanners say you have
Winfixer / Virtumonde / Msevents / Trojan.vundo.b, then follow the instructions here for removal:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic18610.html
If you can't access security web sites, check your "Hosts" file:
http://www.dslreports.com/faq/10131
If you are
having trouble with loss of internet access, then download, install and run LSP-Fix:
http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm
If you cannot get the LSP-Fix download then an alternate method would be to open a command prompt. (Start > Run...type in
cmd and press 'OK' or go to Start > All Programs > Accessories >Command Prompt)
At the flashing cursor (prompt) type in
netsh winsock reset and press ENTER on your keyboard. When finished, Reboot.
If your homepage is hijacked to
res://random.dll/index.html#random, then download and run
About:Buster. The download and tutorial can be found here:
http://tinyurl.com/a3stx
02.
Run two or three free web based AV scanners.
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
http://www.ewido.net/en/onlinescan/
http://www.eset.com/threat-center/cac.php
http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/
http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner
http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/ActiveScan.htm
http://security.symantec.com/
http://www.windowsecurity.com/trojanscan/
Record the malware names, and file names and locations, of any malware the scans find. Repair, quarantine or delete any malware found.
03.
Download 5 tools...Download:
Trend Micro CWShredder:
http://tinyurl.com/auv67
EliteToolbar Remover:
http://www.simplytech.it/ETRemover/
McAfee AVERT Stinger:
http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/
SUPERAntiSpyware:
http://tinyurl.com/klkcy
SpyBot S&D:
http://tinyurl.com/ziar
An alternate download site for CWShredder and HijackThis is
http://tinyurl.com/8pf9v
Save them to your Desktop or folder of your choice. (I prefer to make a folder called "Downloads" in which I place all downloaded files into).
04.
Run CWShredder. With it open and ALL other windows closed let CWshredder FIX all problems. Do this from Safe Mode.
http://tinyurl.com/pfca
* If CWShredder doesn't run:
* Download PepiMK's CoolWWWSearch.Smartsearch killer.
http://www.safer-networking.org/files/delcwssk.zip
* Run CoolWWWSearch.Smartsearch.
* Then return to CWShredder to clean up.
* In CWShredder, click "check for update".
* If an update is available, click "Download and open the update".
* Click "Scan only".
* If Coolwebsearch keeps returning, or if a scanner says you have
cws.searchx, you need to take some extra steps before you carry on to see what else you have:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/cwschronicles.html
*If you need to find the "hidden appinit value" used by certain versions of CoolWebSearch, then go here:
http://forums.subratam.org/index.php?showtopic=583 for step-by-step instructions.
05.
Run EliteToolbar Remover.
*Unzip (extract) into a newly created folder made by you.
*Reboot your machine in Safe Mode (just click the F8 key as the PC is starting, just before the MS Windows flag screen appears) and run the EliteToolbar Remover.
*Click the "Kill Elite Toolbar" button and wait until it finishes its work.
*Occasionally a DOS box may appear asking your permission to delete some files in temporary Windows directories. You must accept the deletion of these to be sure of properly removing the malware!
06.
Run McAfee AVERT Stinger.
*If necessary, click the Add or Browse button to add additional drives/directories to scan. By default the C: drive will be scanned.
*Click the "Scan Now" button to begin scanning.
*By default Stinger will repair all infected files found.
07.
Run SUPERAntiSpyware. Make sure all other windows, including your browser, is closed.
*Click the Check for Updates button.
*Once the update has finished, exit SUPERAntiSpyware. Please do NOT run a scan yet!
*Open SUPERAntiSpyware and click the Scan your Computer button.
*Check Perform Complete Scan and then click Next.
*Make sure that all items found have a check next to them, and then click Next.
*Click 'Finish' and you will be taken back to the main interface.
*It could be possible that it will ask you to reboot your computer in order to delete some files after reboot.
*To get the log which you should post, click Preferences and then click the Statistics/Logs tab. Click the dated log and press View Log and a text file will appear.
08.
Run SpyBot S&D. Make sure all other windows are Closed and your browser isn't running.
* Click on "Update" in the left column.
* Click on "Search for Updates".
* Select a download location (usually one close to you).
* Click "Download Updates" and wait of the updating process to finish.
* Check that all Internet Explorer (web browser) windows are closed.
* Click "Search and Destroy" in the left column.
* Click "Check for Problems".
* Have Spybot remove/fix all the problems it identifies in
RED. The items not listed in red should not be touched at this time.
Spybot S&D Tutorial:
http://tinyurl.com/5wssa
09.
Download, install, update and run an Anti-Trojan Application. Choose one of these:
Comodo BOClean:
http://www.comodo.com/boclean/boclean.html (This only runs in the background)
TrojanHunter (30-day free trial):
http://www.misec.net/trojanhunter/
Update it, then reboot into safe mode and run the program.
10. If there is still a problem, download
HijackThis:
http://tinyurl.com/3byxku
Run HJT and click on the "Open the misc tools section".
Click on "open uninstall manager".
Then Click "save list". This will create a log called uninstall_list.txt. Save it where you wish.
Once saved, it will open in Notepad.
Please Copy and paste or post the contents of "uninstall_list.txt" as well as the HJT log into any thread started by you.
To post a HJT log, open the program and click on "Do a System scan and save a logfile". There will be a pause in the scan during 015 Trusted Zone enumeration.....
When the scan is finished, the logfile will open up in Wordpad.
Copy and paste the contents of that into the thread.
Once done, go to File > SAVE AS, and name it today's date_hijackthis.log (2008-09-06_hijackthis.log) and save it in the HJT folder.
Here is a tutorial on how to use it:
http://tinyurl.com/2uy4o
Copy and paste this log into a post started by you in PC Questions & Answers Forum (not in this thread) for us to see.
11. Download Find_It_s.zip to your desktop:
http://tinyurl.com/6e7jks
Make a new folder in C:\
Unzip/extract the files inside Find_It_s.zip to the new folder you made . Open the folder and run Find_It_s.bat and wait for a text to open. It will take a while ...then post the resulting log. This will search for Aurora entries specifically, among other things.
12. To prevent important system files being deleted accidentally, Windows XP and Windows Me has a feature called
System Restore. It makes backups of of these system files and restores the backups if the original file goes missing.
To prevent malware being restored by the operating system, it is often necessary to clear the backup files from System Restore
AFTER the malware is deleted. (This is called "clearing the System Restore points". To do this, turn System Restore off, wait 30 seconds, and then turn System Restore back on.
Waiting until after your computer is clean of malware to clear the System Restore points is because if there is a problem during cleaning, System Restore can be used to try to correct it.
Instructions for turning System Restore on and off:
Enabling/Disabling System Restore:
http://tinyurl.com/dm4u3
Symantec - System Restore:
http://tinyurl.com/84kov
If you do a scan and get a virus detected in the _RESTORE or the System Volume Information folder (System Restore), but it cannot repair, quarantine, or delete the infected file....DO NOT WORRY ABOUT IT UNTIL THE REST OF YOUR SYSTEM IS CLEAN.
13.
Empty out these three(3) folders once your system is clean. (just the contents and not the folder itself):
Go to Start | Run and type in the box:
cleanmgr. Let it scan your system for files to remove. Make sure these 3 are checked and then press "ok" to remove:
Temporary Files
Temporary Internet Files
Recycle Bin
....or....
* Temporary Internet Files. In the Control Panel, open Internet Options, and under the general tab, click on "Delete Files".
In the next window, put a check to "Delete all offline content" too. OK out to save.
* Temp folder contents. In XP, that's C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\ Local Settings\Temp. In Windows 98, it's found in C:\Windows\Temp.
* Empty the Recycle Bin.
If you don't own a firewall or use Xp's Windows Firewall, I would really recommend downloading a free one off the internet and disable Windows Firewall
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283673
The best free firewalls are:
Online Armor:
http://www.tallemu.com/free-firewall...-software.html
Zone Alarm Free:
http://tinyurl.com/dqs5h
Comodo Firewall:
http://www.comodo.com/products/free_products.html
Kerio Personal Firewall:
http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html
Sygate Personal Firewall:
http://smb.sygate.com/download_buy.htm
Outpost Firewall Free:
http://www.agnitum.com/download/
Then, make sure you visit the Microsoft Windows Update site:
http://tinyurl.com/c36nx and get all "High Priority" updates.
Copyright © 2004 Crockett