Can't remove Russian fake antivirus

Discussion in 'Malware Help - MG (A Specialist Will Reply)' started by thatguyjoe, Jul 4, 2009.

  1. thatguyjoe

    thatguyjoe Private E-2

    My father's computer was used by a guest who reported it stopped working. It's windows XP Home. It will start up and open windows. Then a blue page with Russian text appears. The only word that seems to be in western test is "CASH". It has a couple of blanks to fill in information and a grey button to press, presumable to send information. At one point it seemed to also give a window saying that a .dll had been corrupted by a virus. I assume, but don't know for sure, that this is a typical page telling me that I must pay them to remove the malware they have installed.

    I cannot get the desktop or anything else to appear. If I try to get task manager or press the windows key I can see them for a second, then the cyrillic malware page obscures them.

    So I can only run the computer in safe mode. I tried restoring the system to a date before the trouble. It said it could not do so. I have run AVG, Malwarebytes, and Panda's online scanner. They all find some problems, but nothing solves this. I have msconfig set to normal. I have run cc cleaner. I have disabled system restore. I've tried combofix, rootrepeal and SAS. SAS says an administrative setting is preventing it from running. when run as administrator it says it won't run in safe mode.
    ComboFix seems to have run, but when it completes XP resets in normal mode and the cyrillic malware prevents me from seeing if it's produced a log.
    rootrepeal didn't seem to work.
    I have removed many instances of malware from many computers in the past. This is the first that has stumped me for this long.

    View attachment MGlogs.zip

    View attachment mbam-log-2009-07-03 (23-30-01).txt
     
  2. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    Welcome to Major Geeks!


    Run C:\MGtools\analyse.exe by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista, don't double click, use right click and select Run As Administrator). This is really HijackThis (select Do a system scan only) and select the following lines but DO NOT CLICK FIX until you exit all browser sessions including the one you are reading in right now:

    R3 - URLSearchHook: (no name) - {EA756889-2338-43DB-8F07-D1CA6FB9C90D} - (no file)
    O2 - BHO: (no name) - {5C255C8A-E604-49b4-9D64-90988571CECB} - (no file)
    O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Cognac] C:\DOCUME~1\Owner\LOCALS~1\Temp\b.exe
    O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [windll] C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Application Data\vqkbs.exe
    O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [LowRiskFileTypes] C:\WINDOWS\sysguard.exe

    NOTE: HJT may popup an error about the AppInit_DLLs line. Ignore it and click OK to continue.
    After clicking Fix, exit HJT.


    Now download The Avenger by Swandog46, and save it to your Desktop.
    • Extract avenger.exe from the Zip file and save it to your desktop
    • Run avenger.exe by double-clicking on it.
    • Do not change any check box options!!
    • Copy everything in the Quote box below, and paste it into the Input script here: part of the window:
    • Now click the Execute button.
    • Click Yes to the prompt to confirm you want to execute.
    • Click Yes to the Reboot now? question that will appear when Avenger finishes running.
    • Your PC should reboot, if not, reboot it yourself.
    • A log file from Avenger will be produced at C:\avenger.txt and it will popup for you to view when you login after reboot.

    After reboot look for all of the above files we had Avenger attempt to delete. If you still see them, delete them yourself.

    Now uninstall the below old versions of software:
    J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 10
    J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 6
    J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 9
    Java 2 Runtime Environment, SE v1.4.2_04
    Java(TM) 6 Update 2
    Java(TM) 6 Update 3
    Java(TM) 6 Update 5
    Java(TM) 6 Update 7
    Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment 6 Update 1

    Now see if you can get SUPERAntiSpyware and ComboFix to run

    Now run Ccleaner. Only use the Run Cleaner button. Do not run anything else on any other forms.

    Now run the C:\MGtools\GetLogs.bat file by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista, don't double click, use right click and select Run As Administrator).

    Then attach the below logs:
    • C:\avenger.txt
    • the SUPERAntiSpyware and ComboFix logs if they ran
    • C:\MGlogs.zip
    Make sure you tell me how things are working now!
     
  3. thatguyjoe

    thatguyjoe Private E-2

    Thank you for your help!
    While waiting for your reply I used the online panda scan along with killbox and those of your suggested tools I could get working and managed to stop the russian fake anti-virus from preventing access to use of the computer. I then ran SuperAntiSpy, ComboFix, etc. and the computer seemed to work acceptably. Then it crashed and the hard drive wasn't recognized.
    During the week, I am told, they tried again and the computer worked. It has worked since. Last night I ran SuperAntiSpy and it found some parts of the infection left behind.
    Today I did everything you said except run SuperAntiSpy again. That I will do tonight when the comptuer has time to do the full scan.

    Everything seems clear to me. I am very happy and can't express enough my gratitude that you are willing to do so much to help the clueless.
     

    Attached Files:

  4. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    You're welcome


    You are almost clean. We have another malware driver to remove.
    Now we need to use ComboFix
    • Make sure that combofix.exe that you downloaded while doing the READ & RUN ME is on your Desktop but Do not run it!
      • If it is not on your Desktop, the below will not work.
    • Also make sure you have shut down all protection software (antivirus, antispyware...etc) or they may get in the way of allowing ComboFix to run properly.
    • If ComboFix tells you it needs to update to a new version, make sure you allow it to update.
    • Open Notepad and copy/paste the text in the below quote box into it:
    • Save the above as CFscript.txt and make sure you save it to the same location (should be on your Desktop) as ComboFix.exe
    • At this point, you MUST EXIT ALL BROWSERS NOW before continuing!
    • You should have both the ComboFix.exe and CFScript.txt icons on your Desktop.
    • Now use your mouse to drag CFscript.txt on top of ComboFix.exe
    • Follow the prompts.
    • When it finishes, a log will be produced named c:\combofix.txt
    • I will ask for this log below
    Note:

    Do not mouseclick combofix's window while it is running. That may cause it to stall.

    Now run Ccleaner. Only use the Run Cleaner button. Do not run anything else on any other forms.

    Now run the C:\MGtools\GetLogs.bat file by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista, don't double click, use right click and select Run As Administrator).

    Then attach the below logs:
    • C:\ComboFix.txt
    • C:\MGlogs.zip
    Make sure you tell me how things are working now!
     

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