desperate to shake malware on my machine ("goatse?")

Welcome to Major Geeks!

Please read ALL of this message including the notes before doing anything.

Pleases follow the instructions in the below link:

READ & RUN ME FIRST. Malware Removal Guide


and attach the requested logs when you finish these instructions.

• **** If something does not run, write down the info to explain to us later but keep on going. ****
• Do not assume that because one step does not work that they all will not. MGtools will frequently run even when all other tools will not.

• After completing the READ & RUN ME and attaching your logs, make sure that you tell us what problems still remain ( if any still do )!

Helpful Notes:

1. If you run into problems trying to run the READ & RUN ME or any of the scans in normal boot mode, you can run the steps in safe boot mode but make sure you tell us what you did later when you post logs. See the below if you do not know how to boot in safe mode:
   
   
   • Starting your computer in Safe mode
2. If you have problems downloading on the problem PC, download the tools and the manual updates for SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes ( links are given in the READ & RUN ME) onto another PC and then burn to a CD. Then copy them to the problem PC. You will have to skip getting updates if (and only if) your internet connection does not work. Yes you could use a flash drive too but flash drives are writeable and infections can spread to them.
3. If you cannot seem to login to an infected user account, try using a different user account (if you have one) in either normal or safe boot mode and running only SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes while logged into this other user account. Then reboot and see if you can log into the problem user account. If you can then run SUPERAntiSpyware, Malwarebytes, ComboFix and MGtools on the infected account as requested in the instructions.
4. To avoid additional delay in getting a response, it is strongly advised that after completing the READ & RUN ME you also read this sticky:
   
   • Don't Bump! It Only Hurts You!!!

Any additional post is a bump which will add more delay. Once you attach the logs, your thread will be in the work queue and as stated our system works the oldest threads FIRST.
​

 

Please try doing the below:

Please download and run the below tool named Rkill (courtesy of BleepingComputer.com) which may help allow other programs to run.

There are 4 different versions. If one of them won't run then download and try to run the other one.

Vista and Win7 users need to right click and choose Run as Administrator

You only need to get one of them to run, not all of them. You may get warnings from your antivirus about this tool, ignore them or shutdown your antivirus.

1. Rkill.exe
2. Rkill.com
3. Rkill.scr
4. Rkill.pif

Once you've gotten one of them to run then try to immediately run the following.

Now download and Run exeHelper

• Please download exeHelper to your desktop.
• Double-click on exeHelper.com to run the fix.
• A black window should pop up, press any key to close once the fix is completed.
• Post the contents of log.txt (Will be created in the directory where you ran exeHelper.com)

Note: If the window shows a message that says "Error deleting file", please re-run the program before posting a log - and post the two logs together (they will both be in the one file).

Now download the current version of MGtools and save it to your root folder.

Then attach the below logs:

C:\avplog.txt - from AVPfind
log.txt - from exeHelper
C:\MGlogs.zip - from MGtools

You may have to consider removing your hard drive and slaving to a very well protected computer and saving only your personal files and data. But let's see how the above work.

 

I need you to attach the logs from running:
SAS
MBAM

Now, you need to put ComboFix on your desktop, you can not run it from here:
h:\cleanup xp\ComboFix.exe

You also need to put MGTools.exe on the C:\ drive as in C:\MGTools.exe, not here:
C:\cleanup xp\MGtools.exe

After doing that, please try to run the MGTools.exe again and please have patience. Once it is run, attach the C:\MGLogs.zip.

 

First thing, it is a very bad idea to allow all users to have Admin. privileges!! Any malware that gets into your machine in an Admin account has total access to your entire computer.

Please use add/remove programs to uninstall:
Threatfire --> see the notes here: How to Protect yourself from malware!
Java(TM) 6 Update 3
Java(TM) 6 Update 5
Java(TM) 6 Update 7

I strongly advise you to cleanup your Desktop. Remove everything but links to run programs. Do not download and save programs here and definitely do not use it for long term storage. You need to keep ComboFix.exe here for now as we need it, but we will be removing it when we are finished with your cleanup. A cluttered Desktop is malware's playground and it can also cause performance degradation especially when you start saving large files here like you are doing.

Please disable all anti-virus and anti-spyware programs while we do the following (re-enable when you are finished):

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:

After clicking Fix, exit HJT.

Now Copy the bold text below to notepad. Save it as fixME.reg to your desktop. Be sure the "Save as" type is set to "all files" Once you have saved it double click it and allow it to merge with the registry.

Make sure that you tell me if you receive a success message about adding the above
to the registry. If you do not get a success message, it definitely did not work.

* 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 code box into it (make sure you scroll all the way down in the code box to get all lines selected ):

Code:

KILLALL::

File::
c:\windows\system32\stu2.exe

Folder::
c:\documents and settings\All Users\Application Data\ParetoLogic
C:\Program Files\Common Files\ParetoLogic

* 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.
If it asks you to overide the prvevious file with the same name, click YES.
* 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 to check further, please do this:

• Go to TDSSKiller and Download TDSSKiller.zip to your Desktop
• Extract its contents to your Desktop so that you have TDSSKiller.exe directly on your Desktop and not in any subfolder of the Desktop.
• Click Start > Run and copy/paste the following bold command into Run box and hit Enter.

"%userprofile%\Desktop\TDSSKiller.exe" -l C:\TDSSKiller.txt -v

• Follow the instructions to type in "delete" when it asks you what to do when if finds something.
• When done, a log file should be created on your C: drive called "TDSSKiller.txt" please copy and paste the contents in your next reply.

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!

 

I am not seeing any malware in your logs. You only need to use windows explorer to find and delete:
C:\Documents and Settings\nalesk\Local Settings\temp\MSOHTML1
C:\Documents and Settings\nalesk\Local Settings\temp\RAR$DR00.203

If you are not having any other malware problems, it is time to do our final steps:

1. We recommend you keep SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for scanning/removal of malware. Unless you purchase them, they provide no real-time protection. They are useful as backup scanners.They do not use any significant amount of resources ( except a little disk space ) until you run a scan.
2. If we had you use ComboFix, uninstall ComboFix (This uninstall will only work as written if you installed ComboFix on your Desktop like we requested.)
   
   • Click START then RUN and enter the below into the run box and then click OK. Note the quotes are required
   • "%userprofile%\Desktop\combofix" /uninstall
     
     • Notes: The space between the combofix" and the /u, it must be there.
     • This will uninstall ComboFix and also reset hidden files and folders settings back to Windows defaults.
3. Any other miscellaneous tools we may have had you install or download can be uninstalled and deleted.
4. If we had you download any registry patches like fixme.reg or fixWLK.reg (or any others), you can delete these files now.
5. If running Vista, it is time to make sure you have reenabled UAC by double clicking on the C:\MGtools\enableUAC.reg file and allowing it to be added to the registry.
6. Go to add/remove programs and uninstall HijackThis.
7. Goto the C:\MGtools folder and find the MGclean.bat file. Double click on this file to run this cleanup program that will remove files and folders related to MGtools and some other items from our cleaning procedures.
8. If you are running Vista, Windows XP or Windows ME, do the below:
   
   • Refer to the cleaning procedures in step 3 the READ ME for your Window version and see the instructions to Disable System Restore which will flush your Restore Points.
   • Then reboot and Enable System Restore ato create a new clean Restore Point.
9. After doing the above, you should work thru the below link:
   
   • How to Protect yourself from malware!

 

Are you having the same problem using FireFox? Have you opened device manager and checked for any devices with an X or ? or ! ...?

 

If you are still having problems with your sata...I suggest you post in the hardware section. And good luck!!