Disappearing Antivirus Program

Discussion in 'Malware Help - MG (A Specialist Will Reply)' started by AngelsWilliam, Mar 1, 2011.

  1. AngelsWilliam

    AngelsWilliam Private First Class

    Please ignore my previous post. This is MUCH more important, as it involves the life of my computer!

    Okay, so...I wake in the morning to find a Windows message that my antivirus software may be out of date. Naturally, I "Run LiveUpdate." I get the message that an error occurred while running LiveUpdate. So, I decide to restart my computer.

    Upon restart, there is no sign of the Norton Security Suite icon in my system tray whatsoever. Panic is officially setting in. I try double clicking the desktop icon: Nothing. I try accessing Norton via the program menu: Nothing.

    I decided it was time to run the MG routine. When I got to Combofix, however, I got the message that there was antimalware software running on my computer: Norton Antivirus and Norton Firewall (i.e., Norton Security Suite). Frustrated, I opened task manager to see if the program was running in silent mode, and there was no listing for the software processes there, either. Something very funky was going on, here.

    I decided to try reinstalling. The reinstallation program gave me the message that there was an older version on my computer and asked if I wanted to uninstall it before the installation program proceeded. I went ahead and said okay, just for the h*** of it. After a long installation process, it said I needed to restart. I did, and everything seems to be behaving as normal, but...

    ...the installation program I have on my computer is from ages ago. I just don't trust all this. I went ahead and finished running the MG process...and, sure enough, Combofix took over 20 minutes.

    As usual, RootRepeal took overnight. This time, it didn't complete, though. It got to the point of "Not responding." I tried to click on "Stop," but after 4 hours of it not acknowledging that click, I gave up and stopped the process in Task Manager.

    Another thing I find interesting is MGTools ran without a problem this time, and last time it kept flipping itself off no matter what I did.

    My machine has been running really slowly for about a week (more slowly than usual because of the incredibly full disk, which, by the way, I'm making progress on!), so I'm thinking it's quite possible I have something going on.

    Please humor me and check my logs!

    Oh, and you'll notice I'm still not getting rid of that d*mned AVG thing! It doesn't show up anywhere else but in certain readings, so how do I get it off my computer???

    Thanks so much for all your help!
     

    Attached Files:

  2. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    You are not having a malware issue. Issues with Norton should be addressed in the software forum.

    Let's clean out some of the junk:
    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.

    * 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::
    
    SecCenter::
    {0F8591BB-342B-4493-91C3-4E948ED21255}
    {8decf618-9569-4340-b34a-d78d28969b66}
    
    Driver::
    AvFlt
    Avgfwdx
    
    File::
    c:\winnt\system32\drivers\av5flt.sys
    c:\winnt\system32\DRIVERS\avgfwdx.sys
    
    Registry::
    [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{02478D38-C3F9-4EFB-9B51-7695ECA05670}]
    
    [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{02478D38-C3F9-4EFB-9B51-7695ECA05670}\NoExplorer]
    
    [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{FDAD4DA1-61A2-4FD8-9C17-86F7AC245081}]
    
    
    * 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 previous file with the same name, click YES.
    * Now use your mouse to drag CFscript.txt on top of ComboFix.exe
    [​IMG]
    * 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.

    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 do not use any significant amount of resources ( except a little disk space ) until you run a scan.We recommend them for doing backup scans when you suspect a malware infection.
    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 /uninstall, it must be there.
        • This will uninstall ComboFix and also reset hidden files and folders settings back to Windows defaults.


    3. Go back to step 6 of the READ ME and renable your Disk Emulation software with Defogger if you had disabled it.
    4. Any other miscellaneous tools we may have had you install or download can be uninstalled and deleted.
    5. If we had you download any registry patches like fixme.reg or fixWLK.reg (or any others), you can delete these files now.
    6. 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.
    7. Go to add/remove programs and uninstall HijackThis.
    8. 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.
    9. If you are running Win 7, Vista, Windows XP or Windows ME, do the below:
      • Refer to the cleaning procedures pointed to by step 7 of 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 to create a new clean Restore Point.

    10. After doing the above, you should work thru the below link:


    Malware removal from a National Chain = $149
    Malware removal from MajorGeeks = $0

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  3. AngelsWilliam

    AngelsWilliam Private First Class

    a-squared didn't go away. I only know this because I accidentally ran the scan again after clicking Fix. Everything else had been removed except for a-squared.

    You didn't ask, but I'm attaching it, anyway. 's all right? 's okay?

    Thanks for your response and your help, Tim. You're a great guy.

    Oh, I don't know if it matters since CF didn't stall, but Norton started a background task during Stage 32. I have tried to find a way to shut down the background tasks, but there's no option for that. Stupid PROgrams. *shrugs* It came free with Comcast Internet. I only went with it because I absolutely HATED the new version of Avast!Antivirus.

    Anyway, if that glitch caused a problem, let me know and I'll redo things. *smoochies*

    Thanks again!
     

    Attached Files:

  4. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    You can go to services.msc and check to see if it still is listing a-squared. From there you can delete it. Just go to start / run / type:
    services.msc and look for a2AntiMalware

    Otherwise you are fine.
     

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