Spyware? Need help identifying and removing.

Hello,

Yesterday evening I managed to somehow catch a troyan (or malware, wild guess here, lack of knowledge of what exactly they mean). After trying to remove it for the last few hours, I would die for a bit of help now.

I am using Windows XP SP2.

The troyan removal tool I downloaded from this site found nothing. Ad-Aware found the following objects:

- Adware.Admess (6 Objects Total)
- Alexa (17 Objects Total)
- DailyToolbar (14 Objects Total)
- FakeAlert (25 Objects Total)
- WinFavorites (12 Objects Total)
- CoolWebSearch (2 Objects Total)
- Transponder (1 Objects Total)
- VX2 (5 Objects Total)
- Tracking Cookie (1 Objects Total)
- MRU List (10 Objects Total)
- Other (1 Objects Total)

I removed them, rebooted. Launched Internet Explorer, same "homepage". Scan with Ad-Aware and all same items are found again.
I also tried scanning in safe mode without internet access.
I tried scanning after turning off System Restore.
Same items come up after launching IE and rescanning with Ad-Aware.

Besides getting frequent popups and messed up IE "homepage" I also can't click on any buttons in "Internet options" or "Folder options", they seem to be disabled. For example, I can't delete cookies or change security settings now.


Any pointers would help.

Best regards,
Griovejas

 

The log, maybe that will help

 

Welcome to MajorGeeks.com!

Please follow our standard cleaning procedures which are necessary for us to provide you support. Also there are steps included for installing, running, and posting HijackThis logs as attachments.

- Run ALL the steps in this Sticky thread READ & RUN ME FIRST Before Asking for Support

• Make sure you check version numbers and get all updates.

After doing ALL of the above you still have a problem make sure you have booted to normal mode and run the steps in the below link to properly use HijackThis:

Downloading, Installing, and Running HijackThis

Make sure you also rename HijackThis.exe as suggested in the procedures. Use analyse.exe for the new name. This is very important due to some new infections going around.

When you return to make your next post, make sure you attach the following logs and that you have run these scans in the following order too:

• runkeys.txt - the log from GetRunKey.bat
• newfiles.txt - the log from ShowNew.bat
• CounterSpy - ONLY IF you were not able to run Windows Defender
• Bitdefender - from step 6
• Panda Scan - from step 6
• HijackThis

 

Tried every scanning software i could find. Even if they find some items and remove them, once I launch IE - those items come back next scan.

 

last batch of logs

 

Download
- Pocket Killbox

Copy the contents of the below quote box to Notepad; Save As FixReg.reg to your Desktop. DO NOT run it as this time we will do that later in Safe Mode.

Close Notepad.

Confirm HijackThis default configuartion settings.
1. Run Hijack This
2. Click on the "None of the above, just start the program" button
3. Under "Other stuff", click on the "Config..." button
4. Make sure the following have check marks next to them:

• Make backups before fixing
• Confirm fixing & ignoring of items (safe mode)
• Ignore non-standard but safe domains in IE (e.g. msn.com, microsoft.com)
• Indclude list of running processes in logfiles
• Show intro frame at startup

5. Click on the "Back" Button

Place a checkmark in the box next to the following lines:

Click on the 'Fix checked' button. Wait for HijackThis to finish; close HijackThis.

Now run Pocket Killbox:

Choose Tools -> Delete Temp Files and click Delete Selected Temp Files

Then after it deletes the files click the Exit (Save Settings) button.

NOTE: Pocket Killbox will only list the added files it is able to find on the system. So when you do the below, if some files do not show in the list after pasting them in, just continue..

Select:

• Delete on Reboot
• then Click on the All Files button.
• Please copy the file paths below to the clipboard by highlighting ALL of them and pressing CTRL + C (or, after highlighting, right-click and choose copy):
• Return to Killbox, go to the File menu, and choose Paste from Clipboard.
• Click the red-and-white Delete File button. Click Yes at the Delete on Reboot prompt. Click OK at any PendingFileRenameOperations prompt (and please let me know if you receive this message!).

If Killbox does not reboot or you get a Pending Operations type error message just reboot your PC yourself.

Now boot into SAFE MODE

Locate FixReg.reg on your Desktop. Double-click on it and answer 'Yes' when asked if you want to merge with the registry.

Open ExplorerXP navigate to and DELETE the following: (Some of these may have already been deleted by Pocket Killbox)

Now run CCleaner. If you have Windows XP delete the contents of C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch.

Then, as an added precaution, Go to Start -> Run and type: cleanmgr and then click OK. Make sure the boxes for these are checked:
Temporary Files
Temporary Internet Files
Recycle Bin

And Click OK.

REBOOT to Normal Mode.

Post a fresh CounterSpy log and a fresh HijackThis log.

 

I have done everything step by step, no errors encountered whatsoever.
I have not located any of the listed files after booting in safe mode, they were probably deleted by KillBox.
The problem is still there.

Please find the new logs of CounterSpy and HijackThis attached.

P.S. I have launched IE after all the operations were completed and I rebooted in normal mode. Both new scans were done after IE had been opened. Not sure if that matters.

 

Follow the directions for the following:
- Using GetRunKey
- Using ShowNew

Post runkey.txt and newfiles.txt when finished. Both of these scripts have been updated since you last ran them, make sure you download them again.