Malware Removal

[wuiwui]

I connected my portable harddisk to my NEC laptop last week and suspected my laptop had been infected with virus. Everytime I reboot my laptop, when it prompted for boot password, the password was entered automatically without me typing. I scanned with Avast but did not find any virus.

I followed the Malware Removal Guide (everything run smoothly except when running Root Repeal, I had to close a the dialog "Error - Invalid PE image found") and attached the logs here.

Would appreciate it very much for your kind help.

[wuiwui]

Attached is MGlogs.zip.

[TimW]

I am confused. This is a laptop? The hard drive is partitioned? And you have some programs running from the C: drive and others from the E: drive?

Was the external drive plugged in when you ran the scans?

We can do a little cleaning, but none of it is malware:

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:

O2 - BHO: (no name) - {206E52E0-D52E-11D4-AD54-0000E86C26F6} - (no file)
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {5C8B2A36-3DB1-42A4-A3CB-D426709BBFEB} - (no file)
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {7E853D72-626A-48EC-A868-BA8D5E23E045} - (no file)
O3 - Toolbar: (no name) - {62999427-33FC-4baf-9C9C-BCE6BD127F08} - (no file)
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [SpybotSD TeaTimer] E:\Installed\Spybot - Search & Destroy\TeaTimer.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [MSMSGS] "C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe" /background
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {CD67F990-D8E9-11d2-98FE-00C0F0318AFE} - (no file)

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.

REGEDIT4

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{206E52E0-D52E-11D4-AD54-0000E86C26F6}]

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{5C8B2A36-3DB1-42A4-A3CB-D426709BBFEB}]

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{7E853D72-626A-48EC-A868-BA8D5E23E045}]

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.

If you haven't run SAS or MBAM with the external inserted, please do so. If you did already do that, then we may need to send you to the software forum, as it sounds like something that you may have set.

[wuiwui]

Dear TimW

Thanks for your help. You are right. This is a laptop and the hard drive is partitioned. Windows is installed in C: drive and most other programs are installed in E: drive.

I followed the instructions about adding the registry and received a success message.

Attached are the logs from SAS and MBAM with the external harddisk inserted.

I found that when opening Notepad and Words, the "=" sign was automatically and continuously appeared without typing, but when I tried to type "=" using my keyboard, it will not show. I guess it might be due to corrupted file if it is not due to malware...

[TimW]

This would appear to be either a software or hardware issue. But I would suggest that you save all of your data and personal info to a cd, then remove all the partitions and reinstall everything on the one drive.
It looks like you only have a 30 gig drive and spreading things out around different partitions will make things slow down and since you only have this much RAM:
Total Physical Memory 384.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 73.34 MB
you are going to be slow as it is.

If you are using a wireless keyboard (?) then the issue you have with the two programs may be related to that keyboard. ( Why are you using that? Is your laptop keyboard no longer functioning?)

[wuiwui]

It looks like I have to re-install my Windows XP. By the way, it's the laptop keyboard... Thanks for your help!

[TimW]

You are most welcome. I hope you are able to sort this out. If you choose to work on the issues in one of the other forums before doing a repair install, then:

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!