Hijacking firefox & fake virus protection

Two days ago, my computer got taken over. All the sudden, fake "Your computer's security is compromised" popups started popping up, faster and faster. When I went online to try and figure out what to do, every time I'd try to get to a website having anything to do with "virus" or "malware," I'd get redirected. I was pretty much dead in the water, so I ended up manually running a Windows Explorer "search" for files that were changed on that day, and just deleted everything I could find that had been changed within ten minutes of when the popups started happening. I didn't break my computer too badly. I ran the virus checkers I had, and it didn't find anything. It came back the next day. I did a closer check, and I got more files, but my Firefox is still being "redirected," so, here I am...

I ran all of the stuff, and here are the first four attached logs. I'm using Windows XP, service pack 2. Dunno what other info you need - I'll do the best I can to answer any questions you might have.

And, THANK YOU for doing what you guys do!!!

Donna

 

Here are the rest of the logs.

Donna

 

Skype + Utorrent, = virus?

I got hit with a virus two days ago, and I've been poking around trying to track down where it came from. The best I can figure, and this is a guess, is that Skype got a PM from someone I don't know, which triggered a forced download on Utorrent. Is this even possible? That just *seems like* the chain of events, based on the fact that those two things happened immediately after one another, immediately before the virus hit. I hadn't done any other downloading (Utorrent was open, but I didn't have anything downloading), didn't run any files, and hadn't done anything all day, but had been doing some stuff internally on my computer and the occasional traffic to safe, known websites.

If that's an absolutely ridiculous scenario, *please* someone let me know. Please tell me I'm an idiot! I'd rather be told I'm a complete fool, and know nothing about how computers and files work, and then feel comfortable using those two programs again. Really, I would!

Donna

 

Well, I don't seem to be getting hijacked any more. I can get to "virus removal" and "malware removal" websites through Firefox first try now. (I'd figured out how to bypass it - if I opened up a second tab, while the first was "hijacked," I could get to the desired site in the second tab.) I'd also completely uninstalled Firefox, including all of my profiles and saved everythings, and reinstalled it fresh. That actually took two tries to get it to work - I had to completely uninstall and reinstall it twice before it would work, so I think there was something buried deep inside there? (I never, ever use IE, so I don't know if there was a problem with it before, but it seems fine now, too.) And I haven't had any of those bothersome popups in a couple days, since I ran all of the cleaning tools.

I'm crossing my fingers it's gone, gone, gone... And I guess now it looks to you like my system is clean? I hope? Because that was one, annoying, rotten couple of days!

Donna

 

Re: Skype + Utorrent, = virus?

I did already do all of the "Read and Run Me First" stuff, and my logs are in another file. They've just been looked at, and I *think* I'm clean. Yay! In any case, all the Bad Stuff seems to have stopped happening. I'm just really worried about how I got the virus in the first place, and I'm getting nervous about using my own computer!

No, I didn't accept any file, or click on anything. In the hour before the virus hit, what I, personally, was doing was just internal stuff (manipulating internal graphics and Word files) and going to known websites. I hadn't gotten into Skype or Utorrent at all, in well over 24 - 48 hours. They were sitting "idle."

So... That's what I'm wondering - can files "invite themselves" onto my computer without me doing anything to allow them? I'd been under the impression that just leaving something like Skype "open" was rather benign, because if I didn't "allow" something or "run" anything, then no actual executable could force itself. I know that someone can PM me on their own initiative, and that will pop up on my screen but my computer is supposed to ask me before it accepts / runs an executable, right? Is it possible that it didn't ask, and somehow the combination of the two programs bypassed the computer "asking?"

(If the virus hit immediately after I knowingly and actively downloaded and ran something, or after I accepted and ran a file from someone, I'd be kicking myself in the butt for being an idiot, but it'd be clear to me how it happened. I mean, OK, yes, if I downloaded "casino" from somewhere and ran it, and 10 minutes later, my machine was infested, My Bad! But what's confusing me is that it *didn't* happen anywhen near me doing anything like that. So could those two programs work together to bypass the "human" in the equation, and cause an active download and run the executable all by themselves?)

 

Re: Skype + Utorrent, = virus?

Yes, but I was afraid to add my question to that thread, because of the warning not to "bump" your own thread. So, since the question was really more of a general, "is this possible" question, I thought it was OK to start a new thread? Hope I didn't break any rules...