get rid of, MUST STOP! ..he is our hero.. YOOG

ryanc202 · Feb 13, 2009

No, we do NOT love yoog. (And yoog are nobody's hero, except maybe the creator) But yoog Might be a Giant.

I have seen many discussions of Yoog lately and I too would like to step on it.
I use Firefox and the default search engine in my search bar has permanently become Yoog.

It may be a coincidence, but I suspect that Yoog, (when used in the search bar) records input words from your searches and triggers related advertising popups. Or perhaps Yoog is linked with other malware and assists them with targeting ads based on your search topics.
Before I noticed that my search bar had changed to Yoog, I was wondering why I would get pop ups almost every time I used the search bar. I noticed that the ads are almost always directly related to the words I search for. Usually two or three come up about 10 seconds after the search and then another one about 30-60 seconds later that takes up the whole screen. This continues until I close Firefox.
Another thing to note is that between and during these pop up frenzies, (when I am just reading a web page and not clicking anything) my computer speakers make the sounds indicating that I am clicking my mouse rapidly and opening new things.

Now that I ran and read me the pop ups don't happen IF I remember to change my search bar back to Google every time. But I don't always remember and other people use my computer who wouldn't notice this. I don't want to have to run all the lengthy cleaning utilities everytime I forget and get swamped with malware.

Can you find a way for me to get rid of Yoog for good?
My logs are attached.

ryanc202 · Feb 13, 2009

MGlogs

ryanc202 · Feb 13, 2009

Other logs

TimW · Feb 14, 2009

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:

O20 - AppInit_DLLs: gwvqnd.dll
Click to expand...

NOTE: HJT may popup an error about the AppInit_DLLs line. Ignore it and click OK to continue.

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 nt\currentversion\windows]
"AppInit_DLLs"=""

Click to expand...

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.

Now use windows explorer to find and delete:
c:\windows\system32\REN8.tmp
c:\windows\system32\REN7.tmp
c:\windows\system32\REN35.tmp
c:\windows\system32\REN34.tmp
c:\windows\system32\43f4413b-1064-32d9-9487-7986ca6f2d91.exe
c:\windows\system32\qhfzgfippb.exe

Now please follow these instructions:
Yoog Removal

Now run the C:\MGtools\GetLogs.bat file by double clicking on it. Then attach the new C:\MGlogs.zip file and tell me what problems you had doing the above.

ryanc202 · Feb 14, 2009

Miraculous, I believe it worked.

Everything went as planned as I followed your directions. The registry was successfully added to.
Everything in sys32 was deleted without any errors.

I did not find any files containing milehighads so I continued with the safe mode operations. I reset the bold *keyword* line and I noticed two other lines that contained Yoog in the value, but I did not find anything related to Yoog in either of the searchplugins folders. (I have gone to AppData/.../searchplugins previously to delete Yoog but it would always just reappear there, this time it wasn't even there. So I deleted the entire folder AppData/.../searchplugins. I left the other folder at ProgramFiles/.../searchplugins containing only Google, Ebay, and Wikipedia.)

I forgot to empty the recycle bin before rebooting so I booted up in safe mode again and did everything all over again. (The AppData/.../searchplugins fodler was still gone after reboot, and the ProgramFiles/.../searchplugins folder remained with Google, Ebay, and Wiki.)

NOTE: I had been using the Safe Mode version of the Firefox Application as well, if that makes a difference...

After closing Firefox and emptying the recycle bin (still in safe mode) I decided to try to opening the Firefox Application in its normal mode to see if it worked even before reboot. Yoog was still there in about:config so I reset the *Keyword* line again and I also decided to reset the two lines that had a Value containing Yoog.

The recycle bin was empty this time so I rebooted into normal windows mode and upon opening Firefox to reply to your wonderuflly helpful response, I was very surprised to see that Yoog is finally gone.
Thank You, I will be making a donation.

-Ryan

ryanc202 · Feb 14, 2009

Here is $10k to start....

But I would like to give you even more, how can I make a real donation?

TimW · Feb 16, 2009

Sweet....your logs are clean. (You could always buy a t-shirt )

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

We recommed 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.

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" /u

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.

Delete the C:\combofix folder from combofix (if it exists)

Any other miscellaneous tools we may have had you install or download can be uninstalled and deleted.

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.

Go to add/remove programs and uninstall HijackThis.

You can delete the C:\MGtools folder and the C:\MGtools.exe file. You can also delete the C:\MGlogs.zip

If you are running Vista, Windows XP or Windows ME, do the below:

Refer to the cleaning steps in the READ ME for your Window version and see the steps to Disable System Restore which will flush your Restore Points.

Then reboot and Enable System Restore to create a new clean Restore Point.

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

How to Protect yourself from malware!

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get rid of, MUST STOP! ..he is our hero.. YOOG

ryanc202 Private E-2

ryanc202 Private E-2

Attached Files:

MGlogs.zip

ryanc202 Private E-2

Attached Files:

SASlog.txt

MAMlog (04-10-35).txt

ComboFix.txt

TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

ryanc202 Private E-2

Attached Files:

MGlogs.zip

ryanc202 Private E-2

Attached Files:

donation.jpg

TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member