google redirect...& more

Discussion in 'Malware Help (A Specialist Will Reply)' started by qwhrz, Jun 7, 2010.

  1. qwhrz

    qwhrz Private E-2

    Greetings, brave volunteers, and I thank you in advance for your help.

    I am running Windows XP SP 3 on a 32 bit system.

    My issue started about a month ago as a google redirect. Clicking on a search result would bring me to an unwanted site, with a curious "2" icon resembling a filovirus. Simply cutting and pasting addresses from Google results avoided the redirect. Opera, IE, and Firefox were all affected. (Using Noscript and NoRedirect add-ons to Firefox prevent redirect but not the attempt) Last week, before coming to this site I believe I made one major tactical error, which was to clean the registry, because now I am not sure what symptoms I am having refer to which problem.

    In addition to the redirect, my logical disk manager in computer management will not show disk 1, the C drive, although it appears in My Computer, and numerous disk checks and defrag appear to work normally and show no faults.
    This is a problem because one desperate measure I tried, upgrading my operating system to Windows 7, fails since Windows 7 cannot find a system drive in which to install the new OS.

    Also, I am unable to install either windows 7 or reinstall from CD-ROM, despite changing the order of boot disk in my BIOS. I get a system crash any time I attempt. Likewise, I get a system crash trying to run the restore utility at bootup.

    The system is unable to restore any point older than a month.

    Most annoyingly, my internet connection is highly intermittent, coming and going with reboots with no pattern I can recognize. McAfee has become corrupted several times as I have gone through the READ & RUN process, requiring reinstallation of the product, which I can only do when I have a connection. (the connection problem appears to be with the LAN connection, which shows limited or no connectivity, and cannot be repaired by the utility, ans Windows cannot renew the IP address, and manually doing so through a DOS window does not help).

    I am at wit's end, and I appreciate any help and advice.

    Keith
     

    Attached Files:

  2. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    Welcome to Major Geeks!

    It would be best not to reinstall McAfee anymore while we are cleaning your PC. In fact, it would actually be best to totally uninstall it since you imply the malware is breaking it anyway. This way it will not get in our way.

    Do you have anything from PC Tools (like Spyware Doctor) still installed? I see signs of it in your logs. If it is still installed, is it a paid version or just a trial?



    Uninstall the below old versions of software:
    Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment 6 Update 1

    Now we need to use ComboFix
    • 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 has expired or need to be updated to a new version, make sure you allow it to update.
    • Open Notepad and copy/paste the text in the below quote box into it:
    • 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.
    • Now use your mouse to drag CFscript.txt on top of ComboFix.exe
    • 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.

    Now run Ccleaner. Only use the Run Cleaner button. Do not run anything else on any other forms.

    Now run the C:\MGtools\GetLogs.bat file by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista, don't double click, use right click and select Run As Administrator).

    Then attach the below logs:
    • C:\ComboFix.txt
    • C:\MGlogs.zip
    Make sure you tell me how things are working now!
     
  3. qwhrz

    qwhrz Private E-2

    Dear chaslang:

    Thank you for your speedy reply to my post.

    I removed McAfee for now. I did indeed purchase Spyware Doctor at one point, but attempted to remove it through the Add & Remove Program control panel prior to this, but clearly did not do so not completely, if you are still finding traces. I also removed the old Java RTE.

    Attached are the logfiles. Unfortunately, the redirecting is still present. For example, googling "virus" led to the "Sponsored Link" of TrendMicro, but clicking on that brought me to http://polkacountdown.com/search.php, which attempted to redirect me to http://www.tazinga.com/local/result...?_session_id=b7daca6aa62d080e2ce2641b1850b11a. Note that the "polkacountdown.com" is the one with the viral icon, a screenshot of which is attached.

    Internet connection remains intermittent, and disk management under computer management tool remains unable to find the C drive.

    I remain entirely grateful for your help.

    keith
     

    Attached Files:

  4. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    You're welcome. Please do not rename the combofix.txt logs. It should always be combofix.txt and it should always be automatically saved to c:\combofix.txt if ComboFix runs properly.

    I see you have HitmanPro installed. Did it find anything when you ran it?


    We will need to cleanup a bunch of stuff McAfee also left behind along with things from PCTools. We will do this below along with running a scan to check for a possible reason for Google Redirects which we will do first.


    Go to TDSSKiller and Download TDSSKiller.zip to your Desktop
    • Extract its contents to your Desktop so that you have TDSSKiller.exe directly on your Desktop and not in any subfolder of the Desktop.
    • Click Start > Run and copy/paste the following bold command into Run box and hit Enter.
    "%userprofile%\Desktop\TDSSKiller.exe" -v
    • Follow the instructions to type in "delete" when it asks you what to do when if finds something.
    • When done, a log file should be created on your C: drive named something like TDSSKiller.2.1.1_27.12.2009_14.17.04_log.txt which is based on the program version # and date and time run. Please attach this log to your next reply. (See: HOW TO: Attach Items To Your Post )

    Now to finish McAfee off, you first need to uninstall McAfee Virtual Technician since my below steps are going to be forcefully deleting some files and folders it is using.


    Now we need to use ComboFix
    • 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 has expired or need to be updated to a new version, make sure you allow it to update.
    • Open Notepad and copy/paste the text in the below quote box into it:
    • 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.
    • Now use your mouse to drag CFscript.txt on top of ComboFix.exe
    • 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.

    Now run Ccleaner. Only use the Run Cleaner button. Do not run anything else on any other forms.

    Now run the C:\MGtools\GetLogs.bat file by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista, don't double click, use right click and select Run As Administrator).

    Then attach the below logs:
    • C:\ComboFix.txt
    • C:\MGlogs.zip
    Make sure you tell me how things are working now!
     
  5. qwhrz

    qwhrz Private E-2

    chaslang:

    TDSSkiller found the culprit! dmload.sys was the infected driver.
    The computer appears to be working properly, with no redirect, and logical disk manager sees the C drive again. The logs are attached.

    I can't thank you enough. I will now proceed to the "how to protect yourself from malware" directions.

    Keith
     

    Attached Files:

  6. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    You're welcome. Complete final instructions are below.


    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 protection. 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 /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 oof 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:
     

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