HP laptop riddled with viruses/malware

I'm helping a friend remove a whole lot of malware from her HP laptop running XP SP2. I've run everything in READ & RUN ME FIRST. I also ran the special tools for about:Blank, because it was showing up everytime I opened IE.

Some notes:

Panda: I ran this after Bitdefender and it found a few things. When I tried to get the log, IE kept acting up and the page just wouldn't display so I could get to the place to retrieve that log.

about:Buster: I ran this both in normal and safe modes. Each time it said that a log had been created in the same location as hijackthis.exe, but a Search could not locate any logs (?)

Otherwise, attached are the bitdefender scan log, the hijackthis log, and runkeys.txt. I also have newfiles.txt if you want it, but I could only send the 3 attachments for now.

Please let me know what you recommend after reviewing the attached. Thank you very much. This won't be the first time you've helped me with a virus/malware problem!

 

Does any of the below look familiar?

 

Did you run CounterSpy or AVG AntiSpyware? If so, attach the log.

Also, attach a log from ShowNew.

 

CounterSpy ran fine, so I didn't run AVG. Attached is the CounterSpy log as well as the new ShowNew log. Thanks.

 

Forgot to mention in last post. I re-ran Panda scan in order to get a log for you. This time, the page loaded correctly, and I was able to get a log. This is attached.

 

First, please disable any antivirus and/or antispy programs you have installed so they will not block this fix.

Step 1:
Please look in Add/Remove Programs for the following and uninstall if found. If you get any errors just make a note and proceed.

Step 2:
Now scan with HijackThis and check the boxes for the following entries:
( Make sure ALL browser windows are closed when you click FIX )

Again, make sure ALL browser windows are closed when you click FIX.

Step 3:
Copy the contents of the below Quote Box to Notepad. Then click File and then Save As. Change the Save as Type to All Files. Name the file fixme.reg and then click save. (make sure you save it somewhere you can find it. Saving it to your Desktop may make that easy.) Then double-click on the fixme.reg file on your desktop (or locate it with Windows Explorer and double click on it if not saved to the Desktop) and when it prompts to Add in to the registry, say yes.

Step 4:
Now download The Avenger by Swandog46, and save it to your Desktop.

• Extract avenger.exe from the Zip file and save it to your desktop
• Run avenger.exe by double-clicking on it.
• Check the 'Input script manually' box.
• Click on the magnifying glass icon.
• Copy everything in the Quote box below, and paste it in the box that opens:

• Now click the 'Done' button.
• Click on the traffic light icon and OK the prompt.
• You will be prompted to restart, OK the prompt and your PC should reboot, if not, reboot it yourself.
• A log file from Avenger will be produced at C:\avenger.txt

Step 5: Begin here after rebooting from Step 4!
Next Reset Web Settings & Default Security Settings

Note for IE 6 users:
To Reset Web Settings:
Right click on your desktop Internet Explorer icon and select Properties. Then click the Programs tab and then click "Reset Web Settings". Now go back to the General tab and set your home page address to something useful like www.majorgeeks.com. Click Apply. Click Delete Cookies, Click Delete Files and select Delete all Offline content too, Click OK. When it finishes Click OK.

If you do not have an Internet Explorer icon on your Desktop, click Start, Control Panel (for some systems it may be Start, Settings, Control Panel), Internet Options, Programs tab and then click "Reset Web Settings". Now go back to the General tab and set your home page address to something useful like www.majorgeeks.com. Click Apply. Click Delete Cookies, Click Delete Files and select Delete all Offline content too, Click OK. When it finishes Click OK

To Default Security Settings:
Right click on your desktop Internet Explorer icon and select Properties. Then click the Security Tab and click Default Level for Internet, Local Intranet, Trusted Sites, and Restricted Sites. For IE 7 users, simply click the "Reset all zones to default level" button.

Note for IE 7 users:
Select Internet Options, then the Advanced Tab and then the Reset button under Reset Internet Explorer Settings.


Step 6:
Please download ATF Cleaner by Atribune. This program does not require an installation. The executable actually runs the program.

NOTE: This program is for Windows XP and Windows 2000 only. ATF Cleaner will remove all files from the items that are checked so if you have some cookies you'd like to save. Please move them to a different directory first.

• Double-click ATF-Cleaner.exe to run the program.
• Under Main choose: Select All
• Click the Empty Selected button.

If you use Firefox browser

• Click Firefox at the top and choose: Select All
• Click the Empty Selected button.
  • NOTE: If you would like to keep your saved passwords, please click No at the prompt.

If you use Opera browser

• Click Opera at the top and choose: Select All
• Click the Empty Selected button.
  • NOTE: If you would like to keep your saved passwords, please click No at the prompt.

Click Exit on the Main ATF Cleaner menu to close the program.

Step 7:
Finally, I would like you to install the current version of Sun Java: Sun Java Runtime Environment

Step 8:
After you have completed ALL of the above in the correct order, please attach the following logs.

• HijackThis Log
• ShowNew Log
• GetRunKey Log
• Avenger Log

Let me know of any problems you may have encountered with the above instructions and also let me know how things are running now.

 

Did everything, and it went fine. Attached are logs for

Avenger
ShowNew
GetRunKey

I'll send a second post after this with HijackThis.

The computer is running significantly better than it was with just the first set of fixes in READ & RUN FIRST. The special tool for about:Blank also took care of that problem. I'm hoping these latest fixes will be equally successful.

Right now, the computer is running fine with no obvious problems. One thing that did happen when I opened IE to send this post is that it didn't go to the Home page, but to this page instead: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx. It looks like a legit message from MS for a new SP on IE7, but I just thought I'd mention it.

Thanks. HijackThis to follow.

 

Here's HijackThis.

 

We need to run Avenger once more, just like you did before.

• Run avenger.exe by double-clicking on it.
• Check the 'Input script manually' box.
• Click on the magnifying glass icon.
• Copy everything in the Quote box below, and paste it in the box that opens:

• Now click the 'Done' button.
• Click on the traffic light icon and OK the prompt.
• You will be prompted to restart, OK the prompt and your PC should reboot, if not, reboot it yourself.
• A log file from Avenger will be produced at C:\avenger.txt

Once you complete the above, let me know how things are running and if any problems remain.

 

Attached is the Avenger log. Last night I thought I'd run a couple of scans just to see what the status is on the laptop. I ran Bitdefender which came out clean, but Panda showed up a few things. I'm attaching the log from last night so you can see it. On the restore items, I took off system restore and restarted, but when I got back on and ran Panda again, those items were still there.

Any ideas you have would be appreciated.

 

Copy the contents of the below Quote Box to Notepad. Then click File and then Save As. Change the Save as Type to All Files. Name the file fixme1.reg and then click save. (make sure you save it somewhere you can find it. Saving it to your Desktop may make that easy.) Then double-click on the fixme1.reg file on your desktop (or locate it with Windows Explorer and double click on it if not saved to the Desktop) and when it prompts to Add in to the registry, say yes.

Once you complete the above, run CCleaner or ATF-Cleaner to cleanup the temp/junk files.

This post will resolve the issues in your Panda log.

 

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

1. If we used Pocket Killbox during your cleanup, do the below
   • Run Pocket Killbox and select File, Cleanup, Delete All Backups
2. If we used ComboFix, you can delete the ComboFix.exe file, C:\ComboFix folder, C:\QooBox folder, C:\WINDOWS\nircmd.exe, and the C:\combofix.txt log that was created.
3. If we used SDFix you can delete all the SDFix related files and folders from your Desktop or whereever you installed it.
4. If we used SmitFraudFix, you can delete all files and folders related to it now including the c:\rapport.txt log.
5. If we used VundoFix, you can delete the VundoFix.exe file and the C:\VundoFix Backups folder and C:\vundofix.txt log that was created.
6. If we had your run FixWareOut, you can delete the Fixwareout.exe file and the C:\fixwareout folder.
7. If we had you run Avenger, you can delete all files related to Avenger, the log (avenger.txt) and C:\avenger.
8. If we had you download any registry patches like fixme.reg, fixme1.reg or fixWLK.reg (or any others), you can delete these files now.
9. You can delete the ShowNew.Zip and GetRunkey.Zip files and the files that you extracted from the ZIP files. You can also delete the C:\newfiles.txt and C:\runkeys.txt logs that were created
10. If you are running Windows XP or Windows ME, do the below:
    • go back to step 8 of the READ & RUN ME to Disable System Restore which will flush your Restore Points.
    • Then reboot and Enable System Restore to create a new clean Restore Point.
11. After doing the above, you should work thru the below link:
    • How to Protect yourself from malware!

 

Thanks very much for your help with this. It's working fine now. Another success story for Majorgeeks!

 

Your Welcome!:major