Infected by Vundo.KA. Need help desperately!

zpivat · Feb 9, 2010

Hi experts,

I'm not a computer newbie, and before I even started this thread, I have read countless websites and installed numerous programs to combat Vundo.KA in my computer, but so far nothing helped! I haven't slept in the past 24 hours trying to fix it, and I'm almost giving up, so I'd appreciate the help.

A little bit of background: I've always had Windows Defender and Norton Antivirus installed, and I never ever open attachments from questionable sources, nor do I go to questionable sites or download questionable materials. Yet suddenly last night I started getting random redirects within my Firefox. Basically it would start showing random sites without any reason at all.

I downloaded, installed, and updated the virus definitions of:

a. Malware Bytes: it found nothing
b. AVG: it found that the Vundo.KA infected Firefox.exe and also Explorer.exe. I then told AVG to remove the infection, and then it asked me to restart my computer, which I did, and then I scanned again using AVG, and this time it found no infection.
c. VundoFix.exe: it found nothing
d. Spybot Search and Destroy: it found nothing
e. Superantispyware: it found nothing
f. Hijack This: I ran it and pasted the log file to the analyzer at http://www.hijackthis.de/, and it found nothing nasty

So as you all can see, I've done my "homework" more or less. In point (b) above, I mentioned that after the second run of AVG, it no longer found the virus, BUT I know the virus is still around, because I am still seeing the random sites popping up, and the safe mode still won't work

I also tried to run SDFix.exe (found from BleepingComputer.com), and it needs to run in Safe Mode. But guess what? My (Windows) Safe Mode doesn't work either! I suspect that the virus must've done something nasty to the safe mode registry, because I know that in the past, my safe mode used to work.

There's something that I still haven't tried, which is the well known ComboFix.exe, but I heard we have to be careful when using it, or else the computer could get messed up. So I won't take a chance, and I'm hoping that someone can guide me to get rid of this Vundo.KA/Virtumonde virus.

By the way, my OS is Windows XP Professional, running service pack 3.

Thanks!

TimW · Feb 10, 2010

Welcome to Major Geeks!

Please read ALL of this message including the notes before doing anything.

Pleases follow the instructions in the below link:

READ & RUN ME FIRST. Malware Removal Guide

and attach the requested logs when you finish these instructions.

**** If something does not run, write down the info to explain to us later but keep on going. ****

Do not assume that because one step does not work that they all will not. MGtools will frequently run even when all other tools will not.

After completing the READ & RUN ME and attaching your logs, make sure that you tell us what problems still remain ( if any still do )!

Helpful Notes:

If you run into problems trying to run the READ & RUN ME or any of the scans in normal boot mode, you can run the steps in safe boot mode but make sure you tell us what you did later when you post logs. See the below if you do not know how to boot in safe mode:

Starting your computer in Safe mode

If you have problems downloading on the problem PC, download the tools and the manual updates for SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes ( links are given in the READ & RUN ME) onto another PC and then burn to a CD. Then copy them to the problem PC. You will have to skip getting updates if (and only if) your internet connection does not work. Yes you could use a flash drive too but flash drives are writeable and infections can spread to them.

If you cannot seem to login to an infected user account, try using a different user account (if you have one) in either normal or safe boot mode and running only SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes while logged into this aother user account. Then reboot and see if you can log into the problem user account. If you can then run SUPERAntiSpyware, Malwarebytes, ComboFix and MGtools on the infected account as requested in the instructions.

To avoid additional delay in getting a response, it is strongly advised that after completing the READ & RUN ME you also read this sticky:

Don't Bump! It Only Hurts You!!!

Any additional post is a bump which will add more delay. Once you attach the logs, your thread will be in the work queue and as stated our system works the oldest threads FIRST.

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Infected by Vundo.KA. Need help desperately!

zpivat Private E-2

TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member