My computer keeps phoning home

Discussion in 'Malware Help - MG (A Specialist Will Reply)' started by Flopwich, Jan 14, 2012.

  1. Flopwich

    Flopwich Private E-2

    My firewall keeps reporting that something on my computer is trying to contact a number of different servers, all of which turn out to belong to Level 3 Communications. I have contacted that company and they told me to file an abuse report by email. I did that and got no response.

    My computer tries to contact a number of these servers at different times, and today one of them tried to phone *into* my computer. I blocked the attempt.

    I'd appreciate some help in figuring out what is going on. My computer is a 64-bit machine, so I didn't run the root software listed in your process.

    Thank you.

    Logs attached.
     

    Attached Files:

  2. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    I want you to run TDSSKiller so refer to the below for how to do so.

    TDSSkiller - How to run


    Please also download MBRCheck to your desktop
    • Double click MBRCheck.exe to run (vista and Win 7 right click and select Run as Administrator)
    • It will show a Black screen with some information that will contain either the below line if no problem is found:
      • Done! Press ENTER to exit...
    • Or you will see more information like below if a problem is found:
      • Found non-standard or infected MBR.
      • Enter 'Y' and hit ENTER for more options, or 'N' to exit:
    • Either way, just choose to exit the program at this point since we want to see only the scan results to begin with.
    • MBRCheck will create a log named similar to MBRCheck_07.16.10_00.32.33.txt which is random based on date and time.
     
  3. Flopwich

    Flopwich Private E-2

    Here are the log files from those two runs.

    I have the Level 3 Communications IP addresses that my computer was trying to reach, by the way, in case they're of interest.

    Thanks again for your help.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 16, 2012
  4. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    Yes go for it.

    This is what your firewall should be doing. What exactly happened and how did you then block it?

    I am not seeing any malware in those logs.
     
  5. Flopwich

    Flopwich Private E-2

    I have my firewall set to require permission for everything going in and out. The firewall asked for permission and I denied it, which is the way it normally goes, although two days ago on one of my denials the anti-virus announced that it had and error and shut down, which I assume released whatever software is doing this.
    Then where do I go from here? Something continues to phone home.

    By the way, the IP addresses that the software has tried to access at Level 3 Communications are:

    204.160.118.126
    8.27.224.126
    205.128.65126
    8.26.219.126

    Thanks again for helping with this.
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2012
  6. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    Or, perhaps you accidentally blocked something needed for your antivirus to update? I think you ought to post about all this in the software forum, you can further discuss setting up your firewall so that everything is running more smoothly for you. Perhaps you have it set to a too aggressive mode which can often be the case with them.

    Not seeing any malware.

    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 of 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:
     
  7. Flopwich

    Flopwich Private E-2



    1. I suppose I could have. On the other hand, Malwarebytes just informed me of two addresses my computer tried to access that it called "malicious", I think was the term, and that it had successfully blocked them. *Something* is going on with my computer that I've never seen before a few weeks ago. I've never had outside computers trying to phone into my computer before.

      I wasn't clear from your comments, btw. Are you saying I should buy Superantispyware and Malwarebytes?

      Thanks for the instructions on restoring my computer and again, for all your help.
     
  8. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    No. But you can keep both the free versions. Only buy if you wish, but if you buy SAS you cannot buy MBAM too as they both offer up real time protection.
    You are welcome. As I said, feel free to post in software about it.

    Answer this first though, are you able to surf normally? Your browser is not being redirected?
     
  9. Flopwich

    Flopwich Private E-2

    Yes. As far as I know I have not had it misdirected.
     
  10. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    Alright then. As I said, do ask in the software forum if you wish to further discuss it. :)
     

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