pls help with removing infection

Discussion in 'Malware Help (A Specialist Will Reply)' started by vinouspleasure, Jul 20, 2010.

  1. vinouspleasure

    vinouspleasure Private E-2

    Hi,

    We bought a cheap, little media computer and I used our ISP's web-based form to request the latest version of ca security suite which they provide for all their customers. I installed it on the media computer but what I didn't realize was that this request triggered expiration on all our other computers. A quick call with CA confirmed that I needed to uninstall their software and lay down the newest version. Unfortunately, their upgrade procedure failed the first day I tried it, more time on the phone with CA and I finally got the software installed on all our computers but for a period of about 2 days, the computers were exposed to the vagaries of the internet.

    One of our laptops has picked up a hard-to-rid infection. The symptoms are:
    - an occasional advertising pop-up in IE
    - Loss of focus in windows
    - Detection of trojan horses by all manner of software, cleansing of the infection by the software and subsequent re-infection.

    I have run to the best of my ability through the readme. I had a really hard time getting combofix to run, it would typically update and then hang. I finally rebooted and it seemed to work.

    I then had a hard time with rootrepeal, I booted into safe mode and it ran perfectly.

    I left the machine in safe mode for mgtools.

    After mgtools I rebooted into normal mode, started my AV and firewall and quickly received an infection message from my AV. sigh.
     

    Attached Files:

  2. vinouspleasure

    vinouspleasure Private E-2

    Here is the last attachment. Also, I should note that I am constantly prompted if I want to make IE my default browser even though the browser is closed.

    all and any help would be much appreciated.

    thanks,
    jd
     

    Attached Files:

  3. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    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.
    • Attach this log to your next message.
     
  4. vinouspleasure

    vinouspleasure Private E-2

    here is the log, thanks jd
     

    Attached Files:

  5. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    Do you have all important data backed up? You really should do this before continuing since we will need to rewrite your MBR to fix this and while most times this can be done without any problem, these infections can react badly and that could result in a PC not being bootable. You really don't have much choice though since these infections are too dangerous to your security to leave on a PC.

    Also note if you have a Dell PC which uses a non-standard MBR ( or another manufacturer's who does similar to Dell) , fixing the mbr may prevent access the the Dell Restore Utility, which allows you to press a key on startup and revert your computer to a factory delivered state. There are a couple of known fixes for said condition, though the methods are somewhat advanced. If you are unwilling to take such a risk, you should not continue but you risk serious problems leaving this infection in place and thus your only other option would be to try using the Dell Restore Utility to return a factory ship state which will remove everything you additional you have put onto the PC.


    Now if you wish to continue and fix the malware - please do the following:

    * Run MBRCheck.exe
    * Wait until you see the following lines:
    o Enter 'Y' and hit ENTER for more options, or 'N' to exit:
    o Options:
    [1] Dump the MBR of a physical disk to file.
    [2] Restore the MBR of a physical disk with a standard boot code.
    [3] Exit.
    Enter your choice:

    * Please push the 'Y' key and then press Enter
    * When the program asks you to Enter your choice: enter 2 to Restore the MBR and press the Enter key
    * Now the program will ask you to "Enter the physical disk number to fix (0-99, -1 to cancel):"
    o Enter 0 and press the Enter key.
    * The program will show Available MBR codes as below

    * You need to select your version of Windows from the list. For example, enter 0 or 1 for XP or enter 3 for Vista.....etc. and then press Enter.
    * The program will prompt for confirmation. Type 'YES' and hit Enter.
    * Left click on the title bar (where program name and path is written). From menu chose Edit -> Select All
    * You will see all the text in the window get highlighted.
    * Hit the Enter key on your keyboard to copy all of the text into the clipboard.
    * Paste that text into Notepad, save it to your desktop as MBRfix.txt
    * Restart your PC.
    * Attach the MBRfix.txt file to your next message..

    Now please re-run MBRCheck.exe and attach that log also.
     
  6. vinouspleasure

    vinouspleasure Private E-2

    thanks, do you think at this point I'd be better off backing up our documents, reformatting the disk and laying down a fresh install of xp? Is there a chance my docs (mostly office docs) are infected? Finally, perhaps I should see if there is a restore point available previous to the infection?

    thanks again,
    jd
     
  7. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    This is a simple fix so that you don't have to go thru the entire routine of doing a reformat and clean install. It is confined to the MBR files and not in your documents. I suggest you just go ahead and run the fix and when done, post in the software forum if you want to make a restore disc at some point.
     
  8. vinouspleasure

    vinouspleasure Private E-2

    ok, here are the logs.

    thanks,
    jd
     

    Attached Files:

  9. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    Sweet....now use windows explorer to find and delete:
    C:\WINDOWS\Temp\100.dat

    Now tell me what issues you are still having.
     
  10. vinouspleasure

    vinouspleasure Private E-2

    first a big thanks, I'm not getting the ie popup or continued notification of AV infections so I'm cautiously optimistic that you've solved my problem. Three questions:

    - After I ran the scans I turned my AV protection back on and received immediate notification that trojans had been detected and quarantined. I'm thinking I should delete those files now? Given that I received those messages, would it be prudent to run some subset of the scans again?

    - IE outlook is functioning inconsistently. Most of the time if I click on an attachment and choose open, it hangs. Sometimes if I double click on a message it hangs. I wonder if this is related to the infection manifesting itself around IE popups.

    - Why didn't any of the scan software offer to fix the mbr?

    thanks,
    jd
     
  11. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    Yes, you can delete those files. If you wish, re-run SAS and MBAM. Plus 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:\MGlogs.zip
    Possible but doubtful.
    Most scans do not look at the MBR. Plus it is usually not the case that those type scans could repair it.
    You are most welcome.
     
  12. vinouspleasure

    vinouspleasure Private E-2

    hi,

    I ran malwarebytes and it didn't find anything, couldn't get super antispyware to run. I had persistent problems with IE hanging with outlook for web popups so I removed IE, re-installed and all is good. I've attached mglogs.zip.

    thanks,
    jd
     

    Attached Files:

  13. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    Good to know. Your logs are clean.

    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 real time 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:

     

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