Residual malware on system- search engine hijacked, others?

Discussion in 'Malware Help (A Specialist Will Reply)' started by marcolinnell, Apr 11, 2010.

  1. marcolinnell

    marcolinnell Private E-2

    Hi,

    I believe my system was infected as I watched sports on a P2P network. My system was overwhelmed and for a time my anti-virus (AVG 9.0) and anti-spyware (super anti-spyware) didn't work. "XP defender" would attempt to block firefox from starting up and initiated pop ups frequently after start up, several times my computer froze up and I was forced to hard restart. After running combo-fix (had to rename it CF.exe to run, wouldn't start up as combofix.exe) the nastier elements seemed to have been removed and I was able to run AVG and others. At this point my search engine is still hijacked at times when I click on a provided google link.

    Thanks very much for your time,

    Mark
     

    Attached Files:

  2. marcolinnell

    marcolinnell Private E-2

    Malware-bytes log.
     

    Attached Files:

  3. marcolinnell

    marcolinnell Private E-2

    Update: Since I'm an idiot, I just blundered into another known trojan by downloading the ml_ipod plugin for winamp. I tried to go in and delete but couldn't. c:\programfiles\winamp\plugins\ml_ipod.

    Thanks
     
  4. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    You really should not have Bittorrent running at start up.

    Let's do this, since you have Avenger still on your system.

    Please disable all anti-virus and anti-spyware programs while we do the following (re-enable when you are finished):

    Run C:\MGtools\analyse.exe by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista, don't double click, use right click and select Run As Administrator). This is really HijackThis (select Do a system scan only) and select the following lines but DO NOT CLICK FIX until you exit all browser sessions including the one you are reading in right now:
    After clicking Fix, exit HJT.

    * Run avenger.exe by double-clicking on it.
    * -Do not change any check box options!!
    * Copy everything in the Quote box below, and paste it into the Input script here: part of the window:

    * Now click the Execute button.
    * Click Yes to the prompt to confirm you want to execute.
    * Click Yes to the Reboot now? question that will appear when Avenger finishes running.
    * Your PC should reboot, if not, reboot it yourself.
    * A log file from Avenger will be produced at C:\avenger.txt and it will popup for you to view when you login after reboot.

    Now run Ccleaner. Make sure this folder is empty> C:\WINDOWS\temp

    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:\Avenger.txt
    * C:\MGlogs.zip

    Make sure you tell me how things are working now!
     
  5. marcolinnell

    marcolinnell Private E-2

    Hi,

    Attached logs of recent activity. The search engine redirect is still occurring. The HKEY delete was not successful per the avenger log.

    Mark
     

    Attached Files:

  6. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    These types of infections are becoming harder to deal with.

    We may have to resort to uninstalling your browsers. Does this happen with all browsers?

    Use windows explorer to find and delete:
    C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe.exp.log

    Now copy just the bold text below to notepad (Do not include any space above the word REGEDIT). Save it as fixME.reg to your desktop. Be sure the "Save as" type is set to "all files" Once you have saved it double click it and allow it to merge with the registry.
    Make sure that you tell me if you receive a success message about adding the above
    to the registry. If you do not get a success message, it definitely did not work.
     
  7. marcolinnell

    marcolinnell Private E-2

    The registry edit was successful. I haven't gotten IE to display the same redirects as firefox but when I google "windows update" and click on the provided links it displays a "The connection was reset" page- might be an indication of viral activity. I'm willing to tank my browsers and re-download if needed.
     
  8. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

  9. marcolinnell

    marcolinnell Private E-2

    Here is my recent gmer log.
     

    Attached Files:

  10. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    Good!! Now let's use ComboFix to remove a bunch of malware files.

    * 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 needs to update to a new version, make sure you allow it to update.
    * Open Notepad and copy/paste the text in the below code box into it (make sure you scroll all the way down in the code box to get all lines selected ):
    Code:
    KILLALL::
    
    TDL::
    C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\atapi.sys
    
    
    * 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.
    If it asks you to overide the prvevious file with the same name, click YES.
    * Now use your mouse to drag CFscript.txt on top of ComboFix.exe
    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v666/sUBs/CFScriptB-4.gif
    * 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 re-run GMER.

    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:
    * GMER log.
    * C:\ComboFix.txt
    * C:\MGlogs.zip
     
  11. marcolinnell

    marcolinnell Private E-2

    I performed the below actions, here are my logs.

    Mark
     

    Attached Files:

  12. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    It would appear that Combo did replace the infected file. Tell me what issues you still have.
     
  13. marcolinnell

    marcolinnell Private E-2

    The issues I had have resolved now. It was mostly the search engine re-direct and before that the XP defender malware issue (which was taken care of after the first round of "read and run this first"). Thank you very much for the support.

    Mark
     
  14. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    You are most welcome.

    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. Any other miscellaneous tools we may have had you install or download can be uninstalled and deleted.
    4. If we had you download any registry patches like fixme.reg or fixWLK.reg (or any others), you can delete these files now.
    5. 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.
    6. Go to add/remove programs and uninstall HijackThis.
    7. 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.
    8. If you are running Vista, Windows XP or Windows ME, do the below:
      • Refer to the cleaning procedures pointed to by step 6 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.
    9. After doing the above, you should work thru the below link:
     

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