SKYNET question

Discussion in 'Malware Help (A Specialist Will Reply)' started by zappo, Jul 1, 2009.

  1. zappo

    zappo Private E-2

    Hello,

    Last week I observed my browser web links (when clicked) redirecting thru a bogus site overclick.cn. After investigating, I saw I had a SKYNET presence in my C:\Windows\System32 folder.

    After repeated (and failed) attempts to remove it with my Spybot S&D and McAfee, I got very close to just throwing in the towel and rebuilding my drive. But from looking in this forum, I saw discussion on the ComboFix program. First, I disabled System Recovery. I then ran ComboFix in Safe Mode (realizing I was taking a chance, being that everyone warns NOT to run it unless specifically told to do so). Because I was in SafeMode with no networking, I skipped the option to install the Windows Recovery Console.

    In spite of all these hapless maneuvers, fortunately for me ComboFix did appear to fix my problem! McAfee scans could not find a problem after this point (it did find SKYNET presence before, but couldn't fix it). Thank god for ComboFix... BTW, the ComboFix.txt file generated is shown below.

    I have since added overclick.cn to my hosts file, associating it to 127.0.0.1 as a precautionary measure.... just in case I'm haunted by this again.

    All has been fine since, my computer shut down quickly... in contrast to before when I took 15+ minutes to shut down!

    HOWEVER, today I was doing a scan with SpyBot S&D, and it discovered more SKYNET items... this time in the registry. (on a side note, I did a test click from a Google listing, and there was not any attempt to redirect to overclick.cn, so I don't know the ramifications of this new SKYNET presence). Anyway, when I clicked the Spybot "fix" button, it said it fixed two entries, but was unable to fix the others. I have included the Spybot S&D log for this scan below. Spybot S&D requested I do a restart so it could attempt to delete the items it was unable to delete the first time. When the computer started back up, I saw SpyBot S&D start a scan before anything else loaded on my desktop. After 25 minutes or so, it finished it's scan and said nothing was found.

    I would have expected Spybot S&D to say it successfully deleted the SKYNET registry entries it found the first time, but it didn't. And the scan on reboot says it couldn't find anything. I ran regedit and searched my entire registry for any instance of "SKYNET" in either a key, value, or data. And nothing was found.

    So on the surface, one would say I got rid of SKYNET for good. But I remain leary. What followup steps do you recommend I take?

    Zappo

    ********** ComboFix.txt generated June 25, 2009 ********

    Edit by chaslang: Inline CF log attached
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 3, 2009
    zappo, Jul 1, 2009
    #1
  2. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    Welcome to Major Geeks!

    Please follow the instructions in the READ & RUN ME FIRST link given futher down and attach the requested logs when you finish these instructions.
    • If you have problems where no tools seem to run, please try following the steps given in the below and then continue on no matter what you find. You only need to try the TDSSserv steps if having problems getting scans in the Read & Run Me First. If TDSSserv is not found, just continue on with the READ & RUN ME.
    READ & RUN ME FIRST. Malware Removal Guide
    • 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.

    • 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:

    1. 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:
    2. If you have problems downloading on the problem PC, download the tools and the manual updates for SUPERAntiSpyware, Malwarebytes and Spybot ( 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.
    3. 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 other 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.
    4. To avoid additional delay in getting a response, it is strongly advised that after completing the READ & RUN ME you also read this sticky:
    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.
    ​
     
    chaslang, Jul 3, 2009
    #2

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