Some serious issues the last few days

Discussion in 'Malware Help (A Specialist Will Reply)' started by idiot445, May 8, 2011.

  1. idiot445

    idiot445 Private E-2

    Hi,

    My computer has run into some serious problems in the past week. Specifically, I've been having an issue where Firefox opens a new tab with some popup within three minutes of starting it. That's the most minor issue.

    More troublingly, if I browse the internet for any appreciable amount of time I get an error message that Windows encountered an error with the host service. It then prompts me to update windows to try to fix the problem, but anytime I attempt to connect to the Microsoft updates page I get a "this connection was reset" error. That doesn't happen with any other website that I know of. Also, my computer was having a brief period earlier this week where opening a new window of Firefox would cause an instant blue screen crash. That hasn't happened in a couple days, but it was pretty recent.

    I ran through your Read & Run page, and these problems still persist. I've attached the logs of everything that I ran. However, I couldn't get ComboFix to run. Every time I attempted it caused an instant blue screen crash (Tech Info: STOP:0x0000000A (0x00000016,0x0000001B,0x00000000,0x81CF27D6)

    Also, what's a common number of svchost.exe processes to have running in the task manager? Lately I seem to have 12-15 running at any given time, and that seems fairly excessive.

    Any help that you can give will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!!
     

    Attached Files:

  2. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    Download The Avenger by Swandog469, and save it to your Desktop.

    * Extract+ avenger.exe from the Zip file and save it to your desktop

    Please use add/remove programs to uninstall:
    Java(TM) 6 Update 13
    WhiteSmoke Toolbar

    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 to clean out only temp files and nothing else!

    Now run the C:\MGtools\GetLogs.bat file by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista or Win7, don't double click, use right click and select Run As Administrator).Make sure that you watch for the license agreement for TrendMicro HijackThis and click on the Accept button TWICE to accept ( yes twice ).

    Now download and install:
    Java Runtime 6

    Then attach the below logs:

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

    Make sure you tell me how things are working now!
     
  3. idiot445

    idiot445 Private E-2

    Thanks for the quick response.

    Before I get into your help and suggestions, when I booted up my computer this evening I had an alert from some program that's named itself "Vista Total Security" about the dangers on my computer. I never downloaded or ran such a program so I assume it's malware. Especially since I traced its roots to some no-name file (C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\tbh.exe) and a quick google search says it's most certainly a rogue program. Not sure where it came from, but it wasn't here yesterday. Is this an easy removal as well?

    I ran everything you said with no problems. First thing I tried to do was uninstall the whitesmoke toolbar, and windows said that it ran into a problem removing it; either it was already deleted or missing. It asked if I simply wanted it removed from the add/remove programs list.

    Otherwise, I ran everything you said as you said to. I still can't access Windows Updates because the connection is reset, and I've still got 14 svchost.exe processes running in my task manager at any given time. Also, while I was typing this message Firefox opened another tab with some link to an autism vaccine website, so I've still got popups.

    Let me know what the next steps should be.

    Thanks again, Chris
     

    Attached Files:

  4. idiot445

    idiot445 Private E-2

    In order to fix that fake AV problem I was having I ran SuperAntiSpyware again. It fixed that specific problem. However, now every application I run requires me to find the specific exe file for it on my system. Also, I can't get the log from SAS to open from the preferences tab, perhaps because of the above file connection problem. I apologize for the trouble this seems to have caused. I'll consign myself to only running specified activities from here on out.
     
  5. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    Go to this site and scroll down for the exe file fix:
    http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

    Then:

    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 this:
    TDSSkiller - How to run

    Now run the C:\MGtools\GetLogs.bat file by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista or Win7, don't double click, use right click and select Run As Administrator).Make sure that you watch for the license agreement for TrendMicro HijackThis and click on the Accept button TWICE to accept ( yes twice ).

    Then attach the below logs:
    * TDSSKiller log
    * C:\Avenger.txt
    * C:\MGlogs.zip

    Make sure you tell me how things are working now!
     
  6. idiot445

    idiot445 Private E-2

    Ran everything with no problem. Everything seems in order now. I was able to finally update windows today with no problems whatsoever.

    I never would have been able to do this without all your help. I'm attaching the logs as you requested. Let me know if there's anything left that I need to do.

    Thanks again for all your help, Chris
     

    Attached Files:

  7. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    Your logs are clean, but these two files are still showing in HJT. Maybe now you can remove them.

    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.

    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.We recommend them for doing backup scans when you suspect a malware infection.
    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:


    Malware removal from a National Chain = $149
    Malware removal from MajorGeeks = $0

    Help Support MajorGeeks
    Buy Discounted Software @ Majorgeeks Store. Giveaways Too!

    Majorgeeks Geek Wear. Hats, T-Shirts, Hoodies

    MajorGeeks on FaceBook
     

MajorGeeks.Com Menu

Downloads All In One Tweaks \ Android \ Anti-Malware \ Anti-Virus \ Appearance \ Backup \ Browsers \ CD\DVD\Blu-Ray \ Covert Ops \ Drive Utilities \ Drivers \ Graphics \ Internet Tools \ Multimedia \ Networking \ Office Tools \ PC Games \ System Tools \ Mac/Apple/Ipad Downloads

Other News: Top Downloads \ News (Tech) \ Off Base (Other Websites News) \ Way Off Base (Offbeat Stories and Pics)

Social: Facebook \ YouTube \ Twitter \ Tumblr \ Pintrest \ RSS Feeds