Suspicicious Registry Activity?

attackmonkey · Oct 20, 2007

I'm in the process of setting up a new machine, and I've noticed something suspicious in the registry (only because its stopping a lot of ms apps installing properly).

I the registry, there is always a value for PendingFileRenameOperations. If I delete it, it always comes back on reboot. It seems to create a folder in the temp folder of the user account I'm using, that is in the format of ns<random letters and numbers>.tmp. Inside the folder is a file called system.dll, which strikes me as being dodgy.

I've run AVG, and it's found nothing. Adaware the same. Not having much luck figuring out what's causing the entry, and how to remove it. Any ideas?

chaslang · Oct 20, 2007

Welcome to Major Geeks!

attackmonkey said: ↑

I'm in the process of setting up a new machine, and I've noticed something suspicious in the registry (only because its stopping a lot of ms apps installing properly).
Click to expand...

And how did you come to this conclusion?

attackmonkey said: ↑

I the registry, there is always a value for PendingFileRenameOperations. If I delete it, it always comes back on reboot.
Click to expand...

The PendingFileRenameOperations key is a normal registry key to have however whatever is under it is what I would have to have more specific information on.

What I don't understand is this. You say this is a new machine. How is it that it could possibly be infected alreay? What have you installed on it and have you been downloading and surfing with it already?

It would be best if you just followed our standard cleaning process given below, so that we can see what is really going on.

Please follow our standard cleaning procedures which are necessary for us to provide you support. Also there are steps included for installing, renaming, running, and posting HijackThis logs as attachments.

Run ALL the steps in this Sticky thread READ & RUN ME FIRST Before Asking for Support

Make sure you check version numbers and get all updates.

Very Important: Make sure you tell us the results from running the tutorial...was anything found? Were you unable to complete any of the scans?...Were you unable to download any of the tools?...Did you do the on-line scans as suggested? etc.

After doing ALL of the above you still have a problem make sure you have booted to normal mode and run the steps in the below link to properly use HijackThis and attach a log:

Downloading, Installing, and Running HijackThis
Make sure you also rename HijackThis.exe as suggested in the procedures. Use analyse.exe for the new name. This is very important due to some new infections going around.

When you return to make your next post, make sure you attach the following logs and that you have run these scans in the following order too:

CounterSpy - only for Windows XP, 2K, & NT users

AVG Antispyware log - ONLY IF NEEDED you were not able to run CounterSpy. - only for Windows XP, 2K, & NT users

Bitdefender - from step 6

Panda Scan - from step 6

runkeys.txt - the log from GetRunKey.bat

newfiles.txt - the log from ShowNew.bat

HijackThis

NOTE: You can only attach 3 files in a single message so it will require that you use two messages to attach all of these logs!

attackmonkey · Oct 22, 2007

I knew that there was something going on because every timeI tried to install SDL Server or VS.Net, I would get an error message that there was activity pending from a previous install that required a reboot. A quick look on the MSDN drew up a reference to the registry entry in question. Having tried to delete it, it kept returning on every reboot.

I ran Spybot, Adaware, AVG, HijackThis and several online virus scanners and found nothing, as well as a number of other scans and tools. Eventually I trawled through the registry by hand and found what appeared to be some corrupt entries from a failed install. Once I'd removed those entries, the issue was resolved.

chaslang · Oct 22, 2007

Incomplete/failed installs happen all the time and are not related to malware. This is the reason for Microsoft creating the below tool.

Windows Installer CleanUp Utility

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Suspicicious Registry Activity?

attackmonkey Private E-2

chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

attackmonkey Private E-2

chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member