The 'iexplore' infection, AV suite, and its proxy

Discussion in 'Malware Help (A Specialist Will Reply)' started by Biker Al, Jul 11, 2010.

  1. Biker Al

    Biker Al Private E-2

    I recently contracted today's popular malware, the one that opens copies of iexplore, launches advertisements, and turns the .WAV volume off at regular intervals. I also almost immediately contracted AV suite, which I am assuming was a secondary infection allowed or invited by the iexplore trojan. I found web instructions for removing the AV suite which seemed to work. After AV suite was removed, Spybot and MBAM were not able to find the initial infection, which I finally removed with 'Hitman Pro' (they give a 30 day free trial - it's the only one that worked for me). My computer was then symptom free for several days.

    My problem (if it's a problem):

    One of the things AV suite does is to set a proxy HTTP = 127.0.0.1:5577 using the registry key "HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Internet Settings. This key was removed as part of the initial disinfection. After a few days I reran all of the malware detectors just as a precaution and Hitman informed me that the system was still using the above proxy. After some degree of losing more of my hair, I found another similar key HKU/.defaults/software/microsoft/windows/Current Version/Internet settings which also set the proxy as above. If I delete this key and tell hitman to 'fix' the problem, after 5 - 10 minutes the key will restore itself and I will again get the warning if I run Hitman. This regeneration seems to be time based and not related to opening or closing any program, and the key is not necessarily restored even by rebooting the machine. Microsoft's control panel/internet options/connections/lan settings does NOT indicate that a proxy is being used, and the key in HKCU does not regenerate. As far as I know, there are no other symptoms of this problem.

    Can there be a non-malicious reason that this proxy is resetting itself? If there's no reasonable explanation, can someone have a look at these logs?

    Thanks much in advance!
     

    Attached Files:

    Biker Al, Jul 11, 2010
    #1
  2. Biker Al

    Biker Al Private E-2

    The last log file.
     

    Attached Files:

    Biker Al, Jul 11, 2010
    #2
  3. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    Your logs are clean. I can't tell you how that proxy setting may be getting regenerated. It is currently not showing in your logs.

    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:

     
    TimW, Jul 12, 2010
    #3

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