Virus - HijackThis log (J.exe)

Welcome to Major Geeks!

Please read ALL of this message including the notes before doing anything.

Please follow the instructions in the below link:

READ & RUN ME FIRST. Malware Removal Guide


and attach the requested logs when you finish these instructions.

• **** 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. MGtools will frequently run even when all other tools 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:
   
   • Starting your computer in Safe mode
2. If you have problems downloading on the problem PC, download the tools and the manual updates for SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes ( 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:
   • Don't Bump! It Only Hurts You!!!

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.
​

 

I see an MGtools folder in your ComboFix log which means MGtools at least extracted. You have to make sure you follow the instructions for using it with Vista. For example, you had to disable UAC and you had to reboot after disabling UAC. Also you have to right click on MGtools.exe and select Run As Administrator.

 

Based on all of your logs, you are not having malware problems. The only item I question at all is the below folder:

Code:

"C:\Windows\System32\"
WAT           18 May 2010              "Wat"

You should cleanup the below left over folders from things you have uninstalled:

Code:

"C:\ProgramData\"
ALWILS~1       1 Jun 2010              "Alwil Software"
COMODO~1      30 May 2010              "Comodo Downloader"
  
                                                                              
"C:\Program Files\"
ALWILS~1       1 Jun 2010              "Alwil Software"
AVG           31 May 2010              "AVG"
REGIST~1      31 May 2010              "Registry Watch"
TRENDM~1       2 Jun 2010              "Trend Micro"

And then you should delete the below folders from ComboFix

Code:

32788R~1       3 Jun 2010              "32788R22FWJFW"
32788R~2.TMP   2 Jun 2010              "32788R22FWJFW.1.tmp"
32788R~3.TMP   2 Jun 2010              "32788R22FWJFW.2.tmp"
COMBOFIX       3 Jun 2010              "ComboFix"

Then since you are not having 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. Go back to step 6 oof 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.
10. After doing the above, you should work thru the below link:
    • How to Protect yourself from malware!

 

It is not in any of your logs nor in any of the process running so I cannot tell you. You should have run scans while j.exe was trying to load. Also I you should look in Task Manager and enable it to show Image Paths ( the path to where a program is running from ) so that you can see exactly where the file is located. That may help you identify what it is from.

If you have a problem identifying where the file is on your PC then don't reload Comodo initially and see if you can find the file. After all you have no protection right now and the process is not running and obviously even if it did run and terminate before you ran the scans, it obviously is not doing anything to cause problems. I would bet that right now it is not running at anytime, which would seem to imply it was related to something you may have uninstalled while uninstalling everything.

 

Are you referring to in the past or are you referring to right now.

Did you see it in Task Manager.

Then perhaps you need to investigate more deeply where Comodo is finding it and then also just allow it to run. I doubt it is a problem since no malware is showing in your logs. If it is really running, it is more likely something that you run. As I said before, it was not running at the time you ran any of our scans and nothing in your logs shows any signs of any hidden processes,services, drivers...etc.

 

Did you see my last message?

Is it in Task Manager? You need to have a log while this is trying to run that shows a full path process list like MGtools does. If it does not show in Task Manager, you need a better tool like Process Explorer or you need to get Comodo to provide you with more information on where the file is. Click on the j.exe which is blue and underlined. It may give more info.

 

A screen shot is actually of no use to us unless it is identifying where the process is running from. In addition, Process Explorer can easily dump things to a log and it can show full image name paths. Below is an example that select explorer.exe but you could select j.exe. Also it shows you how to setup PE to show things and to save a log.



Now run procexp.exe by double clicking on it.

• Let's configure some options first:
  • Click View and select Show Lower Pane. And where it says "Lower Pane View" make sure DLL's is checked.
  • Now click on explore.exe.
  • Now also under the View menu choose "Select columns" and put a check mark on "Image Path".
• Now click on File and then Save As. And save the process list.
• Post it back here as an attachment.

 

Did you setup PE as I suggested to show Image Path? If so, then just leave PE open so you can watch it and see where the j.exe file is located. After all you said it occurs frequently. You can also put PE into your Startup folder so that automatically loads at startup to try and catch this early during bootup.

Also did you try clicking on the blue underlined j.exe in Comodo to see if it gives more info. Normally there is a way to get more info when things like this popup.

Another few questions to answer are:

1. Does this happen if you do not open any browsers or run any application? Just simply boot up and do nothing?
2. Does it happen if your connection to the internet is physically unplugged?
3. Does this also appear if you boot in safe mode?

 

Also after seeing if you can catch it in PE and trying the steps to answer my questions, run the below in normal boot mode and attach the log.


GMER - running with a random name

 

Well that shows you that the j.exe file does not even exist. What you need to find out is what other process is trying to find and load j.exe

 

The problem is that Comodo is not identifying what is running but rather it is identifying something that a program that is already running is trying to run which is fairly useless.

Not helpful! You have Disk Emulation Software cluttering up the log. See step 6 of the READ & RUN ME and disable Daemon Tools. Also Comodo is cluttering up the log too with its files. And then you added Threatfire on top of it which I would strongly not recommend. I suggest that you uninstall Threatfire and anything else from PCTools and then Run step 6 of the READ & RUN ME to disable Daemon Tools and then rerun GMER and attach a new log.

Is the below file name what GMER was randomly named?
C:\Users\Graham\Desktop\4jrhzqbl.exe

 

You're welcome. Sorry to hear you had to reinstall. What I question now is have you reinstalled everything that I previously saw running like all of the below which I saw in your logs? It would be interesting to see if after reinstalling to have the exact same setup, whether this reoccurs.