BleepingComputer.com: Computer infected with rogue antispyware??

Hi

Okay so I have a Windows XP computer and today a rogue antispyware was infected in my computer. It looks the same as the System Defragmenter one except it's called Smart Defragmenter. At first I didn't know what it did or was so I used the run defragmentation option. Afterwards whenever I logged on it would make me restart.

So then I followed all your steps in the Remove System Defragmenter guide. Afterwards the pop ups that said Critical Error stopped but the program is still in my desktop and starts scanning for errors when I log in. I tried to scan the program using Malware Bytes but it said that no infection is found. It also keeps bugging me to activate the license.

The errors are:

• Bad sectors on hard drive or damaged file allocation table
  
• Read time of hard drive clusters less than 500 ms
  
• Hard drive doesn't respond to system commands
  
• Registry Error- Critical Error- Limited Edition
  
• 30% of HDD space is unreadable

What do I do now??

Hello, let's try another approach.
Reboot into Safe Mode with Networking
How to enter safe mode(XP)
Using the F8 Method
Restart your computer.
When the machine first starts again it will generally list some equipment that is installed in your machine, amount of memory, hard drives installed etc. At this point you should gently tap the F8 key repeatedly until you are presented with a Windows XP Advanced Options menu.
Select the option for Safe Mode with Networking using the arrow keys.
Then press enter on your keyboard to boot into Safe Mode.


>>>> Download this file and doubleclick on it to run it. Allow the information to be merged with the registry.

RKill....

Download and Run RKill

Please download RKill by Grinler from one of the 4 links below and save it to your desktop.

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4



• Before we begin, you should disable your anti-malware softwares you have installed so they do not interfere RKill running as some anti-malware softwares detect RKill as malicious. Please refer to this page if you are not sure how.
  
  
• Double-click on Rkill on your desktop to run it. (If you are using Windows Vista, please right-click on it and select Run As Administrator)
  
  
• A black screen will appear and then disappear. Please do not worry, that is normal. This means that the tool has been successfully executed.
  
  
• If nothing happens or if the tool does not run, please let me know in your next reply

Do not reboot your computer after running rkill as the malware programs will start again. Or if rebooting is required run it again.


If you continue having problems running rkill.com, you can download iExplore.exe or eXplorer.exe, which are renamed copies of rkill.com, and try them instead.



Next run Superantisypware (SAS):

Download and scan with SUPERAntiSpyware Free for Home Users

• Double-click SUPERAntiSpyware.exe and use the default settings for installation.
  
• An icon will be created on your desktop. Double-click that icon to launch the program.
  
• If asked to update the program definitions, click "Yes". If not, update the definitions before scanning by selecting "Check for Updates". (If you encounter any problems while downloading the updates, manually download them from here. Double-click on the hyperlink for Download Installer and save SASDEFINITIONS.EXE to your desktop. Then double-click on SASDEFINITIONS.EXE to install the definitions.)
  
• In the Main Menu, click the Preferences... button.
  
• Click the Scanning Control tab.
  
• Under Scanner Options make sure the following are checked (leave all others unchecked):
  • Close browsers before scanning.
    
  • Scan for tracking cookies.
    
  • Terminate memory threats before quarantining.
• Click the "Close" button to leave the control center screen.
  
• Back on the main screen, under "Scan for Harmful Software" click Scan your computer.
  
• On the left, make sure you check C:\Fixed Drive.
  
• On the right, under "Complete Scan", choose Perform Complete Scan.
  
• Click "Next" to start the scan. Please be patient while it scans your computer.
  
• After the scan is complete, a Scan Summary box will appear with potentially harmful items that were detected. Click "OK".
  
• Make sure everything has a checkmark next to it and click "Next".
  
• A notification will appear that "Quarantine and Removal is Complete". Click "OK" and then click the "Finish" button to return to the main menu.
  
• If asked if you want to reboot, click "Yes".
  
• To retrieve the removal information after reboot, launch SUPERAntispyware again.
  • Click Preferences, then click the Statistics/Logs tab.
    
  • Under Scanner Logs, double-click SUPERAntiSpyware Scan Log.
    
  • If there are several logs, click the current dated log and press View log. A text file will open in your default text editor.
    
  • Please copy and paste the Scan Log results in your next reply.
• Click Close to exit the program.

If you have a problem downloading, installing or getting SAS to run, try downloading and using the SUPERAntiSpyware Portable Scanner instead. Save the randomly named file (i.e. SAS_1710895.COM) to a usb drive or CD and transfer to the infected computer. Then double-click on it to launch and scan. The file is randomly named to help keep malware from blocking the scanner.


Rerun MBAM (MalwareBytes) like this:

Open MBAM in normal mode and click Update tab, select Check for Updates,when done
click Scanner tab,select Quick scan and scan (normal mode).
After scan click Remove Selected, Post new scan log and Reboot into normal mode.

Please ask any needed questions,post logs and Let us know how the PC is running now.

Do I log into administrator or my own user account?? Also do I have disable firewall too??

Okay i had to enter safe mode by msconfig and then selecting safe boot with networking since f8 wouldn't work... is that okay??

This post has been edited by sampsontown: 30 October 2010 - 05:13 PM

Okay the good news is that the defragmenter has dissapeared from my desktop and taskbar. The weird thing is that the malware bytes thing and super spyware is also gone.

Anyways what I did was that when the computer rebooted again it was in safe mode so I clicked cancel and used this system restore thing and then restored from two days earlier. Is it completely gone from my computer??

OK the restore removed the apps... Not necessarily all of the malware.. In Normal mode run MBAM.

1. Uninstall Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware using Add/Remove programs in the control panel.
2. Restart your computer (very important).
3. Download and run this utility. Mbam clean
4. It will ask to restart your computer (please allow it to).
5. After the computer restarts, install the latest version from here. http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam-download.php
Note: You will need to reactivate the program using the license you were sent.
Note: If using Free version, ignore the part about putting in your license key and activating.
Launch the program and set the Protection and Registration.
Then go to the UPDATE tab if not done during installation and check for updates.
Restart the computer again and verify that MBAM is in the task tray and run a Quick Scan and post that log.


Follow with an Online scan.
Please perform a scan with Eset Online Antiivirus Scanner.
This scan requires Internet Explorer to work. Vista/Windows 7 users need to run Internet Explorer as Administrator.
To do this, right-click on the IE icon in the Start Menu or Quick Launch Bar on the Taskbar and select Run As Administrator from the context menu.

• Click the green button.
  
• Read the End User License Agreement and check the box:
  
• Check .
  
• Click the button.
  
• Accept any security warnings from your browser.
  
• Check
  
• Check Remove found threats and Scan potentially unwanted applications. (If given the option, choose "Quarantine" instead of delete.)
  
• Click the Start button.
  
• ESET will then download updates for itself, install itself, and begin scanning your computer.
  
• If offered the option to get information or buy software at any point, just close the window.
  
• The scan will take a while so be patient and do NOT use the computer while the scan is running. Keep all other programs and windows closed.
  
• When the scan completes, push
  
• Push , and save the file to your desktop as ESETScan.txt.
  
• Push the button, then Finish.
  
• Copy and paste the contents of ESETScan.txt in your next reply.

Note: A log.txt file will also be created and automatically saved in the C:\Program Files\EsetOnlineScanner\ folder.
If you did not save the ESETScan log, click > Run..., then type or copy and paste everything in the code box below into the Open dialogue box:

C:\Program Files\ESET\EsetOnlineScanner\log.txt

• Click Ok and the scan results will open in Notepad.
  
• Copy and paste the contents of log.txt in your next reply.

-- Some online scanners will detect existing anti-virus software and refuse to cooperate. You may have to disable the real-time protection components of your existing anti-virus and try running the scan again. If you do this, remember to turn them back on after you are finished.

NOTE: In some instances if no malware is found there will be no log produced.

This post has been edited by boopme: 30 October 2010 - 07:51 PM

Sorry for the late reply.

When I tried to install the MBAM clean.exe there was an error stating that the SHGETVALUE failed with error code 0.

I'm sorry for being even later..
I am concernd that your hard drive possibly is failing. just in case you should back up any important data now.

Let's wait on mBAM. Can you do ESET?

ESET LOG


ESETSmartInstaller@High as CAB hook log:
OnlineScanner.ocx - registred OK
# version=7
# iexplore.exe=8.00.6001.18702 (longhorn_ie8_rtm(wmbla).090308-0339)
# OnlineScanner.ocx=1.0.0.6211
# api_version=3.0.2
# EOSSerial=be270845e68fa64abc5209cc1ab91cab
# end=finished
# remove_checked=true
# archives_checked=true
# unwanted_checked=true
# unsafe_checked=false
# antistealth_checked=true
# utc_time=2010-11-05 06:56:02
# local_time=2010-11-05 12:56:02 (-0700, Mountain Daylight Time)
# country="United States"
# lang=1033
# osver=5.1.2600 NT Service Pack 3, v.5755
# compatibility_mode=2304 16777175 100 0 0 0 0 0
# compatibility_mode=8192 67108863 100 0 0 0 0 0
# scanned=80315
# found=2
# cleaned=2
# scan_time=4821
C:\Documents and Settings\Kathy\Application Data\Sun\Java\Deployment\cache\6.0\12\1dd6a40c-25bdf1ce a variant of Java/TrojanDownloader.Agent.NAN trojan (deleted - quarantined) 00000000000000000000000000000000 C
C:\Documents and Settings\Kathy\Application Data\Sun\Java\Deployment\cache\6.0\62\1c929bfe-4614de0a a variant of Java/TrojanDownloader.OpenStream.NAU trojan (deleted - quarantined) 00000000000000000000000000000000 C

MBAM
mbam-log-2010-11-04 (21-07-05).txt

Scan type: Quick scan
Objects scanned: 167769
Time elapsed: 16 minute(s), 28 second(s)

Memory Processes Infected: 0
Memory Modules Infected: 0
Registry Keys Infected: 5
Registry Values Infected: 0
Registry Data Items Infected: 0
Folders Infected: 0
Files Infected: 0

Memory Processes Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Memory Modules Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Keys Infected:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Stats\{549b5ca7-4a86-11d7-a4df-000874180bb3} (Trojan.Agent) -> No action taken.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{549b5ca7-4a86-11d7-a4df-000874180bb3} (Trojan.Agent) -> No action taken.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WEK9EMDHI9 (Trojan.Agent) -> No action taken.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\XML (Trojan.FakeAlert) -> No action taken.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\YVIBBBHA8C (Trojan.Agent) -> No action taken.

Registry Values Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Data Items Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Folders Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Files Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

I need to ask if you clicked Remove Selected as sometimes that is why this appears in the log..No action taken.
How is it now/

I'm pretty sure I clicked remove selected but I will try again. The computer is really slow I'm now sure if it's because of the malware...

Let;s also run this.
If still redirecting>>>
Change your DNS Servers:

• Go to > Run... and in the open box, type: cmd
  
• Press OK or Hit Enter.
  
• At the command prompt, type or copy/paste: ipconfig /flushdns
  
• Hit Enter.
  
• You will get a confirmation that the flush was successful.
  
• Close the command box.

If the above commands did not resolve the problem, the next thing to try is to reset your network settings and Configure TCP/IP to use DNS.

• Go to > Control Panel, and choose Network Connections.
  
• Right-click on your default connection, usually Local Area Connection or Dial-up Connection if you are using Dial-up, and and choose Properties.
  
• Double-click on Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) or highlight it and select Properties.
  
• Under the General tab, write down any settings in case you should need to change them back.
  
• Select the button that says "Obtain an IP address automatically" or make sure the DNS server IP address is the same as provided by your ISP.
  
• Select the button that says "Obtain DNS servers automatically".
  
• If unknown Preferred or Alternate DNS servers are listed, uncheck the box that says "Use the following DNS server address".
  
• Click OK twice to get out of the properties screen and restart your computer. If not prompted to reboot go ahead and reboot manually.

-- Vista users can refer to How to Change TCP/IP settings

CAUTION: It's possible that your ISP (Internet Service Provider) requires specific DNS settings here. Make sure you know if you need these settings or not BEFORE you make any changes or you may lose your Internet connection. If you're sure you do not need a specific DNS address,
then you may proceed.

It said that it was flushed sucessfully

So the redirects have stopped?

yes thanks a lot!

This is good and you're welcome. Now you should Create a New Restore Point to prevent possible reinfection from an old one. Some of the malware you picked up could have been backed up, renamed and saved in System Restore. Since this is a protected directory your tools cannot access to delete these files, they sometimes can reinfect your system if you accidentally use an old restore point. Setting a new restore point AFTER cleaning your system will help prevent this and enable your computer to "roll-back" to a clean working state.

The easiest and safest way to do this is:

• Go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools and click "System Restore".
  
• Choose the radio button marked "Create a Restore Point" on the first screen then click "Next". Give the R.P. a name, then click "Create". The new point will be stamped with the current date and time. Keep a log of this so you can find it easily should you need to use System Restore.

• Then use Disk Cleanup to remove all but the most recently created Restore Point.
  
• Go to Start > Run and type: Cleanmgr
  
• Click "Ok". Disk Cleanup will scan your files for several minutes, then open.
  
• Click the "More Options" tab, then click the "Clean up" button under System Restore.
  
• Click Ok. You will be prompted with "Are you sure you want to delete all but the most recent restore point?"
  
• Click Yes, then click Ok.
  
• Click Yes again when prompted with "Are you sure you want to perform these actions?"
  
• Disk Cleanup will remove the files and close automatically.

Vista and Windows 7 users can refer to these links: Create a New Restore Point in Vista or Windows 7 and Disk Cleanup in Vista.