Hijack of browser (IE8) on Windows XP (maybe other issues?)

BleepingComputer.com: Hijack of browser (IE8) on Windows XP (maybe other issues?)

Forum Rules

When posting your problem, do not run and post a ComboFix log. ComboFix is a tool that should only be run under the supervision of someone who has been trained in its use. Using it on your own can cause problems with your computer. Any posts containing CF Logs will be ignored.

To receive help, you should instead provide a detailed description of your problem, detailed word-for-word error messages that you are receiving, screenshots of strange behaviour, and your operating system. This information is much more useful to our helpers than a ComboFix log.

If you have not received help after three days, please post a link to your topic HERE.

Page 1 of 1

You cannot start a new topic
You cannot reply to this topic

Hijack of browser (IE8) on Windows XP (maybe other issues?)

#1 garyboe

New Member

Group: Members
Posts: 1
Joined: 26-December 10

Posted 26 December 2010 - 10:45 AM

Hi,

I am running Windows XP on a Dell and use IE8 as my browser.

About 2 weeks ago I notice some hijack issues. I tried Malware and AVG, neither one found a problem. AVG was consuming quite a few resources and bringing performance to a crawl, so I removed it from my machine.

Based upon a scan of this site, I installed gmer.exe on my desktop. When I ran the program it crashed my computer. I started up in safe mode, ran gmer.exe, and it again crashed my computer.

Here are symptoms of my hijack, or virus problem(s):
1) On Reboot I frequently get the following error message
“Pure Networks Platform Service has encountered a problem and needs to close:
2) There are random browser hijacks. Some occur after a Google search, others just happen.
3) There seems to be attempted hijacks. When try to open a browser, an additional iexplore.exe shows up
in my process list, usally about 3K in size. The browser I wish to open does not open.
When I kill the additional iexplore.exe process, then the first browser opens up.
4) An SVC Host file tends to grow to about 250 megabytes. Sometimes when I click to open a
browser nothing happens. When I kill the SVC Host process, then the browser opens.
5) I notice there are multiple instances of MSHTA.exe in the process list.
8) When I open IE8, I notice there are usually 2 iexplore.exe processes per browser. Sometimes there are
more than 2 processes per browser.
9) At some point I get a “Generic Host Process for Win32 has encountered a problem and needs to close”
error message.

Extremely appreciative for any help anyone may provide!

Best,

Gary B.

This post has been edited by hamluis: 26 December 2010 - 11:06 AM
Reason for edit: Moved from XP to Am I Infected ~ Hamluis.