BleepingComputer.com: Requesting help removing virus

Hi, I have been working at removing a virus on my own for about a week but it keeps returning. So I figured I better stop and ask for directions. I'll give a description as to where I'm at and if anyone can lend me some assistance it would be greatly appreciated.

The problem started last week when fake security alerts kept appearing on my desktop. I am running Avira Antivir Personal (free edition) on windows xp but it didn't pick up this activity. So I created a new profile did a reboot and went into safemode in the new profile. Then I ran Rkill which I downloaded from this site followed by a complete system scan and found 4 infected files: TR/Fakealert.NS, TR/Kazy.17556.2, TR/TDss.17.56, TR/Patched.gen. These files were quarantined and deleted. I rebooted in normal mode did another system scan and found nothing. So I thought I was clean although there were some registry settings messed up. My task manager wouldnt start, my desktop backgrounds were disables and all my profile documents were hidden. I manually reset these and everything seemed to be back to normal. Then I opened internet explorer again and I the fake security bokex began appearing again. I tried the above process over again with no sucess this time. Now when I ran rkill a number of processes with varying names start. If I keep launching rkill it eventually runs but all the suspect processes stop and the rkill log doesn't show any abnormal activity. Now when I run the virus scanner it finds a ton of files that it can't access and returns these files as warnings.

Hopefully someone can offer some suggestions as to where to go from here.

Hi, let's try from here.

EXE HELPER
Please download exeHelper to your desktop.
Double-click on exeHelper.com to run the fix.
A black window should pop up, press any key to close once the fix is completed.
Post the contents of exehelperlog.txt (Will be created in the directory where you ran exeHelper.com, and should open at the end of the scan)
Note: If the window shows a message that says "Error deleting file", please re-run the program before posting a log - and post the two logs together (they will both be in the one file).


Please click Start > Run, type inetcpl.cpl in the runbox and press enter.
Click the Connections tab and click the LAN settings option.
Verify if "Use a proxy..." is checked, if so, UNcheck it and click OK/OK to exit.



Reboot into Safe Mode with Networking
How to enter safe mode(XP/Vista)
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.



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.


Now reboot to Normal and run MBAM (MalwareBytes):

Please download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and save it to your desktop.

Download Link 1
Download Link 2

MBAM may "make changes to your registry" as part of its disinfection routine. If using other security programs that detect registry changes (ie Spybot's Teatimer), they may interfere or alert you. Temporarily disable such programs or permit them to allow the changes.

• Make sure you are connected to the Internet.
  
• Double-click on mbam-setup.exe to install the application.
  For instructions with screenshots, please refer to the How to use Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Guide.
  
• When the installation begins, follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.
  
• When installation has finished, make sure you leave both of these checked:
  • Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
    
  • Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
  
  
• Then click Finish.

MBAM will automatically start and you will be asked to update the program before performing a scan.

• If an update is found, the program will automatically update itself. Press the OK button to close that box and continue.
  
• If you encounter any problems while downloading the definition updates, manually download them from here and just double-click on mbam-rules.exe to install.

On the Scanner tab:

• Make sure the "Perform Quick Scan" option is selected.
  
• Then click on the Scan button.
  
• If asked to select the drives to scan, leave all the drives selected and click on the Start Scan button.
  
• The scan will begin and "Scan in progress" will show at the top. It may take some time to complete so please be patient.
  
• When the scan is finished, a message box will say "The scan completed successfully. Click 'Show Results' to display all objects found".
  
• Click OK to close the message box and continue with the removal process.

Back at the main Scanner screen:

• Click on the Show Results button to see a list of any malware that was found.
  
• Make sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
  
• When removal is completed, a log report will open in Notepad.
  
• The log is automatically saved and can be viewed by clicking the Logs tab in MBAM.
  
• Copy and paste the contents of that report in your next reply. Be sure to post the complete log to include the top portion which shows MBAM's database version and your operating system.
  
• Exit MBAM when done.

Note: If MBAM encounters a file that is difficult to remove, you will be asked to reboot your computer so MBAM can proceed with the disinfection process. If asked to restart the computer, please do so immediately. Failure to reboot normally (not into safe mode) will prevent MBAM from removing all the malware.

Troubleshoot Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

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

Thanks for the reply, I greatly appreciate it. I took my best shot at following your suggestions. Here is how it went:

I tried to download exeHelper but was not able to. I cant get internet access on my infected computer at home and the file was blocked when I tried to download it at work. I will try to get it another way but it may take a couple days. So in normal mode I ran DDS so that I could provide you with a log for now anyway. Here is the DDS.log text:

.
Removed DDS log. ~ OB


I also tried to run GMER in normal mode (under all the suggested name variants) but it wouldn't run. Next I ran inetcpl.cpl but the "use proxy" setting was not checked. Next I rebooted in safe mode with networking and not security software running and tried to run Rkill (again under all the suggested name variants). Everytime I ran it a process started in the background called iao.exe. Rkill would eventually run and iao.exe would be terminated but the log file did not reveal anything except that rkill ran and completed. There was a dos looking screen that opens while rkill was running and when complete gave a message something like this: sed.exe File missing at c:\documen~1\Dustin\... (I cant quite remember the message exactly because it flashes up and disappears quickly).

Next I ran SUPERAntiSpyware with the suggested settings. It ran for several hours and found a large number of items. When it was complete it requested a reboot which I accepted. When I reboot back into safemode the program did not auto launch so I launched it again to try and retrieve the log file. When I did this there was no record of a log file. I tried searching my computer to find it but there was nothing there. So all I can supply you with is what I remember reading on the list of items to be quarantined. There were 157 items, the vast majority of which were cookies. It also found a few instances of TR\fake_alert and iao.exe (the names might be slightly different because I'm going from memory).

Next I reboot into normal mode and tried to run MBAM-setup.exe but windows returned the message you get when you try to run an unknown file type. I tried to launch internet explorer to see what would happen and got the same message. I tried a few more programs and always got the same result. I even tried running SUPERAntiSpyware again (which I just did moments before on the same boot) and it would not launch either. I can start some things such as the windows browser but most everything else will no longer run. I went back to safe mode and got the same result. So now I'm really stuck because I can't launch anything.

Any advice on where to go from here?

This post has been edited by Orange Blossom: 09 April 2011 - 08:16 PM

Ok,we need you to repost your DDS log here Virus, Trojan, Spyware, and Malware Removal Logs and not in this topic,thanks.
Make a new topic as the MRL team need to analyze that DDS log and come up with a cleaning schedule.


Let me know if that went well.

Malware topic here: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic389925.html

Now that your log is properly posted, you should NOT make further changes to your computer (install/uninstall programs, use special fix tools, delete files, edit the registry, etc) unless advised by a Malware Removal Team member, nor should you continue to ask for help elsewhere. Doing so can result in system changes which may not show it the log you already posted. Further, any modifications you make on your own may cause confusion for the helper assisting you and could complicate the malware removal process which would extend the time it takes to clean your computer.

From this point on the Malware Removal Team should be the only members that you take advice from, until they have verified your log as clean.

Please be patient. It may take a while to get a response because the Malware Removal Team members are very busy working logs posted before yours. They are volunteers who will help you out as soon as possible. Once you have made your post and are waiting, please DO NOT make another reply until it has been responded to by a member of the Malware Removal Team. Generally the staff checks the forum for postings that have 0 replies as this makes it easier for them to identify those who have not been helped. If you post another response there will be 1 reply. A team member, looking for a new log to work may assume another MR Team member is already assisting you and not open the thread to respond.

To avoid confusion, I am closing this topic.