Remove Eco AntiVirus 2010 (Uninstall Guide)

Posted by Lawrence Abrams on November 22, 2009 @ 08:32 PM · Views: 12,812

 

What this infection does:

Eco AntiVirus 2010 is a rogue anti-spyware program that is promoted through the use of fake online anti-malware scanners. When browsing the web, you may be shown a pop-up that states that your computer has security problems and that you should click OK to run an online anti-malware scanner. When you click on the OK button, you will be brought to a page that shows an advertisement that pretends to be an online scanner, that when finished, states your computer has various infections and that you should download and install Eco Antivirus 2010 to protect your computer. It is important to remember when you see pop-ups like these, that they are advertisements and they have no way of knowing what is running on your computer.

Once Eco AntiVirus 2010 is installed on your computer, it will be configured to run automatically and scan your computer. When the scan has finished it will state that you have numerous infections, but will not allow you to remove them until you first purchase the program. These infections, though, are all fake and do not exist on your computer or are legitimate programs it is stating are infections. Therefore, please do not act on these scan results as you may be deleting valid Windows files.

 

Echo AntiVirus 2010
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 9 images you can view.

 

While Eco AntiVirus 2010 is running it will also display numerous security alerts from your Windows taskbar. These alerts will have the following messages:

Spyware activity alert!
Trojan.IEMonster activity detected. It is spyware that attempts to steal passwords from Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Outlook and other programs, including logins and passwords from online banking sessions, eBay, PayPal.

System files modification alert!
Some critical system files of your computer were modified by malicious program. It may cause system instability and data loss. Click here to block unathorised modifications by removing threats (Recommended).

Privacy Violation alert!
Eco AntiVirus detected a Privacy Violation. A program is secretly sending your private data to an untrusted internet host. click here to block this activity by removing the threat (Recommended).

Internal conflict alert.
Eco AntiVirus detected internal software conflict. Some applicztion tries to get access to system kernel (such behavior is typical to Spyware/Malware). It may cause crash of your computer.
Eco AntiVirus has automatically analyzed your computer for virus and other malwares.

This program will also install a Internet Explorer Browser Helper Object that will hijack Internet Explorer. This hijack will display messages when you browse the web that states that the particular page may be a phishing site or that your computer has a security problem. All of these alerts, like the scan results, are fake and should be ignored.

As you can see, Eco AntiVirus 2010 was created to trick you into thinking that you are infected so that you will then purchase the program. With that said, if you are infected with this program, please do not purchase it. If you have already purchased it, then I suggest you contact your credit card company and dispute the charges. To remove this infection and any related malware you can use the removal guide below.

 

Threat Classification:

• Information on Rogue Programs & Scareware

 

Advanced information:

View Eco AntiVirus 2010 files.
View Eco AntiVirus 2010 Registry Information.

 

Tools Needed for this fix:

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

 

Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:

O2 - BHO: WStechB - {A5DBD8CB-DF8A-4992-A655-B155216F6AFB} - C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Machine\WStech.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [mxcll] C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\eca\vec.exe

 

Guide Updates:

11/22/09 - Initial guide creation.
11/23/09 - Additional file and fixed rogue spelling.

 

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Automated Removal Instructions for Eco AntiVirus 2010 using Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:

 

1. Print out these instructions as we will need to close every window that is open later in the fix.
   
   
2. Download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, or MBAM, from the following location and save it to your desktop:
   
   Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Download Link (Download page will open in a new window)
   
   


3. Once downloaded, close all programs and Windows on your computer, including this one.
   
   
4. Double-click on the icon on your desktop named mbam-setup.exe. This will start the installation of MBAM onto your computer.
   
   
5. When the installation begins, keep following the prompts in order to continue with the installation process. Do not make any changes to default settings and when the program has finished installing, make sure you leave both the Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware checked. Then click on the Finish button.
   
   
6. MBAM will now automatically start and you will see a message stating that you should update the program before performing a scan. As MBAM will automatically update itself after the install, you can press the OK button to close that box and you will now be at the main program as shown below.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. On the Scanner tab, make sure the the Perform full scan option is selected and then click on the Scan button to start scanning your computer for Eco AntiVirus 2010 related files.
   
   
8. MBAM will now start scanning your computer for malware. This process can take quite a while, so we suggest you go and do something else and periodically check on the status of the scan. When MBAM is scanning it will look like the image below.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. When the scan is finished a message box will appear as shown in the image below.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   You should click on the OK button to close the message box and continue with the Eco AntiVirus 2010 removal process.
   
   
10. You will now be back at the main Scanner screen. At this point you should click on the Show Results button.
    
    
11. A screen displaying all the malware that the program found will be shown as seen in the image below. Please note that the infections found may be different than what is shown in the image.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    You should now click on the Remove Selected button to remove all the listed malware. MBAM will now delete all of the files and registry keys and add them to the programs quarantine. When removing the files, MBAM may require a reboot in order to remove some of them. If it displays a message stating that it needs to reboot, please allow it to do so. Once your computer has rebooted, and you are logged in, please continue with the rest of the steps.
    
    
12. When MBAM has finished removing the malware, it will open the scan log and display it in Notepad. Review the log as desired, and then close the Notepad window.
    
    
13. You can now exit the MBAM program.
    

Your computer should now be free of the Eco AntiVirus 2010 program. If your current anti-virus solution let this infection through, you may want to consider purchasing the PRO version of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to protect against these types of threats in the future.

If you are still having problems with your computer after completing these instructions, then please follow the steps outlined in the topic linked below:

Preparation Guide For Use Before Using Malware Removal Tools and Requesting Help

 

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Associated Eco AntiVirus 2010 Files:

c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\eca
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\eca\Base.dat
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\eca\msdl.exe
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\eca\msll.exe
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\eca\vec.exe
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Machine
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Machine\WStech.dll
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\ Eco AntiVirus
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop\ Eco AntiVirus .lnk
%APPDATA%\mozilla\firefox\profiles\<profile-name>\gsl.dll

File Location Notes:

%AppData% refers to the current users Application Data folder. By default, this is C:\Documents and Settings\<Current User>\Application Data for Windows 2000/XP. For Windows Vista and Windows 7 it is C:\Users\<Current User>\AppData\Roaming.

 

Associated Eco AntiVirus 2010 Windows Registry Information:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ECO
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\{29256442-2C14-48CA-B756-3EE0F8BDC774}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\WStech.DLL
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A5DBD8CB-DF8A-4992-A655-B155216F6AFB}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{051C9A06-FB08-486F-B09B-8B33B261637D}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{512E801E-2F02-4ADE-ACAA-58F08A22B2F8}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WStech.WStechB
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WStech.WStechB.1
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Eco
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{A5DBD8CB-DF8A-4992-A655-B155216F6AFB}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\Class\{4D36E96E-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\S
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "mxcll"