Remove Paladin Antivirus (Uninstall Guide)
Posted by Lawrence Abrams on February 7, 2010 @ 11:56 AM · Views: 56,438
What this infection does:
Paladin Antivirus is a rogue anti-spyware program from the
same family as Malware
Defense. This rogue is installed and promoted through the use of Trojans
that will install it on to your computer without your permission. Once installed,
it will scan through the list of programs installed on your computer, and if
it finds certain legitimate anti-malware programs, will prompt you to uninstall
them. Some of the programs that it will attempt to remove are:
- F-Secure
- Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
- NOD32
- Agnitum Outpost Security Suite
- Avira AntiVir
- avast!
- AntiVir
- AVG8
- Norton Internet Security
When installed, Paladin Antivirus will be configured to start automatically
when your computer loads. Once started, it will scan your computer and detect
numerous infections. These infections, though, are all fake or legitimate programs
that should not be deleted. Therefore, please do not act upon any of the scan
results that this program may show.
Paladin Antivirus screen shot
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 7 images you can view.
While Paladin Antivirus is running it will also display numerous security alerts
on your desktop. These alerts will state that the program you are running is
infected or that your computer is being attacked. Some of the messages you may
see are:
Network Intrusion Detected!
Your computer is being attacked from a remote PC.
Process is trying to steal your passwords listed
below. It is highly recommended to block this threat now.
You are using a trial version.
It is recommended to purchase a commercial version.
Adware module detected on your PC!
Zlob.Porn.Ad adware has been detected. This adware module advertises websites
with explicit content. Be advised of such content being possibly illegal.
Please click the button below to locate and remove this threat now.
Just like the scan results, these security alerts are all fake and should be
ignored.
Without a doubt, Paladin Antivirus was designed to scare you into thinking
that you are infected so that you will then purchase the program. If you have
already purchased the program, then please contact your credit card company
and dispute the charges. Finally, please use the guide below to remove Paladin
Antivirus and any related malware for free.
Threat Classification:
Advanced information:
View Paladin Antivirus files.
View Paladin Antivirus Registry Information.
Entries for this program found in the Add or Remove Programs control panel:
Paladin Antivirus
Tools Needed for this fix:
Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Paladin Antivirus] "C:\Program Files\Paladin Antivirus\pav.exe" -noscan
Guide Updates:
02/07/10 - Initial guide creation.
02/14/10 - Changed instructions on how to remove this infection.
Automated Removal Instructions for Paladin Antivirus using Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
- Print out these instructions as we may need to close every window that is
open later in the fix.
- It is possible that the infection you are trying to remove will not allow
you to download files on the infected computer. If you find this is the case
when following these instructions, then you will need to download the requested
files in this guide to another computer and then transfer them to the infected
computer. You can transfer the files via a CD/DVD, external drive, or USB
flash drive.
- Before we can do anything we must first end the processes that belong to
Paladin Antivirus
so that it does not interfere with the cleaning procedure. To do this, please
download RKill to your desktop from the following link.
RKill
Download Link - (Download page will open in a new tab or browser window.)
When at the download page, click on the Download Now button
labeled iExplore.exe download link. When you are prompted
where to save it, please save it on your desktop.
- Once it is downloaded, double-click on the iExplore.exe
icon in order to automatically attempt to stop any processes associated with
Paladin Antivirus
and other Rogue programs. Please be patient while the program looks for various
malware programs and ends them. When it has finished, the black window will
automatically close and you can continue with the next step. If you get a
message that RKill is an infection, do not be concerned. This message is just
a fake warning given by
Paladin Antivirus
when it terminates programs that may potentially remove it. If you run into
these infections warnings that close RKill, a trick is to leave the warning
on the screen and then run RKill again. By not closing the warning, this typically
will allow you to bypass the malware trying to protect itself so that RKill
can terminate
Paladin Antivirus
. So, please try running RKill until the malware is no longer running. You
will then be able to proceed with the rest of the guide. Do not reboot
your computer after running RKill as the malware programs will start again.
If you continue having problems running RKill, you can download
the other renamed versions of RKill from the RKill
download page. Both of these files are renamed copies of RKill, which
you can try instead. Please note that the download page will open in a new
browser window or tab.
- Now you should 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)
- When the file has finished downloading, look on your desktop for mbam-setup.exe
and right-click on it and select Rename. The title of the
program will now have a blinking cursor where you can edit the name. Please
change the name of the program to Explorer.exe.
- After you rename the mbam-setup.exe to Explorer.exe, close all your programs
and Windows on your computer, including this one.
- Double-click on the icon on your desktop named Explorer.exe.
This will start the installation of MBAM onto your computer.
- 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 and is at the last screen, make
sure you uncheck both of the Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware check
boxes. Then click on the Finish button. If Malwarebytes'
prompts you to reboot, please do not do so.
If you receive a code 2 error while installing Malwarebytes's, please press
the OK button to close these errors as we will resolve them
in future steps. The code 2 error will look similar to the image below.
- As this infection deletes a core executable of Malwarebytes', or does not
allow it to run, we will need to download a new copy of it and put it in the
C:\program files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\ folder. To download
the file please click on the following link:
Malwarebytes'
EXE Download
When your browser prompts you where to save it to, please save it to the C:\program
files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\ folder. When downloading the file,
it will have a random filename. Please leave the filename the way it is as
it is important that it is not changed. You may want to write down the name
of the file as you will need to know the name in the next step.
- Once the file has been downloaded, open the C:\program files\Malwarebytes'
Anti-Malware\ folder and double-click on the file you downloaded
in step 10. MBAM will now start and you will be at the main program screen
as shown below.
- Before you can perform a scan, you must first update the program. To do
this click on the Update tab, and that at the new screen
click on the Check for Updates button. Malwarebytes' will
now check for new updates and download and install them as necessary. When
the update is completed, you will be prompted with a message stating either
that you already have the latest updates or that they have been updated. Either
way, you should now click on the OK button to continue.
- Now click on the Scanner tab and make sure the the Perform
full scan option is selected. Then click on the Scan
button to start scanning your computer for
Paladin Antivirus
related files.
- 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.
- 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
Paladin Antivirus
removal process.
- You will now be back at the main Scanner screen. At this point you should
click on the Show Results button.
- 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.
- 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.
- You can now exit the MBAM program.
- You can also delete the Explorer.exe program from your
desktop.
Your computer should now be free of the
Paladin Antivirus
program. You may want to consider purchasing
the PRO version of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to protect against these types
of threats in the future, as if you had the real-time protection component,
that comes with the paid for version, activated it would not have allowed this
infection to install.
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
Associated Paladin Antivirus Files:
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\Paladin Antivirus.lnk
%UserProfile%\Desktop\Paladin Antivirus Support.lnk
%UserProfile%\Desktop\Paladin Antivirus.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Paladin Antivirus
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Paladin Antivirus\Paladin Antivirus Support.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Paladin Antivirus\Paladin Antivirus.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Paladin Antivirus\Uninstall Paladin Antivirus.lnk
c:\Program Files\Paladin Antivirus
c:\Program Files\Paladin Antivirus\help.ico
c:\Program Files\Paladin Antivirus\pav.db
c:\Program Files\Paladin Antivirus\pav.exe
c:\Program Files\Paladin Antivirus\pavext.dll
c:\Program Files\Paladin Antivirus\phook.dll
c:\Program Files\Paladin Antivirus\uninstall.exe
File Location Notes:
%UserProfile% refers to the current user's profile folder. By default, this is C:\Documents and Settings\<Current User> for Windows 2000/XP, C:\Users\<Current User> for Windows Vista/7, and c:\winnt\profiles\<Current User> for Windows NT.
Associated Paladin Antivirus Windows Registry Information:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Paladin Antivirus
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Paladin Antivirus
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