How to remove Privacy Components or Privacy Tools Pack (Removal Guide)

Posted by Lawrence Abrams on February 17, 2009 @ 12:08 PM · Views: 7,419

 

What this infection does:

Privacy Components is a new rogue program that pretends to be an all-in-one security suite. This particular rogue is being promoted through a trojan delivered through a fake site called Porn Tube. This site will show images of adult videos, and when you try to watch a video, state that you need to install a program, which is actually a Trojan, in order to watch it. When you install this Trojan, it will download and install Privacy Components on your computer. What I find interesting about Privacy Components is that if they actually put their time into it, they could potentially make this into a useful and legitimate program. The suite of utilities that are bundled with Privacy Components are:

• Cookie guarder
• Secure channel
• Memory wizard
• Surf Protector
• Registry Doctor
• System Monitor

Unfortunately, the developers of Privacy Components would rather make their money by scamming you rather than working for it and all of these utilities fall short of actually being useful. One tool that I found interesting was the secure channel tool, which allows a registered user to create a secure VPN, or encrypted tunnel, to Privacy Component's servers and surf the web using this VPN. Supposedly this would bypass the regular Internet routing and instead go through the company's private routers. It does this by including a copy of OpenVPN that allows you to create a VPN to one of their servers. Unfortunately, I could not test this because I did not have a username or password, but I was able to determine that there is indeed a VPN server residing on one of Privacy Components devices. If this was a legitimate company and one I could trust, I think this would be an interesting concept. Unfortunately, as this company is just trying to scam us, I wouldn't trust them with any of my information.

 

Privacy Components screen shot
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 4 images you can view.

 

Once installed, Privacy Components will be configured to start automatically when you log in to Windows. Once running it will scan your computer and display a variety of false results that can't be removed unless you purchase their software. As the information it displays is all false or grossly exaggerated, you should ignore anything it says. Instead use the free removal guide outlined below to remove Privacy Components and any related malware.

 

Threat Classification:

• Information on Rogue Programs & Scareware

 

Advanced information:

View Privacy Components files.
View Privacy Components Registry Information.

 

Entries for this program found in the Add or Remove Programs control panel:

Privacy components

 

Tools Needed for this fix:

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

 

Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:

O2 - BHO: (no name) - {D032570A-5F63-4812-A094-87D007C23012} - C:\PROGRA~1\PRIVAC~1\tools\sp\sp.dll
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [agent.exe] C:\Program Files\Privacy components\agent.exe

 

Guide Updates:

02/17/08 - Initial guide creation.

 

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Automated Removal Instructions for Privacy Components 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 Privacy Components 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 Privacy Tools Pack 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 Privacy Tools Pack 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 Privacy Components Files:

c:\Program Files\Privacy components
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\agent.exe
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\pc.exe
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\uninstall.exe
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\faq
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\faq\guide.html
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\faq\images
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\faq\images\gimg1.jpg
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\faq\images\gimg10.jpg
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\faq\images\gimg2.jpg
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\faq\images\gimg3.jpg
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\faq\images\gimg4.jpg
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\faq\images\gimg5.jpg
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\faq\images\gimg6.jpg
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\faq\images\gimg7.jpg
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\faq\images\gimg8.jpg
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\faq\images\gimg9.jpg
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\sounds
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\sounds\1.mp3
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\sounds\3.mp3
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\tools
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\tools\sc
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\tools\sc\ca.crt
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\tools\sc\libeay32.dll
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\tools\sc\libssl32.dll
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\tools\sc\OemWin2k.inf
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\tools\sc\openvpn.exe
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\tools\sc\tap0801.sys
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\tools\sc\tapinstall.exe
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\tools\sp
c:\Program Files\Privacy components\tools\sp\sp.dll
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Privacy components
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Privacy components\dbases
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Privacy components\dbases\cg.dat
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Privacy components\dbases\mw.dat
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Privacy components\dbases\rd.dat
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Privacy components\dbases\sc.dat
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Privacy components\dbases\sm.dat
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Privacy components\dbases\sp.dat
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Privacy components\keys
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Privacy components\keys\cg.key
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Privacy components\keys\rd.key
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Privacy components\keys\sc.key
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Privacy components\keys\sp.key
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Privacy components\temp
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Privacy components\temp\settings.ini
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Privacy components\temp\spfilter
%UserProfile%\Desktop\Privacy components.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Privacy components
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Privacy components\Privacy components.lnk

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 Privacy Components Windows Registry Information:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{D032570A-5F63-4812-A094-87D007C23012}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\sp.TIEAdvBHO
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{D032570A-5F63-4812-A094-87D007C23012}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Privacy components
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "agent.exe"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon "Shell" => "C:\Program Files\Privacy components\pc.exe"