Remove Protection Center (Uninstall Guide)

Posted by Grinler on June 1, 2010 @ 03:49 PM · Views: 13,599

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What this infection does:

Protection Center is part of the Your Protection family of rogues. This program pretends to be a legitimate anti-malware program, but instead uses false scan results and deceptive security alerts to make you think that your computer has a security problem. Once installed Protection Center will be configured to start when you login to Windows and then scan your computer. When it scans your computer Protection Center will state that it found a variety of infections, but will not let you delete them until you purchase the program. All of these infections, though, are fake or legitimate programs being classified as malware that should not be deleted from your computer. Therefore, please do not act upon any of the information displayed by this program. During testing, we have also found that this program is bundled with the Pragma TDSS rootkit, which will attempt to stop you from running various anti-malware applications that may remove it.

Protection Center screen shot
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 10 images you can view.

While Protection Center is running it will also display pop-ups that contain false alerts about security problem on your computer. These alerts will state that programs you run are infected, that malware has been detected, or that you are sending private information to a remote computer. The text of some of these alerts are:

Danger!
Unauthorized person tries to steal your passwords and private information. Click on the message to prevent identity theft.

Danger!
Unauthosrized <sic> access to your computer! Click on the message to install up-to-date antivirus software.

Warning! Virus threat detected!
Virus activity detected!
Email-Worm.BAT 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.

Danger!
Harmful viruses detected on your computer. Click on the message to scan your computer for security threats for free.

Warning! Network attack detected!
Network intrusion detected!
Your computer is being attacked from a remote PC.
Process is trying to steal your passwords listed below.

Just like the fake scan results, these alerts are all fake and should be ignored.

As you can see, Protection Center was created to scare you into thinking that your computer is infected so that you will then purchase the software. Please do not purchase this software, and if you have, you should contact your credit card company to dispute the charges. To remove this infection and any related malware, please use the removal guide below.

Threat Classification:

• Information on Rogue Programs & Scareware
• Rootkits

Advanced information:

View Protection Center files.
View Protection Center Registry Information.

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

Protection Center

Tools Needed for this fix:

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Protection Center] "C:\Program Files\Protection Center\cntprot.exe" -noscan

Guide Updates:

05/26/10 - Initial guide creation.

Automated Removal Instructions for Protection Center 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. Reboot your computer into Safe Mode with Networking. To do this, turn your computer off and then back on and immediately when you see anything on the screen, start tapping the F8 key on your keyboard. Eventually you will be brought to a menu similar to the one below:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Using the arrow keys on your keyboard, select Safe Mode with Networking and press Enter on your keyboard. If you are having trouble entering safe mode, then please use the following tutorial: How to start Windows in Safe Mode
   
   Windows will now boot into safe mode with networking and prompt you to login as a user. Please login as the same user you were previously logged in with in the normal Windows mode. Then proceed with the rest of the steps.
   
   
3. Download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, or MBAM, from the following location and save it to your desktop:
   
   http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/malwarebytes/mbam-setup.exe - Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Download Link (Download page will open in a new window)
   
   
4. Once downloaded, close all programs and Windows on your computer, including this one.
   
   
5. Double-click on the icon on your desktop named mbam-setup.exe. This will start the installation of MBAM onto your computer.
   
   
6. 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.
   
   
7. 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.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. 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 Protection Center related files.
   
   
9. 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.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. 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 Protection Center removal process.
    
    
11. You will now be back at the main Scanner screen. At this point you should click on the Show Results button.
    
    
12. 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.
    
    
13. 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.
    
    
14. You can now exit the MBAM program.
    
    
15. As many rogues and other malware are installed through vulnerabilities found in out-dated and insecure programs, it is strongly suggested that you use Secunia PSI to scan for vulnerable programs on your computer. A tutorial on how to use Secunia PSI to scan for vulnerable programs can be found here:
    
    How to detect vulnerable and out-dated programs using Secunia Personal Software Inspector

Your computer should now be free of the Protection Center 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

Associated Protection Center Files:

c:\Program Files\Protection Center\about.ico
c:\Program Files\Protection Center\activate.ico
c:\Program Files\Protection Center\buy.ico
c:\Program Files\Protection Center\cnt.db
c:\Program Files\Protection Center\cntext.dll
c:\Program Files\Protection Center\cnthook.dll
c:\Program Files\Protection Center\cntprot.exe
c:\Program Files\Protection Center\help.ico
c:\Program Files\Protection Center\scan.ico
c:\Program Files\Protection Center\settings.ico
c:\Program Files\Protection Center\splash.mp3
c:\Program Files\Protection Center\Uninstall.exe
c:\Program Files\Protection Center\update.ico
c:\Program Files\Protection Center\virus.mp3
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\Protection Center.lnk
%UserProfile%\Desktop\Protection Center Support.lnk
%UserProfile%\Desktop\Protection Center.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Protection Center\
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Protection Center\About.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Protection Center\Activate.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Protection Center\Buy.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Protection Center\Protection Center Support.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Protection Center\Protection Center.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Protection Center\Scan.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Protection Center\Settings.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Protection Center\Update.lnk

File Location Notes:

%UserProfile% refers to the current user's profile folder. By default, this is C:\Documents and Settings\ for Windows 2000/XP, C:\Users\ for Windows Vista/7, and c:\winnt\profiles\ for Windows NT.

Associated Protection Center Windows Registry Information:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\secfile
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Malware Defense
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Paladin Antivirus
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{5E2121EE-0300-11D4-8D3B-444553540000}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\SimpleShlExt
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\secfile
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Malware Defense
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Protection Center
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Paladin Antivirus
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Protection Center
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System "DisableTaskMgr" = "1"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "Protection Center"