Remove Safety Center (Uninstall Guide)

Posted by Grinler on August 26, 2009 @ 03:35 PM · Views: 25,651

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What this programs does:

Safety Center is a rogue security suite from the same family as Privacy Center . Safety Center is a program that pretends to be a security suite consisting of a spyware scanner, a firewall, a registry scanner, and privacy protection. In reality, this program has only one goal and that is to take your money without providing anything in return. When installed, Safety Center will be configured to start automatically. Once started you will be shown a screen that shows a variety of tools that you can use to protect and optimize your computer. In reality, though, all of these tools deliberately display false scan results and information to make it seem like you have a problem. It then tries to have you purchase the program so that you can supposedly fix these problems.

Safety Center screen shot
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 8 images you can view.

While the program is running you will also see a constant barrage of security alerts and warnings appear on your desktop. These message will be shown in the form of little Windows taskbar balloons, square pop-up windows, or large Windows with dire warnings. All of these alerts are further attempts to trick you into thinking you are infected. Safety Center will also hijack your Internet Explorer web browser so that when you visit web sites it will randomly show messages stating the web site denied your request because you are infected with malware. The message you will see is:

We are sorry but your query looks similar to requests from a computer infected by viruses or spyware applications. To protect our users, we can't proceed with your request at the moment. We will restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again later.

Meanwhile, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your system is free of viruses and other malicious software.

It will then display a link labeled Scan Now, which when clicked on, opens the Safety Center program where you are prompted once again to purchase it. As you can see this program was designed solely to scam you into thinking your computer has a security risk and then to scare you into purchasing it. If you find that you are infected with Safety Center, then please use the removal guide below to remove this program from your computer.

Threat Classification:

• Information on Rogue Programs & Scareware

Advanced information:

View Safety Center files.
View Safety Center Registry Information.

Tools Needed for this fix:

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:

O2 - BHO: (no name) - {EB09B56A-91AB-11DE-95FD-A39056D89593} - C:\DOCUME~1\Bleeping\LOCALS~1\Temp\~2.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\RunOnce: [SafetyCenter] C:\Program Files\SafetyCenter\protector.exe -startup
O4 - HKLM\..\RunOnce: [SafetyCenter] c:\SafetyCenter\start.exe

Guide Updates:

08/26/09 - Initial guide creation.
11/09/09 - Updated for new version

Automated Removal Instructions for Safety 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. Download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, or MBAM, from the following location and save it to your desktop:
   
   Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Download Link
   
   


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 Safety Center 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 SafetyCenter 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 SafetyCenter 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 Posting A Hijackthis Log

Associated Safety Center Files:

c:\Program Files\SafetyCenter
c:\Program Files\SafetyCenter\main.ico
c:\Program Files\SafetyCenter\protector.exe
c:\Program Files\SafetyCenter\sound.wav
%UserProfile%\My Documents\0886b8.vom
%UserProfile%\My Documents\102.exe
%UserProfile%\My Documents\cs_def.exe
%UserProfile%\My Documents\trojan.psw.stealth.a.exe
%UserProfile%\My Documents\Adrevolver.txtAds360.com
%UserProfile%\My Documents\default.pss
%UserProfile%\My Documents\emalware.cvd
%UserProfile%\My Documents\install_tag002.exe
%UserProfile%\My Documents\tdfhex.dll
c:\WINDOWS\gbaxl2.dat
c:\SafetyCenter
c:\SafetyCenter\main.ico
c:\SafetyCenter\new.exe
c:\SafetyCenter\protector.exe
c:\SafetyCenter\sound.wav
c:\SafetyCenter\start.exe
c:\SafetyCenter\uninstall.exe

Associated Safety Center Windows Registry Information:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{BCA9B86C-91BC-11DE-B1CD-35C755D89593}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{EB09B56A-91AB-11DE-95FD-A39056D89593}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{459b6bf8-5320-4c41-8833-85baedf31086}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{EB09B56A-91AB-11DE-95FD-A39056D89593}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ControlPanel\NameSpace\{BCA9B86C-91BC-11DE-B1CD-35C755D89593}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{BCA9B86C-91BC-11DE-B1CD-35C755D89593}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\{BCA9B86C-91BC-11DE-B1CD-35C755D89593}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\NetworkNeighborhood\NameSpace\{BCA9B86C-91BC-11DE-B1CD-35C755D89593}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\SafetyCenter
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SafetyCenter
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SafetyCenter
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce "SafetyCenter"