How to remove Vitae Antivirus 2008 (Uninstall Instructions)

Posted by Lawrence Abrams on July 23, 2008 @ 04:23 PM · Views: 4,961

 

What this infection does:

Vitae Antivirus 2008 is a rogue anti-spyware program from the same developers as Antivirus 2008 and Antivirus 2009. This program is advertised through the use of links to web sites that masquerade as online web scanners. When you visit these sites they will pretend to scan your computer and then display a screen stating that infections were found. This is just an advertisement, though, and has no ability to actually scan your computer. If you decide to download and install Vitae Antivirus 2008, the program will automatically run, and when finished, state that you are infected with a variety of security risks that can't be removed unless you first purchase the program.

Another interesting bit of information about this rogue is that it is a VMware aware application. That means if you attempt to run this program in a VMware virtual machine, it will fail and state you need a newer version of Windows. They do this so that it is harder for malware researchers to examine and research these types of infections.

 

Vitae Antivirus 2008 screen shot
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 3 images you can view.

 

This guide will walk you through removing the Vitae Antivirus 2008 program and any associated malware for free.

 

Threat Classification:

• Information on Rogue Programs & Scareware

 

Advanced information:

View Vitae Antivirus 2008 files.
View Vitae Antivirus 2008 Registry Information.

 

Tools Needed for this fix:

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

 

Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:

O2 - BHO: Secure - {B85BB239-F685-4547-B0AC-E8835CD8ED24} - C:\Program Files\VAV\vav.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Antivirus] C:\Program Files\VAV\vav.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Antivirus] C:\Program Files\VAV\vav.exe

 

Guide Updates:

07/23/08 - Initial guide creation.

 

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Automated Removal Instructions for Vitae Antivirus 2008 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 Vitae Antivirus 2008 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 Vitae Antivirus 2008 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 Vitae Antivirus 2008 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 Vitae Antivirus 2008 Files:

c:\Program Files\VAV
c:\Program Files\VAV\vav.cpl
c:\Program Files\VAV\vav.dll
c:\Program Files\VAV\vav.exe
c:\Program Files\VAV\vav0.dat
c:\Program Files\VAV\vav1.dat
c:\WINDOWS\system32\vav.cpl
c:\Documents and Settings\Bleeping\Desktop\Vitae Antivirus 2008.lnk
c:\Documents and Settings\Bleeping\Recent\vitae-antivirus.lnk

 

Associated Vitae Antivirus 2008 Windows Registry Information:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AntiVirus
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VAV
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.key
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B85BB239-F685-4547-B0AC-E8835CD8ED24}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{E81A8BAF-B19C-4857-9A78-26419429134D}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\OneSecurity.IESecurity
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\OneSecurity.IESecurity.1
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{4EEAFD15-6A8A-4957-8932-259100D9C18B}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{B85BB239-F685-4547-B0AC-E8835CD8ED24}
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "Antivirus"
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "Antivirus"