Remove Windows Additional Guard (Removal Guide)
Posted by Lawrence Abrams on September 6, 2009 @ 11:27 AM · Views: 7,774
What this infection does:
Windows Additional Guard is a rogue anti-spyware program from
the same family of rogues as Windows
System Suite and Windows
Protection Suite. When installed, Windows Additional Guard will be set to
automatically start when you log into Windows. The same installer will also
create numerous files throughout your computer's file system that act as infections,
when in reality they are harmless files. When Windows Additional Guard then
scans your computer, it will find these files and state that they are infections,
but will not remove them until you first purchase the program. This tactic of
creating fake malware files and then detecting them in scans is a scare tactic
where they are trying to convince you that you are infected so that you buy
the program.
Windows Additional Guard screen shot
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 6 images you can view.
While this program is running, you will also see fake security alerts on your
desktop stating that various infections or security risks are running on your
computer. You will also find that Internet Explorer and Firefox are hijacked
to use the search engine Search-gala.com. Last, but not least, Internet Explorer
will be hijacked to randomly show a warning when browsing web sites that suggests
you purchase Windows Additional Guard. The text, including the grammatical and
spelling errors, of the warning that you will see is:
Insecure Internet activity. Threat of virus attack
Due to Internet browsing your PC can easily get infected
with viruses, worms, and trojanswithout your knoledge, and that can lead to
system slowdown, freezes and crashes. Also insecure Internet activity can
result in revealing your personal information. To get full advabced real-time
protection your PC ant Internet activity, install an antivirus and antispyware
software.
We recommend you to protect your PC now and continue
safe Internet browsing.
As can be seen, Windows Additional Guard is a designed to scam you into purchasing
the program by trying to convince you that you are infected. For no reason should
you purchase this program, and if you have already done so, we suggest you contact
your credit card company to dispute the charges as it is a scam. If you are
infected with Windows Additional Guard, then please use the guide below to remove
this infection and any related malware for free.
Threat Classification:
Advanced information:
View Windows Additional Guard files.
View Windows Additional Guard Registry Information.
Tools Needed for this fix:
Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:
Note: Some of these filenames and directories are random
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 4-open-davinci.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 securitysoftwarepayments.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 privatesecuredpayments.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 secure.privatesecuredpayments.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 getantivirusplusnow.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 secure-plus-payments.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 www.getantivirusplusnow.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 www.secure-plus-payments.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 www.getavplusnow.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 www.securesoftwarebill.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 secure.paysecuresystem.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 4-open-davinci.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 securitysoftwarepayments.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 privatesecuredpayments.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 secure.privatesecuredpayments.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 getantivirusplusnow.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 secure-plus-payments.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 www.getantivirusplusnow.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 www.secure-plus-payments.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 www.getavplusnow.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 www.securesoftwarebill.com
O1 - Hosts: 74.125.45.100 secure.paysecuresystem.com
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Windows Additional Guard] "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\345d567\WI345d.exe" /s /d
Guide Updates:
09/06/09 - Initial guide creation.
Automated Removal Instructions for Windows Additional Guard using Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
- Print out these instructions as we will need to close every window that
is open later in the fix.
- 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)
- Once downloaded, close all programs and Windows on your computer, including
this one.
- Double-click on the icon on your desktop named mbam-setup.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, make sure you leave both the
Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware checked. Then click on the Finish
button.
- 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.
- 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
Windows Additional Guard
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 Windows Additional Guard 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.
Your computer should now be free of the Windows Additional Guard 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 Windows Additional Guard Files:
Note: Some of these filenames and directories are random
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\345d567
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\345d567\578.mof
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\345d567\mozcrt19.dll
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\345d567\sqlite3.dll
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\345d567\WI345d.exe
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\345d567\WINAG.ico
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\345d567\WINAGSys
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\345d567\WINAGSys\vd952342.bd
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\WINAGSys
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\WINAGSys\winag.cfg
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\Windows Additional Guard.lnk
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Windows Additional Guard
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Windows Additional Guard\cookies.sqlite
%UserProfile%\Desktop\Windows Additional Guard.lnk
%UserProfile%\Recent\ANTIGEN.tmp
%UserProfile%\Recent\cb.exe
%UserProfile%\Recent\CLSV.tmp
%UserProfile%\Recent\ddv.dll
%UserProfile%\Recent\dudl.drv
%UserProfile%\Recent\energy.dll
%UserProfile%\Recent\energy.sys
%UserProfile%\Recent\exec.exe
%UserProfile%\Recent\fan.drv
%UserProfile%\Recent\FS.dll
%UserProfile%\Recent\PE.drv
%UserProfile%\Recent\ppal.exe
%UserProfile%\Recent\SICKBOY.tmp
%UserProfile%\Recent\tjd.sys
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Windows Additional Guard.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Windows Additional Guard.lnk
c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins\search.xml
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 Windows Additional Guard Windows Registry Information:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{3F2BBC05-40DF-11D2-9455-00104BC936FF}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WI345d.DocHostUIHandler
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes "URL" => "http://search-gala.com/?&uid=7&q={searchTerms}"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent\Post Platform "967907703"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "Windows Additional Guard"
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