Remove Wireshark Antivirus (Uninstall Guide)
Posted by Lawrence Abrams on August 6, 2010 @ 01:59 PM · Views: 35,191
What this infection does:
Wireshark Antivirus is a rogue anti-spyware program from the
same family as Sysinternals
Antivirus. This rogue is attempting to confuse people by using a name that
is well known in the security community. By using the name Wireshark, this rogue
is trying to confuse users into thinking that they are related to the the legitimate
network protocol analyzer called Wireshark
that is commonly used to diagnose the traffic that is flowing over a network.
WireShark Antivirus, though, is a program that ransoms the proper operation
of your computer until you purchase it. Wireshark Antivirus is promoted through
the use of Trojans that will install the program onto your computer without
permission as well as advertisements pretending to be online anti-malware scanners.
Once Wireshark Antivirus is installed, it will be configured to start automatically
when Windows starts. Once started it will perform a scan and state that you
have numerous infections on your computer, but will not allow you to remove
or disinfect them until you purchase the program. The reality is that all of
the files it states are infections are actually legitimate Microsoft Windows
files. These include iexplore.exe, calc.exe, msimn.exe, wmplayer.exe, and explorer.exe.
None of these files are actually infected, so please do not attempt to delete
them manually as it could cause Windows to not operate properly.
Wireshark Antivirus screen shot
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 3 images you can view.
While Wireshark Antivirus is running it will also block applications from running
on your computer. When you attempt to run a program Wireshark Antivirus will
terminate it and display this message:
Security Warning:
The file C:\Program Files\MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware\mba.exe is infected.
Running of application is impossible.
Please activate your antivirus software.
This message is completely false and only being displayed to stop you from
running a legitimate security software that may remove Wireshark Antivirus.
As you can see, Wireshark Antivirus was created for one reason; to trick you
into thinking your files are infected so that you will then purchase the program.You
should not purchase Wireshark Antivirus, and if you have, you should contact
your credit card company and dispute the charge stating that the program is
a computer virus. To remove Wireshark Antivirus and any related malware, please
follow the steps in the removal guide below.
Threat Classification:
Advanced information:
View Wireshark Antivirus files.
View Wireshark Antivirus Registry Information.
Tools Needed for this fix:
Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:
O2 - BHO: ADC PlugIn - {149256D5-E103-4523-BB43-2CFB066839D6} - C:\Program Files\adc_w32.dll
O23 - Service: Adobe Update Service (AdbUpd) - Unknown owner - c:\program files\svchost.exe
Guide Updates:
08/06/10 - Initial guide creation.
Automated Removal Instructions for Wireshark Antivirus using Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
- Print out these instructions as we may need to close every window that is
open later in the fix.
- It is possible that the infection you are trying to remove will not allow
you to download files on the infected computer. If this is the case, then
you will need to download the files requested in this guide on another computer
and then transfer them to the infected computer. You can transfer the files
via a CD/DVD, external drive, or USB flash drive.
- Before we can do anything we must first end the processes that belong to
Wireshark Antivirus
so that it does not interfere with the cleaning procedure. To do this, please
download RKill to your desktop from the following link.
RKill
Download Link - (Download page will open in a new tab or browser window.)
When at the download page, click on the Download Now button
labeled iExplore.exe download link. When you are prompted
where to save it, please save it on your desktop.
- Once it is downloaded, double-click on the iExplore.exe
icon in order to automatically attempt to stop any processes associated with
Wireshark Antivirus
and other Rogue programs. Please be patient while the program looks for various
malware programs and ends them. When it has finished, the black window will
automatically close and you can continue with the next step. If you get a
message that RKill is an infection, do not be concerned. This message is just
a fake warning given by
Wireshark Antivirus
when it terminates programs that may potentially remove it. If you run into
these infections warnings that close RKill, a trick is to leave the warning
on the screen and then run RKill again. By not closing the warning, this typically
will allow you to bypass the malware trying to protect itself so that rkill
can terminate
Wireshark Antivirus
. So, please try running RKill until the malware is no longer running. You
will then be able to proceed with the rest of the guide. If you continue
having problems running RKill, you can download the other renamed versions
of RKill from the rkill
download page. All of the files are renamed copies of RKill, which you
can try instead. Please note that the download page will open in a new browser
window or tab.
Do not reboot your computer after running RKill as the malware programs will
start again.
- Now you should 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. If MalwareBytes' prompts you to reboot, please do not do so.
- 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
Wireshark Antivirus
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
Wireshark Antivirus
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.
- 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
Wireshark Antivirus
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 Wireshark Antivirus Files:
c:\Program Files\adc_w32.dll
c:\Program Files\alggui.exe
c:\Program Files\nuar.old
c:\Program Files\skynet.dat
c:\Program Files\svchost.exe
c:\Program Files\wp3.dat
c:\Program Files\wp4.dat
c:\Program Files\wpp.exe
c:\Program Files\Wireshark Antivirus\
c:\Program Files\Wireshark Antivirus\Wireshark Antivirus.exe
%UserProfile%\Desktop\Wireshark Antivirus.lnk
%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Temp\win1.tmp
%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Temp\win2.tmp
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Wireshark Antivirus\
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Wireshark Antivirus\Wireshark Antivirus.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 Wireshark Antivirus Windows Registry Information:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wireshark Antivirus
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{149256D5-E103-4523-BB43-2CFB066839D6}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{149256D5-E103-4523-BB43-2CFB066839D6}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\AdbUpd
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