Cannot clear Generic8 trojan downloader

Hi,
i'm running Windows XP Home Edition SP3 and yesterday i noticed some activity on my pc that i hadnt initiated, such as pop up balloons telling me my firewall had been disabled and a couple of windows popups that came and went before i could see what they were.
I was concerned enough to scan my system and avg found several instances of trojan horse downloader Generic8.AYTC which it said it had cleared for me.
I then went on to check basic services like my firewall, regedit and system restore and found faults in them all.

When trying to run regedit i get a popup saying "Registry editing has been disabled by your administrator'
When i try to run system restore wizard i get a popup saying 'System Restore has been turned off by group policy'

By googling i was able to restore my registy editing abilities and deleted the entries that were disabling the registry and the system restore.

At that point i thought i was clear, avg was saying nothing found, i had cleaned up the registry and my firewall had been re-enabled. But within a matter of minutes of being online i had been reinfected and i can't seem to shake off the reinfections no matter what i do, your help would be much appreciated :-)

Hi noucamp,

Sorry you had to wait so long. If you still need help with this, please do the following:

First, let's make sure all hidden files are showing so please:* Click Start.
* Open My Computer.
* Select the Tools menu and click Folder Options.
* Select the View tab.
* Under the Hidden files and folders heading select Show hidden files and folders.
* Uncheck the Hide file extensions for known types option.
* Uncheck the Hide protected operating system files (recommended) option.
* Click Yes to confirm.
* Click OK.
Now let's continue as follows:[/indent]



Step 1: ATF Cleaner

If you're running XP, please run ATF cleaner according to the following instructions. If you're using Vista, right-click on the icon and select "run as Administrator".

Please download ATF Cleaner by Atribune & save it to your desktop.

• Double-click ATF-Cleaner.exe to run the program.
• Under Main "Select Files to Delete" choose: Select All.
• Click the Empty Selected button.
• If you use Firefox browser click Firefox at the top and choose: Select All
• Click the Empty Selected button.
  If you would like to keep your saved passwords, please click No at the prompt.
• If you use Opera browser click Opera at the top and choose: Select All
• Click the Empty Selected button.
  If you would like to keep your saved passwords, please click No at the prompt.
• Click Exit on the Main menu to close the program.

Note: On Vista, "Windows Temp" is disabled. To empty "Windows Temp" ATF-Cleaner must be "Run as an Administrator".

Step 2: Next we want to use RegSearch to look for a registry entry:

Download Registry Search (see the link titled RegSearch Download Link )

• Extract the files from Regsearch.zip into a folder.
• Doubleclick regsearch.exe to start the program.
• Enter HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\cognac\ in the top area of the form and then click "Ok".
• Notepad will be opened with text in it (the file named RegSearch.txt will be saved in the program's folder as well). Copy this file to your next reply.

Step 3: MalwareBytes

Please download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and save it to your desktop.
MalwareBytes

MBAM may "make changes to your registry" as part of its disinfection routine. If using other security programs that detect registry changes (ie Spybot's Teatimer), they may interfere or alert you. Temporarily disable security programs or permit them to allow the changes.

• Make sure you are connected to the Internet.
• Double-click on mbam-setup.exe to install the application.
• When the installation begins, follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.
• When installation has finished, make sure you leave both of these checked:
  • Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
  • Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
• Then click Finish.

MBAM will automatically start and you will be asked to update the program before performing a scan.

• If an update is found, the program will automatically update itself. Press the OK button to close that box and continue.
• If you encounter any problems while downloading the definition updates, manually download them from here and just double-click on mbam-rules.exe to install.

On the Scanner tab:

• Make sure the "Perform Full Scan" option is selected.
• Then click on the Scan button.
• If asked to select the drives to scan, leave all the drives selected and click on the Start Scan button.
• The scan will begin and "Scan in progress" will show at the top. It may take some time to complete so please be patient.
• When the scan is finished, a message box will say "The scan completed successfully. Click 'Show Results' to display all objects found".
• Click OK to close the message box and continue with the removal process.

Back at the main Scanner screen:

• Click on the Show Results button to see a list of any malware that was found.
• Make sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
• When removal is completed, a log report will open in Notepad.
• The log is automatically saved and can be viewed by clicking the Logs tab in MBAM.
• Copy and paste the contents of that report in your next reply. Be sure to post the complete log to include the top portion which shows MBAM's database version and your operating system.
• Exit MBAM when done.

Note: If MBAM encounters a file that is difficult to remove, you will be asked to reboot your computer so MBAM can proceed with the disinfection process. If asked to restart the computer, please do so immediately. Failure to reboot normally (not into safe mode) will prevent MBAM from removing all the malware.

Step 4: RootkitRevealer

This is just a scan to look for information. It will not change anything on your computer.

• Please download Rootkit Revealer
  and unzip it onto your desktop.
• Open the .exe file and run a scan.
• Once the scan is finished, go to File>Save and save it to the desktop.
• Post the results of the scan in your next response.

Step 5: Please post the logs or reports for the following:MalwareBytes
RootkitRevealer
RegSearch report
Let me know how this went?
Zllio