Question

Spyware Ardakey

Asked by: LMAN49

Symantec Corporate detects Spyware Ardakey during its nightly scan on my server.   The file is always C:\WINNT\Sys32\dllcache\svchost.exe.   It is not detected by the antivirus auto-detect at all after the scan.  The next morning I find that the scan found it again.  I ran Spybot and Malwarebytes and nothing was detected.  I checked the registry for any signs of Ardakey and nothing.  Symantec does not find this keylogger on any other PC in the network.   I would like to remove this permanently.

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-09-04 at 14:17:00ID24708939
Tags

Windows 2000 Server

Topics

Windows 2000 Operating System

,

Microsoft Server

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
10

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Spyware
    hi, From yesterday, my home pc is acting strangely, everytime i open ie, it asks me for username and password for some strange site (the pop up like when you set permission for a folder on server) I use anti spyware to check, everything is fine........help Thanks
  2. Spyware
    I'm having a problem with spyware. The one that keeps returning to haunt me is automove.exe. I have removed the executable from C:\winnt\system32. I also did some research and found I need to remove Swin32.dll, I did that and also removed some registry keys that were running ...
  3. Spyware?
    Hi, I have a Laptop that keeps coming up with what looks like a spyware virus. I have used spybot to try and remove but with no joy. Have any of you encountered this error message before??? You ( or a program ) have requested information from Ausgipiceclt.us.dell.com and th...
  4. spyware
    i have spyware that just wont go away!! .. I've used spybot .. ad-aware .. it detects it but it keeps coming back ... i've changed options in msconfig/starup.. the offending object is DSO exploit? IE6 is opening up new windows but because I've installed spyware blaster it's n...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: LMAN49Posted on 2009-09-04 at 14:38:17ID: 25263529

Thanks.  I have Windows 2000 server which does not have sytem restore that I know of.   Can you think of any other solution?

 

by: PriceDPosted on 2009-09-04 at 14:57:45ID: 25263691

http://www.spywareremove.com/removeSpywareArdakey.html

Try the manual removal option with this link

 

by: LMAN49Posted on 2009-09-04 at 15:26:15ID: 25263848

I do not see any reference to Spyware Ardakey in programs or task manager.   It looks like its not there.  
Yet, it comes back each time when the scan detects it.  

 

by: LMAN49Posted on 2009-09-04 at 20:46:14ID: 25264877

I got it again tonight.  The notification from Symantec Antivirus says the threat is Spyware Ardakey
File: C:\WINNT\System32\dllcache\svchost.exe
Location: C:\WINNT\System32\dllcache
Action Taken: Leave Alone succceeded
It looks like the antivirus program does not delete the spyware, but informs that it is present because it is a system file that looks infected and deleting it could be a problem.  I'm not sure how to get rid of this.
If the keylogger is in dllcache, what can I do to remove it without damaging the system?

 

by: rpggamergirlPosted on 2009-09-04 at 22:30:09ID: 25265050

Try this tool, we need to look at the log afterwards also to make sure it's clean.

Please download ComboFix by sUBs:
http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/sUBs/ComboFix.exe
(If it doesn't run, re-download but rename before saving to your desktop)

You must download it to and run it from your Desktop
Now STOP all your monitoring programs (Antivirus/Antispyware, Guards and Shields) as they could easily interfere with ComboFix.
Double click combofix.exe & follow the prompts.
When finished, it will produce a log. Please save that log and attach it in your next reply by pasting it in the "Code Snippet" or "Attach File" window.
Re-enable all the programs that were disabled during the running of ComboFix..


Note:
Do not mouse-click combofix's window while it is running. That may cause it to stall.

CF disconnects your machine from the internet. The connection is automatically restored before CF completes its run. If CF runs into difficulty and terminates prematurely, the connection can be manually restored by restarting your machine.



If needed, here's the Combofix tutorial which includes the installation of the Recovery Console:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix/how-to-use-combofix


 

by: LMAN49Posted on 2009-09-05 at 13:12:39ID: 25267556

Thanks rpggamergirl.   The research that I did tells me that svchost.exe would not be infected, but a program running svchost would be what is infected.  There is a program called Process Explorer that I fond out about which will list all the processes that run svchost, much like tasklist.  Have you heard of this and should I start there?   Since the pc with this problem is a server, I would not want to shut it down or stop processing during the day because many people in the office are connected to it . If it is a mjor problem, the that is a different story.  

 

by: rpggamergirlPosted on 2009-09-05 at 17:32:39ID: 25268368

Yes, I'm very familiar with Process Explorer... that is a good program that tells if that svchost.exe running is legit belonging to Microsoft and tells you what services are running under that svchost.exe process.
But some nasties also can infect modify legit system files.

Yes, that's certainly a good one to start wth your diagnostic..
Since Combofix stops internet connection while scanning(though it will resume connection also soon after) you can use other tools maybe MalwareBytes etc.

It's also weird that Symantec doesn't detect it after the scan... could also be false positive.
You could submit that file to --> http://virusscan.jotti.org/
the file will be scanned by many different antivirus scanners just to check if it really is infected.

 

by: LMAN49Posted on 2009-09-17 at 15:46:39ID: 31625146

Symantec tech support was able to resolve the issue by emailing me the link to a security scan.  The scan found the spyware.  I need to install a later version of their corporate antivirus after I get some more room on my server.  Thanks to rpggamergirl anf priceD for their help.  I will split the points to each of you.

 

by: rpggamergirlPosted on 2009-09-17 at 21:56:01ID: 25362999

Glad to know it's been resolved.

Thanks!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...