Question

Trojan Horse Pakes - Virus Removal Programs won't open - XP Home

Asked by: sjl1986

Hey everyone. I'm working on a client's computer, and to start with the welcome screen would not load to allow a login. It would boot to a black screen with a mouse cursor that could move, but no keystrokes or mouse clicks were accepted. I booted with "Last known good configuration" and to my surprise it actually let me to the login screen. Since then, I've done a couple virus scans with UltimateBootCD4Win and found several culprits and removed them.

The problem I'm now facing is that I cannot launch many programs. I'm trying to run some more scans like ComboFix, MalwareBytes AntiMalware, and SuperAntiSpyware. I had no problem installing MalwareBytes, but SuperAntiSpyware fails with an error when trying to install. I have ComboFix on my flash drive and I'm unable to open it either.

When clicking on certain shortcuts and executables such as ComboFix, MWB, SmitFraud, and others either fail to load throwing up an error, or the hourglass appears for maybe 1-2 seconds (and the process shows itself during this time in Task Manager) and then goes away and nothing happens.

Before posting this question I did some more scans with AVG and found several entries for a virus known as Trojan Horse Pakes.ckf. AVG Deleted them all in safemode, but I still cannot open the same executables. I read someone's post in another forum with the same virus blocking the exact same apps. I also tried TrendMicro's housecall, but the site will not load. I'm about to give up and reinstall windows, but I'd rather not have to do that. I've tried everything in safe mode and normal mode that I can think of. Has anyone successfully removed this virus yet?

As far as I can tell, HiJackThis looks clean as well.

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Asked On
2009-03-14 at 20:34:02ID24231160
Tags

XP Home

,

programs

,

exe

,

shortcut

Topics

Anti-Virus

,

Anti-Spyware

,

Internet Security

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
9

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Answers

 

by: rpggamergirlPosted on 2009-03-14 at 20:56:20ID: 23889715

Try deleting that copy of MalwareBytes and Combofix that you already have, then re-download and rename the file before saving them to your desktop. You may have to rename MBAM file twice if it still won't run after installation.

Or if you have access to another pc, download the files into a USB drive and rename before installing into the infected pc.

You need to disable your antivirus shield while running combofix and try not to mouseclick while it's running as it may cause it to stall.

Then show us their logfiles.

 

by: sjl1986Posted on 2009-03-14 at 23:18:28ID: 23889979

Thanks for your reply. I can't believe out of all the things I tried, I didn't think to simply change the filenames to confuse it. It was a smart little virus. Anyway, I was able to get MBAM to work, but it only showed up some false positives. Afterwards I got ComboFix to run and it immediately found the rootkit and asked me to reboot before completing the scan. It deleted the following files:

C:\smp.bat
c:\windows\regedit.com
c:\windows\system32\AutoRun.inf
c:\windows\system32\drivers\npf.sys
c:\windows\system32\drivers\UACyxirfwbw.sys
c:\windows\system32\Packet.dll
c:\windows\system32\pthreadVC.dll
c:\windows\system32\tmp.reg
c:\windows\system32\UACbbdqxrmh.log
c:\windows\system32\UACbcfmloke.dll
c:\windows\system32\UACewyuevdb.log
c:\windows\system32\uacinit.dll
c:\windows\system32\UACsjrscdjk.db
c:\windows\system32\UACuwmraprq.dll
c:\windows\system32\UACviymbcmd.dll
c:\windows\system32\UACvpypehqx.dll
c:\windows\system32\UACwexubfeg.dll
c:\windows\system32\UACxptkmneo.log
c:\windows\system32\UACxtapqxje.dat
c:\windows\system32\UACylkixlyw.dll
c:\windows\system32\WanPacket.dll
c:\windows\system32\wpcap.dll
D:\Autorun.inf

All the UAC files are from the trojan rootkit I mentioned. I'm not entirely sure how this virus works and I was unable to find much information about it online. It blocked a lot of installations though. Thanks again for the suggestion. As far as I can tell the problem is solved. I will play around with it a little bit longer and come back tomorrow to accept your answer.

 

by: rpggamergirlPosted on 2009-03-15 at 01:10:46ID: 23890199

Can you also attach the Combofix log so we can check to make sure it's clean, often times we also use its script function to delete bad files that aren't removed in its previous runs.

 

by: sjl1986Posted on 2009-03-15 at 10:53:29ID: 23892401

Here's the log. Can you tell me how that works or how you would use the script? I'd love to know how ComboFix is actually written. It's a great program. I just never know what it's actually going to get rid of because it doesn't say what it's searching for.

An automatic virus scan is running clean so far this morning so I think the computer is ready to go finally. They'll get charged a pretty penny for that one.

 

by: greyknight17Posted on 2009-03-15 at 18:13:20ID: 23894109

ComboFix is a powerful tool that should not be used unless one knows how it works. It targets many of the known malware including rogue/fake antispyware programs, purity, Vundo, etc. Believe it or not, there are hours of reading just on using this tool alone and all the problems users run into. If you are interested in learning how this works, I suggest joining one of the forums that provide malware removal training (http://www.techsupportforum.com or http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/forums.html</A> are the two I'm more familiar with).

Good job. Your log is clean.

Are there any problems now? If none, go to Start->Run, copy/paste in combofix /u and hit OK to remove it. You should be set to go.
</SPAN>

 

by: rpggamergirlPosted on 2009-03-15 at 19:05:27ID: 23894276

No need for us to write any script for combofix to run as it's taken care of the problem.
Glad to know it's resolved.

Follow greyknight17's suggestion if you want to know how to remove malware in general and also to learn Combofix usage etc.


If the system is running okay and the problem is resolved, you can then uninstall Combofix.
To uninstall Combofix:
Go to Start > Run and 'copy and paste' next command in the field:

ComboFix /u

The above procedure will remove combofix, delete the created backup and also reset System Restore.

 

by: sjl1986Posted on 2009-03-15 at 19:53:37ID: 23894447

Thanks a lot for the help. I was unaware of the uninstall feature. I've never used that part. Thanks for the sites as well. I will definitely take a look at those. Everything seems to be running smoothly again.

 

by: sjl1986Posted on 2009-03-15 at 19:54:43ID: 31558209

Thanks!

 

by: rpggamergirlPosted on 2009-03-15 at 20:16:01ID: 23894522

If you like, also check out these links below:
1.  TonyKlein's article "So how did I get infected in the first place?"
http://www.spywareinfoforum.com/index.php?showtopic=60955

2.  miekiemoes' "How to prevent Malware"
http://users.telenet.be/bluepatchy/miekiemoes/prevention.html

3.  Simple and easy ways to keep your computer safe and secure on the Internet:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial82.html

Thanks!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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