JKAsiege

Oh, it appears I have forgotten to put my disclaimer of "real/helpful answers only" in my post this time.

Kerafym wrote:

Magyk wrote:

Turquoise Dragon wrote:Easy solution - stop downloading porn.

This joke was never funny, not even 5 years ago.

Jokes older than 5 years

Magyk wrote:Oh, it appears I have forgotten to put my disclaimer of "real/helpful answers only" in my post this time.

Kerafym wrote:

Magyk wrote:

Turquoise Dragon wrote:Easy solution - stop downloading porn.

This joke was never funny, not even 5 years ago.

Jokes older than 5 years

Yes, yes you did.

Magyk wrote:I'm 100% convinced this is some kind of virus/spyware. I'm going to run a battery of tests overnight/tomorrow - anyone have any ideas where I could start looking to hunt this thing down?

I always start with:

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Then if that doesn't seem to help, read:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

And... also, look for rootkits.

Oh, and you could also try 'safe mode with networking' to do a quick test, but I have seen some malware run even in safe mode....especially if it's a rootkit.

~archi

Malware bytes was the first thing I checked too, it caught a few intrusions but none of them seemed to fix my problem. I'll try running it in safemode later today and checking it out. I've had problems with rootkits on this particular PC before, so I wouldn't be surprised to one of them rear it's head again.



Edit: Arg. Definitely a rootkit. I just started getting search engine redirects to generic webpages. I've run scans with Malwarebytes, tdsskiller, and a full system scan with avast antivirus. Still there. Anyone know what files I might have to go delete out of my registry? I tried to find a solid answer, but couldn't.

If I had something like a rootkit I'd back up my files (well I don't store them locally anyway), zero out the drive including the partition tables and MBR, then repartition and format.

It sounds like a lot of work, but viruses these days are just too annoying to just run a program and say it's clean. You can never be 100% sure until you take it down to bare metal and start over.

I think I may have posted before that a recent study showed that reputable sites such as banking can be just as dangerous in regards to malware risk as warez/porn. An article on Slashdot today was talking about a Java exploit that was spread via Russian news sites, drive-by style; the virus is hard to catch since it stays in RAM and doesn't save any files to disk.

Yeah, I had planned on reformatting once I get out school anyway, so maybe I'll just tough it out the last month.

Maximus wrote:viruses these days are just too annoying to just run a program and say it's clean. You can never be 100% sure until you take it down to bare metal and start over.

We have a winrar. Too many people just don't realize this. I am always ready to blow away my machine, reformat it, and return back to normal within a couple of hours. With the exception of games I need to download (damn you TOR and your 25 GB size!!)

Well, as a long-time computer jan/salesman...

Viruses or other forms of software corruption are NOT generally covered by a warranty.

They got a fresh install of Windows under warranty...if they want the virus removed or data backed-up, that'll cost 'em.

~archi

Yeah, I'll just stick it out a few more weeks until May and then reimage. Maybe I'll even get around to it next week when I'm on break.

Figured out what the problem was.

I guess this is what happens when the competition (megapupload, fileshare, filesonic) get shut down or close the door to free-users for fear of being shut down.

http://www.geek.com/articles/news/rapid ... -20120217/