Posted on 12/06/2005 8:16:34 PM PST by Carling
I hate vanity posts, but I am wondering if anyone in FR land knows anything about the Spy Axe 3.0 virus. It has set up shop in my toolbar and has hijacked my home page.
eTrust isn't touching it. Help?!?!
I'll ditto that bookmark.
I love ewido.
My Problem is long gone, thanks anyway.
PS: SpyAxe rat survived that scenario also.
Spyware and viruses are two different animals. Generally- viruses are about control and destruction, and spyware is about money; E.G getting ads in your face and tracking your browsing to see what ads are most likely to get you to spend money- and then it puts them in your face.
I haven't fought Spyaxe in particular, but now that it is becoming more widespread- I will 'contaminate' a test unit and play with it.
If you'd care to read my post again you'll see I said ANTI-Spyware programs. Programs that BLOCK any 'nasties' installing themselves, plus all my ports are checked on a regular basis to make sure there's none open and 100% stealth, and I don't have Firefox. I've never had a problem with IE/OE. A computers just like a car, if you don't look after it and do maintenance on a regular basis it'll break down.
I like to check out slimy commicrat sights so I have a headsup on what stupid nonesense to expect from them so I need all the protection I can get.
I read it correctly, I just think it's hilarious that you run NINE different antispyware programs. You don't have spyware, but you've got one heck of a scareware infestation LOL :~D
My experience has been that while Adaware can identify the trojan, it cannot clean it up if it cannot stop it. If it is able to stop it and clean it up, it may be re-infecting the computer when it boots by running a front end that checks for the files, and installing them if they do not exist.
Two programs that I have loaded and ready are TaskInfo2003 and Autoruns.
Taskinfo is just that, it shows you the processes that are running on your machine. Google anything that looks suspicious, and find your trojan and kill the process, if possible.
Autoruns shows what the registry starts when Windows boots. Use Google to find your trojan in the list and delete it.
That should knock it off its feet, and Adaware can identify the beast and clean it up
Go here
After Spy Axe Removal
http://www.bullguard.com/forum/10/After-Spy-Axe-Removal_24439.html
There is an embedded file named msearchnet.exe or something real close to that naming that is the root problem. Undeletable through medium powered attack tools as stated throughout these freeper threads and system protected against simple deletion, but not uncurable.
I went after the file through DOS and was rebuffed twice, so being the excitable type and not wanting to play with it I cursed and reloaded.
I first cleared my task mgr of it. Then the embedded program files in sys dirs. Then it regenerated. I isolated the above file, but like I said, by that time I was into it and close to a cure I needed my blood pressure medicine and went a different route.
Weekly norton ghost backups are a wonderful thing. :-)
There's an Adaware plugin for it, as well.
With that- I am long overdue for some shuteye. G'night all.
These are good tools, you may also want to try CCleaner first and run them in Safe Mode, restart and hit F8 repeatedly until boot menu appears, choose Safe Mode. Or Safe mode with networking that way you can run http
://housecall.antivirus.com with your Antivirus and really scan for Viruses.
I was also under this impression and did exactly that, but was confounded again.
Sleep well. :-)
Sorry I did not include this in my last response to you but I am a "newbie" :). Spy Axe is a very bad egg, as you try to delete it even in Safe mode it will reinstall itself and rename itself. If you don't have much data you could always run the restore CD and if you do you could put the hard drive in another computer, scan it for Viruses and then copy your favorites, My documents, Address book/Inbox etc. then restore the contaminated hard drive. Well it is definitely past my bedtime. Good night.
I'll tell you somebody else you can depend on, and that's AnnMarie:
http://www.cybertechhelp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97919
Spyaxe a clear case of criminal extortion.
For most computer users, there is no good reason put up with these problems. Learning how to use dozens of anti-virus/anti-spyware programs is not a productive use of a computer.
If your time is valuable, get rid of Windows.
Does extensive lurking count toward FR seniority?
Only if you've got the cache to prove it.
Ann-Marie is, or used to be at www.suggestafix.com also. :>)))
There's nothing wrong with Windows or IE if you know what your doing. It's those that don't know what they're doing that's the trouble.
I tried a mac for a month and hated it. You can keep your Mac.
This is one of the sources for this information I found on Google:
Hope this is of some help...
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