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GammaRayBurst

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  1. Thank you for the good answers. I guess it's always a choice between ease of use versus absolute security. We live in a different time now. One thing I had done fairly recently that was different was that I had used the free wifi at our local public library, about 6:30pm on a Saturday. That may have opened me up to something. A couple more questions: What user information is malvertising like that able to grab from the browser and/or my system on my phone? I worried that my gmail passwords could have been compromised, because my phone automatically reconnects to my two different Gmail accounts. Is most ransomware today directed toward larger enterprises with more money? I was just listening to NPR radio this afternoon, which had a segment about ransomware against city governments. The ransom was over $400K. I've also heard of hospitals being attacked, so I was thinking that maybe they've shifted to attacking enterprises that: a) are critical to the functioning of government or healthcare services; and b) have deeper pockets than individuals. Or are there still a lot of individuals falling victim? I almost never click on unknown websites, but this malvertising is always a source of danger. I don't mind the ads for things I've recently shopped for. I suspect it's the sites that pull just random ads that are the problem, as it's the luck of the draw with those. It's a lot like playing Russian roulette every time you pull a random ad. I don't see why malvertising can't be stopped. The screening on those definitely needs to be beefed up. Was I right that if I had clicked on any of the "alarm" buttons on this particular "You have won," then there could have been either identity theft or ransomware behind it? As always, thank you for your help.
  2. Hi Nathan. I didn't want to do that "responding to my own post" thing before I got a reply, as I know that's sort of frowned upon. Yes, I was certain that it was Chrome browser related after reading on an androidcental forum that I should boot into safe mode, delete the Chrome updates, then reinstall, which I did. (Does doing that delete the former browser cache?) I figured out the installation issue. Ever since I added a 32GB SD card to the device, it has been installing all apps to the SD card, not sure why. While looking at my apps list in Safe Mode, I took note of which apps were grayed out and off limits while in Safe Mode. I suddenly noticed a pattern----they were all apps installed on the SD card. I then realized that the SD card was probably not mounted in Safe Mode, and I would probably need to uninstall MBAM, reboot into normal mode with SD card mounted, and reinstall... I did that, and I was able to install the Premium version just fine, came up on Google Play Store page with the Open button, etc. (Apparently when the install fails for ANY reason, the Google Play Store message defaults to "the beta program is full." ) I did a scan, and it came up clean. So far, knock on wood, it has not recurred. And with MBAM installed, hopefully no redirects. I know that it does a great job on my desktop computer. *** I noted that the "You have won..." looked like an alarm going off. It had the red dismiss button and the yellow snooze button. But it said "Event" in tiny letters, and was blocking the function of the Home button. I can't recall if I tried the Back key. (I tested an alarm, and it says "Alarm" in tiny letters, not "Event." Plus, the Home button still retains its function.) How is it that Chrome adware could inject such a thing---overriding Home button function---when my phone isn't jailbroken? You wouldn't think Google would give ANY app that sort of override. *** Does MBAM for Android protect against ransomware if you don't use the Administrator function? I know that these days most malware is probably ransomware. Or at least a very high percentage of it is? If I do use the Admin function, it enforces a screen lock with a strong password? My only complaint about that is that the screen lock is activated every time the screen times out, which on mine (to save power) is five minutes. So, every time my phone times out, instead of simply swiping, I'd have to enter a strong password? If that is the only true way to protect against ransomware, then I guess I'd need to seriously consider it. It's annoying that we have to suffer such inconvenience to simply use our phones.
  3. Hello, Late yesterday afternoon I got what I'm sure is a virus on my phone (possibly as a result of using the free wifi at my local library). It was an alarm "event" that was going off, saying "You have won an iPhone..." with options for dismiss or snooze. I knew that you never want to click on something like that, so I didn't want to use the buttons to dismiss it. I clicked the home button, but it didn't work. So I powered off the phone and restarted. The alarm event was gone, but then I started seeing notifications saying the same. They had an odd icon to the left of them, nothing I wanted to click on. I swiped right to dismiss them. The first thing I did was go to my PC and change the password on the two Gmail accounts that I usually leave logged in. I read something I found through a Google search that said it may have been related to Chrome, so I closed the browser, and the notifications seemed to stop, but I don't know what might remain infected. I booted into safe mode, reconnected my Google accounts, then deleted all the updates in Chrome, and reinstalled the browser. I have not re-synched it at this point. I knew that I need an anti-malware app, and have Malwarebytes on a desktop computer, so I searched Google and found a page at support.malwarebytes.com/docs/DOC-1308, which directed me to go to Google Play Store and type in "Malwarebytes for Android." I went through the installation, but when I went looking for the app on the apps list to open it, the app wasn't there. Neither was there an "Open" button on the Google Play Store page. Then I noticed that on that same page was a section titled "Beta program is full," and underneath that: "The beta program for this app is currently full." Thinking that I had installed some beta app by mistake, I uninstalled it, then went to Malwarebytes's main website and followed a link for the Premium Malwarebytes for Android app, then clicked through to Google Play Store for the premium Android app, which seemed to have a different title, "Malwarebytes Security: Virus Cleaner, Anti-Malware." I went through the whole installation again, but again noted no app in the apps list, and a message that the "beta program is full." However, the app shows 10M+ downloads! That sounds wider than a beta program to me. What's odd is that, in both cases, there actually IS an app listed under Settings >> Application Manager >> Downloaded apps, saying Malwarebytes 60.16 MB. The Google Play Store page says that the app is version 3.7.2.1, and was last updated August 5, 2019. Even after restarting (back into Safe Mode), it's still not listed in my apps list (only under Application Manager >> Downloaded). Somewhere I read (but now can't find it) that the app supports version 4 point something and above. I have Android version 5.1.1. (It's a cheapie Samsung prepaid phone that I bought a couple years ago, but Verizon hasn't pushed down any system update since early 2018.) So, what gives? Why can I not get this app to fully install and run? Is this an effect of the virus? Or might there be another issue preventing a completion of the installation, such as space requirements? (I have ES File Explorer, but it can't be run in Safe Mode, so can't check space.) Oddly, I don't believe I see a folder for it under My Files, but then it might be hidden. Thanks for your help.
  4. By the way, my computer was taking five minutes to shut down. Whatever your fixes did, it's now pretty fast again! Possibly it had to do with those McAfee problems. Great job.
  5. Hi again Ron, I completed the second fix (log attached), ran Farbar again (two logs attached), then called up MSCONFIG, changed to normal start (it was set to Selective Start), rebooted just fine, then look to see that it was still set to normal (yes). I made some comments for you in the bottom of the fixlog, that all of the registry keys that were marked "Access denied," and which couldn't be deleted even on reboot, no longer exist. (I went in and looked for them.) As I mentioned earlier, I thoroughly researched all of the software in the hidden installs. The only ones that make me uncomfortable are the data-gathering sort. There are three programs that are geared for getting remote assistance: 1) GoToAssist. My husband's company is making all employees use this to connect, rather than giving them laptops, as a money-saver (go figure)---this is now set to manual start; 2) Tific Client, which I found is associated with "HP Quick Connect" in the Start menu, and which I disabled, as it was gathering system data regularly---I need to ask HP if this is necessary for the HP Support Assistant that runs in my tray; 3) bomgar. I'm still not sure where this program came from, as there is no company name associated with it. It doesn't have an entry on the uninstalls list. What's worse, although I have the service disabled, the command line for the service is "bomgar-scc-576ECF3C.exe" -service:run, which I think means that just calling the program starts the service?? There's a comment on the description in the services saying that as long as the program doesn't have an active session, it can be easily uninstalled. Simply see bomgar(dot)com for details. Grrr. Can a service be restarted with a remote command, even if disabled? And is there any way to gain control over that? I think Tific Client and GoToAssist are probably needed, but bomgar likely not. I need to research how to remove it. I found the keys: HKLM\SYSTEM\services\bomgar-scc-576ECF3C [9 items underneath] HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\services\bomgar-scc-576ECF3C [9 items underneath] HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\bomgar-scc-576ECF3C [9 items underneath] Await your further thoughts... Fixlog_March25_648pm.txt FRST_March25_716pm.txt Addition_March25_716pm.txt
  6. Hi Ron, I ran the very first fixlist from #12, in order to remove the WMI ActiveScriptEventConsumer embedded script, and a few other odds and ends (Chrome cleaned out, etc.). It ran fine, and I confirmed with the Sysinternals Autoruns that the installed script is indeed gone <<BLAMMO!>>. Thank you Malwarebytes for stopping this thing from contacting the mothership in Russia---otherwise I would never have known it was there. (I'm attaching the log from the fix for the removal of this vicious script.) I then ran the Farbar Recovery Scan Tool again. (Logs attached.) My plan is to run the second fixlist, especially to get rid of the traces of McAfee, then follow your instructions for running MSCONFIG. I've been looking at the programs in the second fixlist, and researching the items. There were people having problems when some of them were removed, error messages, etc. Other of the programs are associated with HP products that I still own, but have temporarily disconnected, and their associated utilities. LAME, it turns out, is a program associated with Audacity, the open source audio editor and recorder (great program). ********** WMI ActiveScriptEventConsumer and Its Ilk --- System Information-Gathering Programs There is a very good white paper I found from Homeland Security called "WMI for Detection and Response." (I'll attach it.) I spent a while today looking through the Event Log to see if I could see anything out of the ordinary, and I really couldn't. I still believe that it came in through McAfee, with all of its privileges, and so didn't set off any alarm bells. You'd never know that the script had gotten in there until it started to do its dirty deeds. What's needed is some sort of lock on the installation of a Visual Basic Script or JavaScript insertion into the WMI ActiveScriptEventConsumer. I spent a while today looking at the Event logs, Security. One thing I saw a number of times for a product called HP TouchPoint Analytics Client service, which had really bad reviews for being spyware. It supposedly gathers system information hourly and sends to HP, and was installed by HP/Microsoft without anyone's knowledge as part of some Windows update. Even if the program's original intention was non-malicious, anything like that can (and probably will eventually) be used maliciously. It's only a matter of time. So I stpped the service, disabled it, and deleted it. The Tific Client is another such program that bothered me. A program I won't identify publicly shows Tific as having been used within the last 7 days on my system. It has something to do with HP, because there is another file (with no extension) in the same directory as tific.exe called HP_Icon. It contains eight different pages of varying sizes of the blue HP logo. So, I'm pretty confident that the file has something to do with the HP Support Assistant in my tray, but I'll leave it disabled for now anyway. The WildTangent games are all uninstalled. But that doesn't mean they want to leave. There are still directores out there with ,exe, ;dll, and other files, as well as a bunch of entries in the registry, which I made note of in a Word file. (I was hoping they'd be gone after a reboot, marked for final cleanup or something, but nooooo.) Keeping track of what's in the registry is just a monumental task. There are all kinds of dangerous malware and spyware that purport to "help out" in cleaning up the registry, which only a fool would download. (Are there any legitimate---i.e., Windows, or trustworthy programs---that can search out orphaned keys in the registry?) Anyway, I'll proceed with the next parts tomorrow. Fixlog_March24_2018_1247pm.txt FRST_March24_520pm.txt Addition_March24_520pm.txt
  7. Hi Ron, I've been trying to wrestle computer away from spouse, who's using for business (grrr). It's tough when you share a computer. Sorry about that. Hope to get caught up tonight and this weekend. I've been looking at both fixlists, and not sure what, if anything, is being deleted (besides the WMI script). Just wanted to check about any deletes. There's stuff on there I think that I haven't used in a while, but not sure I'd want to delete, unless you're thinking it might be used for entry? You said most of the fixlist was just un-hiding programs so that they'll appear in the Uninstall list? Also. yesterday morning I took a look at those WildTangent games that are on the list. There was only one WildTangent item on the Uninstall programs list, but when I clicked it I got a popup box with listings for all of the programs, with checkboxes next to them, and also a choice of "ALL." I did the latter, and it removed all of the programs. There are still maybe a dozen entries for WildTangent in the registry (I did a search and noted them), but not sure if those will be deleted at next restart. But, can I just remove the WildTangent games from fixlist #2? (They are easy to identify, because they say WildTangent on them.) There are also, I think, a number of items for McAfee, which should also have been removed. These also are identified as McAfee I believe in the fixlist. (Or will it not cause problems while running if there are things it can't find?) I have a medical appointment about 20 miles away today, but will be back mid-afternoon. Thanks.
  8. Hi Ron, I finished doing the three uninstalls that you listed. 1. McAfee LiveSafe 2. McAfee Virtual Technician (took 3 seconds, whew) 3. Adobe Flash Player 19 ActiveX Now getting ready to run the FRST64.exe with the fixlist.txt from #12. Was looking over a tutorial I found on geekstogo, which mentioned that you'd need to 1. Launch as administrator. 2. Does it make a difference for the fix where I launch the program from? Desktop? vs. External drive? I've been running it from H:\Cindy's Data\Installation Downloads\Farbar on my portable drive. This didn't seem to make a difference as far as just scanning is concerned. But wondered if that's okay for the fix? The paths seem to be complete, so probably okay, but just checking. Also there's one line: S4 cpuz134; \??\C:\Users\CINDY\AppData\Local\Temp\cpuz134\cpuz134_x64.sys [X] <==== ATTENTION and I wondered whether those are supposed to be question marks before the path. Just double-checking everything before running... Thanks.
  9. Hi again Ron, I decided to run the removal tool that you gave the link for, MCPR.exe. The tool gave regular reports about what it was removing, but at the end said that it was not able to remove all of the components, and to see the log file. (I'm attaching the screen print, and the log file.) The log file is simply huge. Lots of the registry keys, folders and files say "does not exist." I suppose it's possible that because I ran the uninstall program, some or many of the components had already been removed. Update: I ran autoruns to see what was still there, did a search, and found only one file, which I deleted: C:\Users\Cindy\AppData\Local\Temp\0174791521736218mcinst.exe. I refreshed the autoruns, and it is now showing in HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services with name 0174791521736218mcinst.exe and one of those File not found 0174791521736218mcinstcleanup McAfee Application Installer Cleanup (0174791521736218): File not found: C:\Users\CINDY\AppData\Local\Temp\017479~1.EXE -cleanup -nolog Shutdown or restart on my computer has lately taken a really long time on my computer. I'm not sure if this happens when registry components are missing or have been changed, or for some other reason. Maybe that's a whole separate issue... While doing the shutdown, though, I suddenly recalled the circumstances that led to my getting that "message" from McAfee LiveSafe earlier (the one that generated the black screen). I suddenly recalled that I was trying to do a restart, and it showed that it couldn't shut down/restart because a program, McAfee something or other, was still running, and I'd need for it to finish. I canceled the shutdown at that point, waited a while, and tried again, same thing. Canceled again, and I believe it was at that point that I saw the "message" down in the tray, clicked on it, and got the black screen, etc. My computer, although extremely slow, did finally shut down, and I restarted it successfully. (I was holding my breath, because something was running in background was running and taking up so much memory that tabs wouldn't open in Chrome.) When I did the shutdown, it told me that processes were still running. I waited a while, but finally clicked to Force close. I figured this was still something related to the first uninstall attempt. I'm hoping that the uninstall of the McAfee Virtual Technician will go more smoothly, but don't have high hopes. ***** Separately, I heard from support at WinZip, who told me that the WinZip Express for Office was added as a component a while back, and I did just update the program a bit ago, so I feel pretty comfortable that adxloader is OK. Also, I just found a log file of some sort in the C:\Users directory (top level). It seems to have been left by something to do with BleepingComputer?? But it does mention Tific Client. I don't remember this at all, but then it was nearly two years ago. I'll attach it. It had no file extension at all, but I gave it one to make it open for you. mccleanup.log Cindy.txt
  10. Hi Ron, I tried to uninstall McAfee LiveSafe. It got about half way, and appeared to just hang for a really looooooong time. In my experience with uninstalls, they don't usually hang like that. Something was wrong, so I called up the task manager. It was running McAfee Security Center. I tried to kill it, and it, and it said the program wasn't responding, so I forced it to close. Something is still running in background though, as when I minimize Chrome and File Explorer, I still have a spinning blue wheel. I can't figure out if some process is still running. I opened task manager, and found a McAfee Vulnerability Scanner, which I stopped. But the blue "task running in background" wheel is still spinning when I hold my mouse pointer over the desktop. Should I run the tool to MCPR.exe? Or will there still be stuff in the registry? I hope the system will reboot, and that I didn't leave something in an incomplete state... Thanks for your advice.
  11. Hi Ron, REMOTE SUPPORT SERVICES I believe that my computer only has one remote support tool that I would use, and it's called HP Support Assistant. I saw it listed in the FRST.txt file in the Hewlett-Packard directory under Program Files (x86). I looked for the two remote support programs you have listed in the fixlist.txt file, and did find the directory with Tific Client. The Tific directory under C:\Users\[Me]\AppData\Roaming was modified on March 18, 2018. That is the date that the script last ran, but not the time of day that it last ran. The last time the malicious script ran was 12:05 pm, but two of the files contained within the Tific directory---Environment.tfc and hp.tific.com.tfc---were last modified on March 18th at 7:11 pm. So, maybe Tific is being used by something legit? I'm not certain. I couldn't find the bomgar stuff at all. I ran the File Explorer as admin and even viewed hidden files and folders. There is no directory C:\ProgramData\bomgar-scc-0x576ecf3b So that's apparently just an orphaned key? I wanted to run a few more things by you that I remembered. ODD MESSAGE IN TRAY LAST WEEK, PURPORTEDLY FROM McAFEE; MCAFEE LIVESAFE IS GONE There are two possibilities for how this malware came in. First possibility: from the "Wild Internet." Last night I came across a note I'd left for my spouse late one night last week. It could have been around the time the script was installed. I'd totally forgotten about this incident until I saw my note taped to the bottom of the computer monitor. In an attempt to get out to the Internet, due to my broken hub/switch, I had stupidly connected via CAT5 cable directly to one of the ports on the back of my gateway and reconfigured my computer from DHCP to a fixed IP address (it had previously been running through a CAT5 cable connected to one of the ports on the back of my wireless router using DHCP). At some point I became aware of a strange item down in the tray, and clicked to bring it up. It purported to be from McAfee, as I recall. I wish I'd written down the exact wording, but it said something along the lines of "this program is trying to deliver a message," and had several options, one of which was to view the message. Thinking it was a legitimate message from McAfee, I clicked on it. (Duhhh. In the future, how would you check whether something like this is legit?) The screen went black for a while, and I thought the computer had crashed, but after a minute or so it came back. Then the message reappeared in the tray. Everytime I'd close it, it would reappear several minutes later. I avoided clicking on it again, and left my spouse the aforementioned note on the screen with instructions not to click on it. Is it possible that the screen going black was a sign of a script launching Shell32.dll? At some point, after I started getting the messages from Malwarebytes about the blocked outgoing connection attempts, I pulled the CAT5 cable out, and my wireless finally started working (evidently having a cable plugged in overrides the wireless, which I hadn't realized before). Thinking about it last night, I realized that I haven't seen that message in quite a while. It may have stopped when I switched over to wireless and DHCP. Possibly it was originating from outside the network, and communicating via the direct IP address, and when it could no longer reach me that way, the message in the tray went away?? I'm still not sure what program it used to gain access. One possibility was McAfee LiveSafe. While searching the Control Panel > Uninstall Programs, I noticed that McAfee LiveSafe was installed on March 13, 2018. But I didn't install it. There were new or newly updated directories and/or files under the following: C:\Program Files\mcafee (Mar. 12th); C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\McAfee (Mar. 10th); C:\ProgramData\McAfee (Mar. 10th). The version of McAfee LiveSafe on my desktop is pointing to C:\Program Files (x86)\mcafee.com\agent\mcagent.exe, which was installed on 12/3/2015. The version available through the Start button is pointing to C:\Program Files\Common Files\McAfee\platform\McUICnt.exe, a file that is no longer there, but the directory for which was newly updated on March 10, 2018. So apparently McAfee LiveSafe has been deleted. It's no longer running. Do I need McAfee if I have MBAM Premium? (McAfee was pushed by HP, as I recall.) I hate that it was so easily disabled! You said that you wanted me to disable McAfee LiveSafe before doing the fixlist. Where do I disable it? I thought I'd also show you all of the McAfee entries within the autoruns64.exe list, plus the other stuff that I noticed. See attached file autoruns64.txt. MALICIOUS SCRIPT? The second possible origin for the malware: a script on a Philadelphia website I visited. Here's another thing I just remembered. I paid a church in Philadelphia $30 for access to their password-protected area containing genealogical records from the 1700s. The secretary there sent me the password, and I tried it on or around March 12th, around the time that I started having problems with my switch/hub. I entered the password, and it didn't work. I then noticed that I had a "blocked popup" icon at the end of the URL line in Chrome. I clicked to see what it was, and Chrome's message said it was an unknown script. At that moment I deliberated for quite a while, but I thought this script might be needed for login to the site, so I clicked to allow it. (I now realize that was stupid. I should have emailed the people to ask them if it was necessary for access.) My email shows that I sent the secretary a message that same night, March 12th, telling her that the login didn't work. So that was evidently the date it loaded. She responded the next day, March 13th, that the password had probably been reset, and gave me the new one. What I didn't notice earlier about her email response was that she said the password had been changed because they had been hacked the previous month. Of course, at that point I wasn't looking at everything with suspicion, the way you do in hindsight. I was able to gain access with the new password, without needing the script. I now wonder if the hacker left a malicious script behind. I just returned to the site, and noticed that a person doesn't even have to burrow down into where the password is requested to get that popup notification. I got the blocked script icon just from visiting their main page. Is there someone at Malwarebytes who can load the script on a protected test machine and see what it is designed to do? I don't know how to download the script without executing it, but maybe you guys at Malwarebytes know how to do that? The page is at: https(colon)(//)stpaulredhill(dot)org/ ADXLOADER.LOG FILE IS OF WORD EXCEL POWERPOINT ORIGIN I spent most of today investigating adxloader. I discovered some things early on that made me almost sure it was malware, but within the last hour or so, I've decided that maybe it's legit. I discovered this morning that the adxloader.log is updated by Microsoft Word and Excel 2007. I noticed that adxloader.log had been updated again after the script stopped running. I tried to rename the file extension to adxloader.txt so that I could take a look at it, and got the message that I couldn't do that because the file was in use by Microsoft Word. Huh? I'd had the program open for a couple days, so I closed it. Then I renamed the adxloader.log to adxloader.txt. But when I opened Word again, it created a new instance of adxloader.log. At that point I was pretty convinced that malware had been installed. But while going through the autoruns entries, I noted that there are three entries for adxloader64.dll with a modified date of 4/2/2013. And when I checked the original file creation date of the adxloader.log, it showed as June 26, 2016. I thought the adxloader.log file just started appearing in the Documents directory. Is it possible that I just never noticed it before, because I wasn't in a "virus checking" frame of mind? I guess that's possible. Looking at the adxloader.log file, its purpose is to add WinZip functionality to the inside of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I bought WinZip long ago, but just recently used it for the first time in a long time on March 18th, when I downloaded autoruns. I just now opened WinZip, the main program. It asked me if I wanted to check for an update, and said that the last time I checked for an update was 21 days ago. I don't remember using the program at the end of February, but if it's checking file dates, it's possible that when it updated there was a file dated end of February. I scanned the Microsoft Office executables, just to make sure, and it said they were clean. I scanned recent .docx, .xlsx, and .pdf files, and the Chrome cache (I'd flushed the cache recently.) I'm not finding any evidence of how this thing came in. SUMMARY 1. Let me know about adding more items to fixlist.txt, based on file not founds in the autorun64. And if we add them, whether they should be enabled or disabled in the autoruns64.exe program. 2. How to disable McAfee? And what about all the services, etc., shown in the autoruns64 list? 3. Could it be that the popup on the site mentioned above contained a malicious script? Before I send them a message telling them that they need to shut their site down, I'd better be sure. So wondered if Malwarebytes has the ability to analyze the script that pops up. 4. So the plan is to run the Farbar with the fixlist.txt file (when we decide what should be deleted, and what checked/unchecked, etc.), then do the thing with msconfig? Thanks. autoruns64.txt
  12. Hi Ron, As of right now, the malicious script, since I unchecked its box on the autorun, has not made a single peep. The Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium version 3.4.4.2398 (and by the way, I had already bought this product) comes up clean. I downloaded the latest version of Adwcleaner and ran it, and it found a couple little PUP-related things, cleaned and rebooted. The interesting thing is that it is showing nothing malicious in WMI, and that is where the malicious script is sitting. I don't know whether, because it is disabled from running, it is being ignored?? I'll bet that if I re-checked its checkbox, it would resume trying to contact the mothership. I re-ran the FARBAR scan, and it also comes up clean. Looking at the script that was loaded into the registry under the WMI database, I know just enough Java/C language to recognize a little bit of what its doing, and it is extremely malicious---designed, I think to stop processes and services and do mass deletes, if I'm interpreting it correctly. At some point, it probably needs to come out of the Registry, and there is where I'd need help. For right now though, the script remains unchecked in autoruns64 program, and seems to be inactivated. Thanks for your ideas on the Registry --- just let sit, or find someone to help remove?? MalwareBytesThreatScanLog_March18_2018_815pm.txt AdwCleaner[C0].txt AdwCleaner[S2].txt FRST_March_18_2018.txt Addition_March_18_2018.txt
  13. It's now 3:11 pm my time, and the outbound communication, which had been going off regularly every three hours at five minutes past the hour, did not happen!! The question is whether leaving the script entry unchecked in autoruns will affect the WMI database itself...such as at restart ... ??
  14. I did just what it said on the entry line for that (un-timestamped) autorun task for that "script in the WMI database": "Double click to open copy." This is our culprit I'm sure, as it references the website address that's being blocked. Not sure what it's designed to do, but it looks really malicious. As I said earlier, I unchecked the checkbox at the head of the entry for the script. The WMI database is apparently something very important to Windows, so disabling the database (monitors system health, etc.) would be a bad thing. Hopefully, unchecking the checkbox disables only the script?? Funny thing is, I would probably not have noticed the entry in the autoruns, were it not for the rude name of the entry, which stuck out like a sore thumb, and made me zero right in on it. Not real smart...
  15. Hi Ron, I wanted to make you aware of what I just found. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium's real-time blocking has been regularly blocking outbound communication to the Russian website, as you know. I have now noticed that it is re-queueing itself to run exactly every three hours (12:05 am, 3:05 am; 6:05 am, 12:05 pm was the latest). I checked the Task Scheduler, but didn't see anything, and in fact had read that tasks can be scheduled to be hidden. While looking up something online about viruses scheduling hidden tasks, I found a program from Microsoft called autoruns - sysinternals designed to display everything scheduled to autorun. I downloaded it and was looking at it, when I noticed something that is extremely suspicious. Under "WMI Database Entries - run as Administrator for complete scan" is the item "[swear-word]youmm2_consumer" "Script embedded in WMI database" "Double click to open copy" (I'll attach a screen clip from within the program.) It just so happens that the Russian site that is being blocked is wmi(dot)my0115(dot)ru, which has the word wmi in it. This is why it looks suspicious, besides the fact that no upstanding computer company would name something with an obscenity in the title like that. I'm wondering whether this changes your mind about any of the instructions you've already given. If not, I'll proceed with those first. I tried to uncheck the checkbox ahead of it, and got an "Access Denied," so I relaunched the program as Administrator, and successfully unchecked the checkbox at the beginning of its line. I'm not sure whether that will affect its ability to relaunch itself at 3:05 pm. We'll see. But I think the WMI database has possibly been corrupted? Thanks for your opinion.
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