Badly infected machine, semi-cleaned, still having troubles.

[TwinHeadedEagle]

I still see uTorrent running.

 

 

 

Uninstall some programs
 
We need to uninstall some unwanted/unneeded programs.

• Press the + R on your keyboard at the same time. Type appwiz.cpl and click OK.
• Search there for each entry mentioned below, right-click the entry and click Uninstall one at a time

The list of programs to uninstall:

• Ask Toolbar Updater
• Catalina Savings Printer

After completing uninstalls, please manually reboot your machine!
 
Note: If you get the message like: An error occurred while trying to uninstall, just press Yes.
 
 
 
Fix with Farbar Recovery Scan Tool
 

This fix was created for this user for use on that particular machine.
Running it on another one may cause damage and render the system unstable.

 
Download attached fixlist.txt file and save it to the Desktop:
 
Both files, FRST and fixlist.txt have to be in the same location or the fix will not work!

• Right-click on icon and select Run as Administrator to start the tool.
  (XP users click run after receipt of Windows Security Warning - Open File).
• Press the Fix button just once and wait.
• If for some reason the tool needs a restart, please make sure you let the system restart normally. After that let the tool complete its run.
• When finished FRST will generate a log on the Desktop, called Fixlog.txt.

Please post it to your reply.

fixlist.txt

[marcusironfist]

Here is the fixlog.

 

Fixlog.txt

 

 

Just so we are on the same page, what you had seen in those previous logs (I took a moment to explore the contents of both log files after uploading them, while waiting for your reply) is that utorrent had an entry in the system's registry for two of the user accounts on the machine.  At no time during the course of this process, nor more recently than the preceding week, has the utorrent app actively been running, and it was definitely never running while any of the requested scans were being processed.

 

Also, the other night I completely uninstalled utorrent and peerblock in order to keep them from being an issue in further discussions.

 

That being said, I still get the constant pop-up notices from mbam protection and constant entries in the Internet Explorer history list for pages I have not opened myself.

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Try to reset internet explorer --> https://support.microsoft.com/kb/923737?wa=wsignin1.0

[marcusironfist]

Well, that reset trick had a partial effect:  after rebooting, I still have the 2nd explorer.exe showing in task manager, but it doesn't grow as fast (or as "fat" in memory usage) as before.  And I still see websites appearing in the IE history that I did not visit.

 

Also, for some reason the mbam protection icon is no longer showing on the task bar, and when I click to run the main app, it never opens.

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Can you make a picture of IE history?

[marcusironfist]

Here is the screenshot image showing my IE window and the history list.

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Sometimes, programs like Skype or other Microsoft applications use Internet Explorer to connect through it and access the web. This is mostly for showing ads, and this is not necessarily malicious behavior.
 
 
Uninstall outdated Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
 
Please download MBAM-clean and save it to your desktop.

• Right-click on mbam-clean.exe icon and select Run as Administrator to start the tool.
• It will ask you to reboot the machine - please do so.

After that follow my next instructions to download & install the newset MBAM version.
 
 
 
Scan with Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
 
Please download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and save it to your desktop.

• Install the progam and select update.
• Once updated, click the Settings tab, in the left panel choose Detctions & protection and tick Scan for rootkits.
• Click the Scan tab, choose Threat Scan is checked and click Scan Now.
• If threats are detected, click the Apply Actions button. You will now be prompted to reboot. Click Yes.
• Upon completion of the scan (or after the reboot), click the History tab.
• Click Application Logs and double-click the Scan Log.
• At the bottom click Export and choose Text file.

Save the file to your desktop and include its content in your next reply.

[marcusironfist]

I ran the cleaner, wait for the reboot, then re-installed the mbam package as instructed.

 

Complete scan, including root kit testing, came out completely clean with 0 discoveries.

 

mbam_scan_report_20141201.txt

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Good. How is the situation now?

[marcusironfist]

Still the same.  Still showing Explorer.exe with a 2nd entry in Task Manager, growing as high as 2.5gig of ram used, and still seeing the mbam pop-up warnings of blocked website access.

 

I can understand the idea of advertisements being displayed while the ad-supported application is in use, but for explorer.exe to be accessing websites when no apps are open (beyond the system apps residing in the toolbar beside the clock) does not make any sense at all.

 

At this point, I'm ready to just kill the Windows 7 completely and reformat with a copy of Linux (which I prefer to use on my other machines I've had over the years).  I never had anything like this happen while running XP either.

[TwinHeadedEagle]

This is happening to lot of people, I had similar cases and they all were clean. This is probably some kind of bug in Microsoft software, started to happen from last Windows Update. I suggest to contact their support.

[marcusironfist]

Thank you very much for your help.  I am sorry for any difficulties during this process.  It is depressing that we were unable to find a complete fix.

[AdvancedSetup]

Glad we could help.

If you need this topic reopened, please send a Private Message to any one of the moderating team members. Please include a link to this thread with your request. This applies only to the originator of this thread.

Other members who need assistance please start your own topic in a new thread. Thanks!