Hard drive problems caused by Malware?

[lindstrom]

Hello All,

I have what I think is Malware on my PC and it has caused some serious problems on my machine. It appeared to cause damage to the hard drive and error messages saying that the hard drive had failed appeared. It has taken all the folders from my desktop and all documents appear to have disappeared even though the hard drive appears to still contain data as when I look at the properties it still says it contains data, ie 250gb used, 250 gb free.

What I have done so far is:

- I first ran Spybot Search and Destroy. It found some entries and I "fixed" them.

- Installed, updated, and ran Malwarebytes and it found an infection:

1. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\microsoft\windows\current\version\run\kcecuq -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.

When I rebooted it still behaved the same.

I then ran a full scan of Malwarebytes and it reported the same infection again.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Luke

[LDTate]

Logs will be closed if you haven't replied within 3 days

Please don't attach the scans / logs for these tools, use "copy/paste".

DO NOT use any TOOLS such as Combofix or HijackThis fixes without supervision.

Doing so could make your pc inoperatible and could require a full reinstall of your OS, losing all your programs and data.

Vista and Windows 7 users:

1. These tools MUST be run from the executable. (.exe) every time you run them

2. With Admin Rights (Right click, choose "Run as Administrator")

Stay with this topic until I give you the all clean post.

You might want to print these instructions out.

I suggest you do this:

Download unhide.exe & save it to your windows folder:

Right click on unhide.exe and select Run as administrator (In case you have Vista or Win7)

Reboot

This will unhide folders/files that were set to be hidden by the infection you had.

Let me know if that solved your problem.

[lindstrom]

Hi there,

Thanks for helping!

I completed the unhide.exe and it has now made all the files and folders visible again!

However it still seems to be hiding the programs from the start menu (I have to click view all programs to see them) , whereas I didn't used to do this. Is this

still connected to the hide thing?

I did a malwarebytes quick scan and it still appears to be here:

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.42

Database version: 3443

Windows 6.0.6001 Service Pack 1

Internet Explorer 7.0.6001.18000

19/05/2011 20:30:28

mbam-log-2011-05-19 (20-30-28).txt

Scan type: Quick Scan

Objects scanned: 106546

Time elapsed: 10 minute(s), 32 second(s)

Memory Processes Infected: 0

Memory Modules Infected: 0

Registry Keys Infected: 0

Registry Values Infected: 1

Registry Data Items Infected: 0

Folders Infected: 0

Files Infected: 0

Memory Processes Infected:

(No malicious items detected)

Memory Modules Infected:

(No malicious items detected)

Registry Keys Infected:

(No malicious items detected)

Registry Values Infected:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\kcecuq (Trojan.Agent.U) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.

Registry Data Items Infected:

(No malicious items detected)

Folders Infected:

(No malicious items detected)

Files Infected:

(No malicious items detected)

Thanks again,

Luke

[LDTate]

Unhide was just updated today. Delete the one you have now and run this one.

Download unhide.exe & save it to your windows folder:

Right click on unhide.exe and select Run as administrator (In case you have Vista or Win7)

Reboot

This will unhide folders/files that were set to be hidden by the infection you had.

Let me know if that solved your problem.

[lindstrom]

Hi there,

Thanks again for your assistance, it is greatly appreciated.

I have installed the new unhide and it has made my files visible but not the program icons in the task bar, although they are available on the desktop. Im not sure if this is unusual.

Malwarebytes still brings up the:

Registry Values Infected:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\kcecuq (Trojan.Agent.U) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.

And it returns everytime I start up, even though it says successfully deleted. I presume this means I am still infected? How do I remove this?

Kind regards,

Luke

[LDTate]

Vista and Windows 7 users:

1. These tools MUST be run from the executable. (.exe) every time you run them

2. With Admin Rights (Right click, choose "Run as Administrator")

Download ComboFix from one of these locations:

Link 1

Link 2 If using this link, Right Click and select Save As.

* IMPORTANT !!! Save ComboFix.exe to your Desktop

• Disable your AntiVirus and AntiSpyware applications, usually via a right click on the System Tray icon. They may otherwise interfere with our tools. Note: If you are having difficulty properly disabling your protective programs, or are unsure as to what programs need to be disabled, please refer to the information available through this link : Protective Programs
  
• Double click on ComboFix.exe & follow the prompts.
  Notes: Combofix will run without the Recovery Console installed. Skip the Recovery Console part if you're running Vista or Windows 7.
  Note: If you have XP SP3, use the XP SP2 package.
  If Vista or Windows 7, skip the Recovery Console part
  
• As part of it's process, ComboFix will check to see if the Microsoft Windows Recovery Console is installed. With malware infections being as they are today, it's strongly recommended to have this pre-installed on your machine before doing any malware removal. It will allow you to boot up into a special recovery/repair mode that will allow us to more easily help you should your computer have a problem after an attempted removal of malware.
  
• Follow the prompts to allow ComboFix to download and install the Microsoft Windows Recovery Console, and when prompted, agree to the End-User License Agreement to install the Microsoft Windows Recovery Console.
  

**Please note: If the Microsoft Windows Recovery Console is already installed, ComboFix will continue it's malware removal procedures.

Once the Microsoft Windows Recovery Console is installed using ComboFix, you should see the following message:

Click on Yes, to continue scanning for malware.

When finished, it shall produce a log for you. Please include the C:\ComboFix.txt using Copy / Paste in your next reply.

Notes:

1.Do not mouse-click Combofix's window while it is running. That may cause it to stall.

2. ComboFix may reset a number of Internet Explorer's settings, including making I-E the default browser.

3. Combofix prevents autorun of ALL CD, floppy and USB devices to assist with malware removal & increase security. If this is an issue or makes it difficult for you -- please tell your helper.

4. CF disconnects your machine from the internet. The connection is automatically restored before CF completes its run. If CF runs into difficulty and terminates prematurely, the connection can be manually restored by restarting your machine.

Give it atleast 20-30 minutes to finish if needed.

Please do not attach the scan results from Combofx. Use copy/paste.

Also please describe how your computer behaves at the moment.

[LDTate]

Due to the lack of feedback this topic is closed to prevent others from posting here. 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.

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