Frustrating Malware troubles

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I have been a loyal Internet Explorer user since about 1993. However I am
feeling very angry tonight, and frustrated. About one week ago, while
browsing for some new icons for my blog site, I inadvertently clicked on a
link for a website. Once that web site loaded I was inundated with pop-ups
and next thing I knew my Internet Explorer had been hijacked. I know now this
was 100% true. I had 2 new explorer toolbars and lots of personal attention
from a ton of advertisers. In between work and studying for school, I have
been struggling with this problem. I spent nearly 50 hours already working on
it. Needless to say, I am getting hardly any sleep. I am exhausted and at my
wits end. I have downloaded and run every spyware program I can think of. It
either finds a TON of spyware, or none at all. I downloaded a registry
cleaner and looked at that. I found some Malware listed in there and got rid
of it. I was able to pin point several roque programs to include eZula,
Mirar, Best Toolbars, and Mywebsearch. One of the weirdest things that has
happened is that I now have hyperlinks on web pages where there should NOT be
hyperlinks. I happened to fins another program tonight which is called,
"Hijack this!" and it's a program specifically designed to scan for programs
that hijack browsers. I ran it, and it found the mirar and eZula. Voila! I
deleted the files and thought my problems were solved. But alas.....they
weren't. I rebooted my pc after I deleted the roque files only to find that
the weird hyperlinks are still there. *sigh* Then I downloaded and paid for a
program called Xoftspy. $46 later I am minus ALOT of Malware files but I
still have the pop-ups and the weird hyperlinks. I have just about had it. A
friend told me that some of these Malware programs can easily replace your
copy of IE with their own. Is this true?

I have downloaded Firefox to use in the meantime but would really like to
have my IE fixed. I cannot believe it could get SO broken, so quick.

As I said, I am exhausted and right about now I am feeling like I want to
throw this pc right out the window. I know there are quite a few geeks out
there, just like me so if you think you can save me from doing something I
will regret, please email me.

Thank you,
Missy
(I am using a brand new laptop pc, only a month old. No problems until a
week ago.)
 
Missy,
You're on the right track. Post your HijackThis log for analysis.

Start at
http://forum.aumha.org/viewtopic.php?t=4075 Then go to
http://www.aumha.org/a/quickfix.htm Work through the preliminary cleaning
steps then post a HijackThis log to the forum at
http://forum.aumha.org/viewforum.php?f=30

Be patient. It's a busy forum.

HijackThis logs are also analyzed at these (and other) forums. Look for the
proper forum and an "Important- Read This First" message so that you follow
proper procedure.
http://castlecops.com/forums.html
http://tomcoyote.com/forums/
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/
http://forum.iamnotageek.com/index.php
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/index.php
http://forums.maddoktor2.com/index.php
http://forums.net-integration.net/

Hope this helps,
Don
[MS MVP- IE]
 
Missy said:
I have been a loyal Internet Explorer user since about 1993. However I am
feeling very angry tonight, and frustrated. About one week ago, while
browsing for some new icons for my blog site, I inadvertently clicked on a
link for a website. Once that web site loaded I was inundated with pop-ups
and next thing I knew my Internet Explorer had been hijacked. I know now
this
was 100% true. I had 2 new explorer toolbars and lots of personal
attention
from a ton of advertisers. In between work and studying for school, I have
been struggling with this problem. I spent nearly 50 hours already working
on
it. Needless to say, I am getting hardly any sleep. I am exhausted and at
my
wits end. I have downloaded and run every spyware program I can think of.
It
either finds a TON of spyware, or none at all. I downloaded a registry
cleaner and looked at that. I found some Malware listed in there and got
rid
of it. I was able to pin point several roque programs to include eZula,
Mirar, Best Toolbars, and Mywebsearch. One of the weirdest things that has
happened is that I now have hyperlinks on web pages where there should NOT
be
hyperlinks. I happened to fins another program tonight which is called,
"Hijack this!" and it's a program specifically designed to scan for
programs
that hijack browsers. I ran it, and it found the mirar and eZula. Voila! I
deleted the files and thought my problems were solved. But alas.....they
weren't. I rebooted my pc after I deleted the roque files only to find
that
the weird hyperlinks are still there. *sigh* Then I downloaded and paid
for a
program called Xoftspy. $46 later I am minus ALOT of Malware files but I
still have the pop-ups and the weird hyperlinks. I have just about had it.
A
friend told me that some of these Malware programs can easily replace your
copy of IE with their own. Is this true?

I have downloaded Firefox to use in the meantime but would really like to
have my IE fixed. I cannot believe it could get SO broken, so quick.

As I said, I am exhausted and right about now I am feeling like I want to
throw this pc right out the window. I know there are quite a few geeks out
there, just like me so if you think you can save me from doing something I
will regret, please email me.


Did you restart in safe mode and run the scans there?

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE
Please respond in Newsgroup only. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/
 
In Missy had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
I have been a loyal Internet Explorer user since about 1993. However
I am feeling very angry tonight, and frustrated. About one week ago,
while browsing for some new icons for my blog site, I inadvertently
clicked on a link for a website. Once that web site loaded I was
inundated with pop-ups and next thing I knew my Internet Explorer had
been hijacked. I know now this was 100% true. I had 2 new explorer
toolbars and lots of personal attention from a ton of advertisers. In
between work and studying for school, I have been struggling with
this problem. I spent nearly 50 hours already working on it. Needless
to say, I am getting hardly any sleep. I am exhausted and at my wits
end. I have downloaded and run every spyware program I can think of.
It either finds a TON of spyware, or none at all. I downloaded a
registry cleaner and looked at that. I found some Malware listed in
there and got rid of it. I was able to pin point several roque
programs to include eZula, Mirar, Best Toolbars, and Mywebsearch. One
of the weirdest things that has happened is that I now have
hyperlinks on web pages where there should NOT be hyperlinks. I
happened to fins another program tonight which is called, "Hijack
this!" and it's a program specifically designed to scan for programs
that hijack browsers. I ran it, and it found the mirar and eZula.
Voila! I deleted the files and thought my problems were solved. But
alas.....they weren't. I rebooted my pc after I deleted the roque
files only to find that the weird hyperlinks are still there. *sigh*
Then I downloaded and paid for a program called Xoftspy. $46 later I
am minus ALOT of Malware files but I still have the pop-ups and the
weird hyperlinks. I have just about had it. A friend told me that
some of these Malware programs can easily replace your copy of IE
with their own. Is this true?

I have downloaded Firefox to use in the meantime but would really
like to have my IE fixed. I cannot believe it could get SO broken, so
quick.

As I said, I am exhausted and right about now I am feeling like I
want to throw this pc right out the window. I know there are quite a
few geeks out there, just like me so if you think you can save me
from doing something I will regret, please email me.

Thank you,
Missy
(I am using a brand new laptop pc, only a month old. No problems
until a week ago.)

In addition to the other posts... If you want to prevent this from happening
again consider this:

Malware Cleaners and Repair:
http://kgiii.info/windows/all/general/malwarefix.html

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"I am glad of all details, whether they seem to you to be relevant or
not." - Sherlock Holmes
 
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