On Tue, 10 Apr 2007 04:09:21 +0530, eidolen
4 Machines and 2 SOLID weeks into it I might just resign to living off
of Bart PE boot disks for the rest of my life. I thought I was nuts as
well scouring the web trying to find others with the same problem so I
could track down a fix.
What scanners are you using from Bart boot?
Are you using RunScanner with registry-aware tools?
Note that some tools are not applicable from Bart, either because they
read "live" behavior that isn't redirected via RunScanner (e.g.
anything that lists services and device drivers) or because what they
do is particular to live malware behavior (i.e. rootkit behavior
detectors, LSP Fix).
I see snippets here and there of the same symptoms but only the people
on this thread really understand what's going on.
I use Bart-based scanning regularly, and I use all the scanners I can
get hold of, because there's always something that one scanner picks
up that all of the others miss.
I also do look-don't-touch scans for commercial malware from Bart,
using AdAware, Spybot and A-Squared. I note what they find, then
repeat these scans to kill-and-q'tine from Safe Cmd when I've finished
the Bart processing.
The last things I do before exiting Bart to do Safe Cmd, are:
1) HiJackThis log, via RunScanner
I do this after the automated scans.
2) De-bulk hi-risk stores
I move *all* Temp and TIF subtrees from where they naturally reside,
to somewhere else on the HD, thus breaking any references to content
there. This will often, stop missed malware from running.
I also eyeball all StartUp, DPF and C:\ locations for oddballs,
managing these by moving them elsewhere.
3) Harvest spare registry hives, if needed
You can copy these out of C:\SVI...\RPxxx\Snapshot; this is the only
automated registry backup maintained by XP.
4) Scan ADS
From HiJackThis, you can scan for ADS. As at April 2007, code in ADS
have to be integrated to run automatically, so scanners may detect the
integration points, but I don't like to count on that.
5) Check logs
Check and summarize all logs from all scans, before booting HD for
first time. Look out for "detected but could not clean", and if you
see that, use Agent Ransack to find and rename-away (or move) the
offending code. Agent Ransack works from Bart.
spyware helper forums just ignore requests for help when people list
the symptoms of this worm as you never see a thread follwed through
where it was actually cleansed from the system.
I'm late-to-thread, so I don't know what symptoms or what worm you are
chasing. Clarify?
Final tip: If you can isolate the PC for a few days before scanning,
and then update all scanners just before you build the Bart CDR, you
may get the drop on malware that pulls new versions of itself every
hour or so. Keep the PC off ALL networks in Bart, Safe Cmd, etc.
I have spent the last 3 days manually cleaning out a registry on this
machine and I don't feel even half way done. The references made by the
OP are the exact same symptoms I have. It has installed IIS, SOAP, Fox
Pro, Olap, SUS, Access, etc.... Now that I read it's hiding code in
jpegs I feel that I will never get rid of it.
Has anyone made any progess at all on this or know if there are active
threads on how to deal with this? I mean do I just throw away my years
of data as I'm sure I'll just re-infect if there isn't a tool to
actually kill this thing.
You'd need to anticipate this scenario in terms of your data backup
management, so that "data" really is just data, without incoming crap
and infectable code included.
That means going several steps further than standard MS practice,
which is utterly clueless in this respect - they dump incoming
material from IE, MS Messenger etc. into My Documents, advise you to
keep code files in My Docs to avoid SR activity, and all MS email apps
hide attachments within mailboxes.
If your data, and data backups, do not include incoming material or
infectable code, then it's a bit safer to "just" wipe, rebuild, and
restore your data backups.
-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
Running Windows-based av to kill active malware is like striking
a match to see if what you are standing in is water or petrol.