Alright, can't ignore this anymore (Virus)

Homestar Gunner

Okay, so I've got this [giant enemy] virus, and have had it since Sunday. Some kind of spyware/adware thing where the majority of the ads I see are definitely not the ads I should see on the pages they're on. (second one is somewhat NSFW, and yes, both showed up on PA of all places)

I know I got this from Myspace, as someone from school added me and I clicked over to her page, not expecting it to be infested with popups, ads, and other various "jesuschristwhatthefuckwhy" items (apparently the girl is absolutely clueless, too, which doesn't help).

Whatever this is, it spreads across all web-based programs (the ad-bar in Xfire was an ad for guitars and caused random popups to about:blank and "YOU WIN XBOX 360 OK HERE IS A VOICE SAYING JUST THAT") and doesn't seem to actually have an adverse effect on my computer, it's just really annoying and I don't want to deal with it. I tried ignoring it by blocking images from some of the involved sites, but that was just a useless easy way out.

Spybot/Adaware picked up pretty much nothing. My first scan with Adaware had my antivirus program pick up "Trojan.Byteverify," which from what research I've done is actually harmless and part of Java (it's also something that's been picked up by the antivirus before, so that's not the cause of my current problem).

Here are some sites that are involved:
igrowler.com
growlinger.com
Some random music store sites that I have visited, though that fact seems irrelevant (Musician's Friend, Music 123, etc) and some that I haven't (vst-guitar.info, some other crap)
service.bfast.com (yes, I know that's just ads anyway, but it appears to be involved somehow)

Also, links on Comedy Central's home page to other parts of the site appear to be based on ads, so I can't click anywhere on that site (pretty much everything leads me to that igrowler thing).

I don't really know what else to say, hence the disjointed nature of this post, which I apologize for. If you guys could ask questions that are more specific than what I've said, I can answer them, but I don't really know what questions to answer to begin with.

Thank you in advance for whatever help this magical place may provide.

Thanatos

Try scanning with Housecall, and/or downloading AVG or Panda or another free anti-virus program.

Kazhiim

Pear-to-Pear technology sounds useful, honestly.


Scan with the stuff Thanatos mentioned. Also, try getting to the interweb with your cable unplugged, and see if they still pop up.

Ruckus

Kazhiim wrote:

Pear-to-Pear technology* sounds useful, honestly.


Scan with the stuff Thanatos mentioned. Also, try getting to the interweb with your cable unplugged**, and see if they still pop up.

*Did the NSFW image show something about pears? Or did you mean Peer-to-Peer?
Additionally, was it possibly an add for the FruitFucker?

**I assume here he means see if the offending toolbars work, as unplugging the network cable would (should) stop you from using the internet (durr).

And finally, Housecall for online scans (linkied for your pleasure), and spybot Search and Destroy (linkied to google, because, well, I'm lazy and don't know the site offhand)

Serpent

also,

make sure to do all your scanning from safe mode. keep hitting that F8 button as you boot your computer, and a menu will come up asking how you want to boot up windows. pick safe mode.

Ruckus

Serpent wrote:

also,

make sure to do all your scanning from safe mode. keep hitting that F8 button as you boot your computer, and a menu will come up asking how you want to boot up windows. pick safe mode.

Safemode with networking if you want to use housecall.

Homestar Gunner

In safe mode, ran AVG anti-virus and anti-spyware. Picked up nothing out of the ordinary, ads still appearing. Going to do Housecall right now.

edit: Okay, for whatever reason my browser shuts down in the middle of the scan, rendering Housecall useless in this situation. I'm open to more suggestions if anyone has an idea.

exoplasm

You need LavaSoft Ad-Aware and SpyBot Search & Destroy.

Tube

Have you tried running Windows Defender yet?

Homestar Gunner

Cardboard Tube wrote:

Have you tried running Windows Defender yet?

Actually, that was one of the first things I did. Same results as everything else.

trixtah

have you run Hijackthis yet?

exoplasm wrote:

You need LavaSoft Ad-Aware and SpyBot Search & Destroy.

dude do you ever read?

Janin

Honestly, you should back up your documents, format, reinstall. Even if you found software that claimed to clean out the infection, there's no way to know if it's actually gone. Also, some malware tends to open up your system in such a way that additional software can be installed by third parties. For this reason, unless removal is absolutely trivial or it's not possible to take backups, I always toast and re-install.

Homestar Gunner

jmillikin wrote:

Honestly, you should back up your documents, format, reinstall. Even if you found software that claimed to clean out the infection, there's no way to know if it's actually gone. Also, some malware tends to open up your system in such a way that additional software can be installed by third parties. For this reason, unless removal is absolutely trivial or it's not possible to take backups, I always toast and re-install.

I may actually do this, but not until I get my new hard drive.

Whatever it was, it appears to be in remission at the moment, as I haven't seen any of the ads. Either the AVG scans really did do something, or having AVG just running has made it stop. After closing AVG, the ads still haven't reappeared, so maybe it's fixed. I'll look more into it tomorrow, and hopefully then I can say "problem solved" and have this thread locked up.