Just finished 86'ing some malware...

[jdowney]

No idea where I picked it up, but lucky for me it was very, very, un-stealthy, which made it easy to find web-info for removal, and also isolate the time of infection - which was useful for selecting files to remove.

But the point of this post is: linux
I mostly use XP because my wife likes it, and we all know its important to keep our better halves happy. But I do have linux on another partition - which made it very easy to spend a couple days researching solutions without the annoyance of the malware popping "virus warnings" all the time. Its like having another computer to use while the XP machine is crapped out. I probably would have ignored the problem longer and kept using the linux boot if it played movies :icon_biggrin: (my wife likes movies, and hates my linux boot for some reason).

Even if a person doesn't want to do the whole partition and dual boot set up, you can get linux that runs from a CD and writes temp files to the HD. When you shut down and pop out the CD its like it was never even there. Its a handy thing to have around - could give a bit of breathing space with all the crap out on the net designed to exploit windows.

[MicroPilot]

+1

just dealt with a similiar situation in the same way on my gaming computer.

[19Charlie_84]

One of the other platoon leaders is always saying how great everything i is. ipod, iphone, icomputer whatever. The thing is ihate everything mac. I have never used linux but from what I understand is not many haxors make viruses for anything but windows because not enough people/corporations use them. Good on you for getting rid of that virus/malware. I have had a few bugs on my two computers that totaly incapacitated one and had to find solution on the other. I cant stand the fact that some nerd out there is speaking in a high pitched, prepubecent virgin voice pushing up his glasses, "oooh man this n3w hak is gonn@ make me uber l33t <snort> captains log: d/l star trek pr0n bl00per r33l and get more asthma inh@ler"

If I ever hear of anyone that makes viruses, so help me I am going to piss on thier mother(board) then test the hard drives durability whilst taped to my truck's tires.

[Hanns]

XP is old and full of holes. 95% of infected computers I see at work are XP. Vista despite the naysayers is much more resilient to infection as is Windows 7. Win7 works great, with a decent anti-virus it's pretty hard to crack. We've been seeing more Mac virii of late, still not nearly as common as on Windows machines but considering almost no one with a Mac run AV software it's only a matter of time until a Klez, Confiker or the like spreads across the mac-o-sphere. Ditch the Spybot and Ad-aware, get something like AVG Free if you're cheap or better yet ante up for some paid software like Kaspersky. This is what I do for work as boring as it is. Cheers,
Hanns

[Enscribe]

I have dealt with my fair share of computer sickness. A couple of months ago my girl got ANTIVIRUS PRO 2010 (it's a virus), It is freaking terrible, it embeds deep into your registry and every corner, nook, and cranny. I had to wipe the HD and reload windows to get rid of it. I can recommend a malware program called "Malwarebytes" it can solve a lot of the errors that tend to pile up over time.

[Beprepared]

I can recommend a malware program called "Malwarebytes" it can solve a lot of the errors that tend to pile up over time.

+1 on the Malmarebytes. That and a few swipes by the (decent) virus scanner on my choice (McAfee) when I have the box fired up in safe mode usually get rid of most anything.

Ad-ware from Lavasoft is another program I run in safe mode after infections that is wonderful at removing nasty registry bugs.

[jdowney]

Yep, Antivirus PRO 2010 it was. There's a lot of removal instructions on the web, which were a help, though most of the virus's filenames were different than what's listed on the web. To a large degree I ended up finding the time of infection using the file creation date of "sysguard.exe", and deleted everything created from then on.

Two things I believe made this approach feasible, first we don't surf in admin accounts, damage was mostly limited to my login and my wife's seemed to work ok, and the admin account functioned fine. Second we'd been using the other boot almost exclusively since the infection. So I felt it was unlikely that any file created in one or two probing sessions was anything remotely important.

I'm probably not done yet, as I haven't messed with the registry, that's today's chore. I have blocked the website's whose names I know are associated with this turd - going to do a bit more digging there today too, see if I can find more.

You're right Charlie, I believe the single biggest advantage of linux is that there are so few users, and Windows is such an easy mark, that the viral nerds aren't trying to crack it much. Some of our servers at work have troubles, the IT guy is always updating the kernel when new ones come available - providing us with a whole new set of bugs with the old site
specific applications. I believe the trouble there is that they're more temping targets, always being on and on T1 connections. The advantages of linux and mac may become less pronounced if Windows7 proves very hardy.

The tiny bit of messing around I've done with Vista, it seemed ok to me. But I don't have tons of (or any!) legacy software, and don't mind if it looks a bit different. My main beef with it was that from everything I'd read it was a bit difficult to really get it to dual boot nicely, so I wasn't interested in trying it. I've read that 7 is more like XP in how it handles dual booting.

[k98k792]

I have been using PC Tools for several years now and have never had any infections or Malware since installation.

[19Charlie_84]

Yes, +1 for AVG free. The price is perfect for cheapies like me. Us Military folk can also get Norton from AKO for free. DO NOT run two antivirus programs at once, any two, they will fight each other and you will have a sloooooow system. Malwarebytes is awsome. Get Suredelete for pesky files that dont like the recycle bin.

I had antivirus pro 2010 as well. Pulled my hair out getting rid of it. Did not have to reinstall, but deff cleaned my registry with Uniblue Powersuite, also badass program.

[Fido Dog]

iKnow some don't much care for Macs. I think they are overpriced for one. I LOVE mine though! Haven't had to worry about malware, viruses, spyware, blah, blah, blah....for 3 years now and it runs as fast as the day it was delivered. HAHA!:icon_biggrin:

Also, UBUNTU is a free OS that is linux based. Only problem is there are very FEW programs for it, but still no viruses.

[tanstaafl4y]

not many haxors make viruses for anything but windows because not enough people/corporations use them.


Also, UBUNTU is a free OS that is linux based. Only problem is there are very FEW programs for it, but still no viruses.


LINUX GEEK ALERT

I'm sitting here typing away on a computer running Ubuntu Linux.

19Charlie, you are partially right, not many individuals are using Linux as a personal desktop, Last number I saw showed a market share less than 3% (windows 87%, Mac 6%, all others 4%). Where Linux excells is in the Server Class. The vast majority of business and internet servers are running Linux - even if you combine Windows and Sun.

Besides market share another reason virus do not flouris in the linux/unix community is because of the way the systems are designed. It would take me hours to explain the underlying concepts, but the short form is, a virus cannot run or execute in the *nix environment and cause any real damage. The operating system is designed so users cannot "damage" the system without special effort. Windows gives users "administrative permissions" with the click of a button, making it easier for viri to spread.

Fido, Depends what you mean by programs, there are 10,000+ software packages in the Ubunto repositories (free software source). OpenOffice.Org is comprable to M$ Office and excels in some areas (while lagging in others - particullarly the grammer checker). GIMP is a photo editing program with features almost identical to the $700 version of Photoshop. Firefox is a hugely popular web browser available on Linux. Oh, I almost forgot to metion, those programs can be installed on ANY operating system and are free of cost. The area where Linux software lags is gaming...not many "Hard core games" but several mainstream companies are developing linux friendly releases of their popular FPS and MMORPG games.


Everybody
Ubuntu is a user-friendly Linux distribution. It is designed to "just work" without the headaches associated with otherearlier and versions. There is a ton of tech support on the web if you do run into problems. As was mentioned you can download a live CD and try Ubuntu without making any changes to your computer. Best of all it is free (as in beer).

visit www.ubuntu.com for more details

I won't harp too much, If there is interest I can start an all about linux thread, with tips tricks and details. reply to this thread or send me a PM if youd like me to continue

[Beprepared]

The *nix environment is a very secure OS, thats why Apache is the server of choice for the server world. As mentioned it is damn hard for something run without permission from the user.

I've enjoyed using the OpenOffice suite, and as far as games run there is always WINE... but I understand it still needs tweeking.

[Fido Dog]

Tanstaa....I had no idea there were so many programs for UBUNTU now. When I messed with it 5 years ago, It' seemed pretty limited. I may have to check it out again. I can have my buddy build me a kick ass machine (this is his living) for cheap. I've been wanting a big screen desktop.

I'll do some poking. Thanks for the HU!

[Cavalryman]

If it weren't for the need to run some proprietary software for work, I'd never even boot into Windoze. Unfortunately, some things (like the CAC reader) don't run under Linux. I use Ubuntu Linux almost exclusively. There are sometimes hardware issues in that a lot of hardware doesn't have Linux drivers, but I just pick my hardware to run with my operating system. Almost all of my Web surfing is done in Ubuntu and I've never caught any sort of malware. I'm a true Linux fanboy! :thumbup:

[Grasshopper]

"I cant stand the fact that some nerd out there is speaking in a high pitched, prepubecent virgin voice pushing up his glasses, "oooh man this n3w hak is gonn@ make me uber l33t <snort> captains log: d/l star trek pr0n bl00per r33l and get more asthma inh@ler"

I couldn't have said it any better, these snotnose kids need the strap I say!:pipe: