Folks - If anyone is using or considering to use LIMEWIRE to download some music and such, BE CAREFUL! Apparently, I downloaded a massive portal for viruses and backdoor Trojans on the 2nd of July when I tried to download a music file which "did not open". Oh, it opened all right.....
The virus strain "VUNDOO" infected my computer and wiped out my System Restore from that point of time, earlier. So I could not do a system restore. Then, it attcked my Symantec Virus Detection software and corrupted it so that I could not scan, detect, delete, or quarantine it. I did have Ad-Aware 2008 and did a total system scan, and guess what I found?
Eleven THOUSAND, One Hundred and Forty backdoor Trojans/Spyware. Yes, 11,140. I selected all, and deleted. Did another sweep, found 560 more. Another sweep lowered to 130, then for the last 3 days, I had 20s and 30s here and there. But since the 2nd, I had massive pop-ups bombarding my computer where it was freezing up, crashing, etc.
I then downloaded AVG 8.0 and SpyBot Search & Destroy, both from DOWNLOAD.COM, BOTH are FREE. And together, I think I have tackled the problem. But this came at a very high cost of sitting here for over 15 hours searching folders, deleting what I think is no use, scanning, re-scanning, and then scanning again. I finally caught the Vundoo Virus and got it deleted.
Folks - Limewire used to be a good program and I never had any issues prior to 2 July. But after speaking with the Geek Squad, they said it has become a Viral Heaven. So, be cautious. I was in solid PANICK mode that my entire system was needing reformatting. That means, your hard drive would get wiped clean and your Operating System (Windows XP or Vista) would be deleted and re-installed, obviously costing about $200 if you don't know how to do this yourself. So, if you are in the game of downloading, peer-to-peer file sharing, know what you are opening.
I am lucky I caught the virus. It was really crippling my system as I tried to locate it.
On another note, it opened up some sort if invisible folder that contains THOUSANDS of movie titles etc. It is located in my C:]Users\User\ '\ file folder. Notice, there is a space in between the \ and \ which contains an apostrophe. Unfortunately, when I go there, it is not visible and I did turn ON hidden folders, etc. When I scan my computer, every time it goes into my Users\User\ '\Enter Thousands of Titles Here folder, I can see it scanning thousands of movie titles, which of course, are not on my computer. But they are.....somewhere..... It was the virus which downloaded that 11,140 files. I guess they are all the movies people were sharing online. I can see it start off with like, Apocolpyse Now and runs through all movies, in alphabetical order. All end wth the same file extension .zip. They are on here, somewhere....and I am going to find the folder sooner or later and delete it, if possible.
If any computer techs know how to help me locate and delete this last PITA, please let me know....
G
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2KC5 FRC MN6, Bad Head & Cam install, Failed Lifter, Burnt Clutch, Cracked Rotors, Bad Tune, Blown Piston, Blown Head Gasket, and faulty rockers.....but I still come back for more.....Installed/Tuned by LG Motorsports. Best 1/4 Trap: 11.94 Best Top Speed 121.10 on street tires at 1200 Ft ASL.[/center]
Folks - If anyone is using or considering to use LIMEWIRE to download some music and such, BE CAREFUL! Apparently, I downloaded a massive portal for viruses and backdoor Trojans on the 2nd of July when I tried to download a music file which "did not open". Oh, it opened all right.....
The virus strain "VUNDOO" infected my computer and wiped out my System Restore from that point of time, earlier. So I could not do a system restore. Then, it attcked my Symantec Virus Detection software and corrupted it so that I could not scan, detect, delete, or quarantine it. I did have Ad-Aware 2008 and did a total system scan, and guess what I found?
Eleven THOUSAND, One Hundred and Forty backdoor Trojans/Spyware. Yes, 11,140. I selected all, and deleted. Did another sweep, found 560 more. Another sweep lowered to 130, then for the last 3 days, I had 20s and 30s here and there. But since the 2nd, I had massive pop-ups bombarding my computer where it was freezing up, crashing, etc.
I then downloaded AVG 8.0 and SpyBot Search & Destroy, both from DOWNLOAD.COM, BOTH are FREE. And together, I think I have tackled the problem. But this came at a very high cost of sitting here for over 15 hours searching folders, deleting what I think is no use, scanning, re-scanning, and then scanning again. I finally caught the Vundoo Virus and got it deleted.
Folks - Limewire used to be a good program and I never had any issues prior to 2 July. But after speaking with the Geek Squad, they said it has become a Viral Heaven. So, be cautious. I was in solid PANICK mode that my entire system was needing reformatting. That means, your hard drive would get wiped clean and your Operating System (Windows XP or Vista) would be deleted and re-installed, obviously costing about $200 if you don't know how to do this yourself. So, if you are in the game of downloading, peer-to-peer file sharing, know what you are opening.
I am lucky I caught the virus. It was really crippling my system as I tried to locate it.
On another note, it opened up some sort if invisible folder that contains THOUSANDS of movie titles etc. It is located in my C:]Users\User\ '\ file folder. Notice, there is a space in between the \ and \ which contains an apostrophe. Unfortunately, when I go there, it is not visible and I did turn ON hidden folders, etc. When I scan my computer, every time it goes into my Users\User\ '\Enter Thousands of Titles Here folder, I can see it scanning thousands of movie titles, which of course, are not on my computer. But they are.....somewhere..... It was the virus which downloaded that 11,140 files. I guess they are all the movies people were sharing online. I can see it start off with like, Apocolpyse Now and runs through all movies, in alphabetical order. All end wth the same file extension .zip. They are on here, somewhere....and I am going to find the folder sooner or later and delete it, if possible.
If any computer techs know how to help me locate and delete this last PITA, please let me know....
G
I have a friend thats very connected in the music industry and word is that much money is being spent to make illegal music not worth the hassle to the average consumer....people have been hired to make it happen and considering how much money is on the line you cant blame them and hell if you pay some hack 5k to do what he does best its only a drop in the bucket compared to whats at risk....millions
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02 EB Z06, STS GT32's @7lbs, FMIC, 60lb Motrons, HPTuners and a few other goodies.
Yeah - Now I know..... Well, I think I have it under control. I found 8,411 Win RAR zipped (.zip) files on my computer in some strange folder.
Normally, it is C:\Users\User\Music or whatever....
This folder was '(C:\Users'User) Weird.....
But IO knew it was there, somewhere and finally found it. 8,411 files were malicious downloaded into my system. Yeah, not worth the headaches anymore. I was lucky this time with computer SOS that took me over 18 hours to identify, scan, understand, locate, quarantine, delete, scan, delete, scan, delete, scan some more and delete some more, clean, and hope.....
If it comes back contact the SpywareInfo :· Spyware and hijackware Removal Specialists website.
You will have to follow the steps described. It might take a day or two, but be patient - it will be worth it.
They will walk you through the steps to permanently get rid of it.
They are great. I've used them in the past.
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You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of football team or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. --- Frank Zappa
'04 MS/Blk - Z06Fest IV, V, VI & VII - WinterFest I "Bus Driver"
Here I am, 4 days later.... NOTHING worked. Windows Defender was corrupeted. Symantec Anti Virus, corrupted. SpyBot Search and Destroy was no use. AVG couldn't fin dit. VundoFix couldn't contain it. My computrer was taken hostage. So, after 4 days of failing every attempt, I had to re-install Windows. Maybe I should have done that on Day 1. It took about 2 or 3 hours, but my computer is now clean and running as it was long ago.
A lesson to be learned. If it's too good to be true, it usually is.... An din this case, cost me lots of time, stress, and a loss of 20 GB of files, nothing important though.
Be cautious what you download on the Internet, and I strongly suggest you scan every file FIRST. Let my misfortune be your guide.
Glenn, you're not alone in getting stung...even the Supreme Court justices aren't immune. This from Drudge the other day...
"Sometime late last year, an employee of a McLean investment firm decided to trade some music, or maybe a movie, with like-minded users of the online file-sharing network LimeWire while using a company computer. In doing so, he inadvertently opened the private files of his firm, Wagner Resource Group, to the public.
That exposed the names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers of about 2,000 of the firm's clients, including a number of high-powered lawyers and Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer."
The breach was not discovered for nearly six months. A reader of washingtonpost.com's Security Fix blog found the information while searching LimeWire in June.
Services such as LimeWire, which are known as peer-to-peer networks, link computers directly, allowing users to swap digital movies, music and files with other users without the need of a central Web site to manage the exchange.
What users may not be aware of is that the software that facilitates file sharing may be configured to allow access to a portion, if not all, of a user's documents.
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Top Cog
2006 C6 Z06 MS, Ebony #5,889
Location: Gilbert, AZ Z06 Fest II,III,IV,V WinterFest 1&2
Posts: 2,755
Re: Limewire = Malicious Virus
Hey Bro,
It's pretty bad when PTP music has more virus potential than porn sites!!
I feel your pain...........
Had to boot to the install disc and 'fix installation' more than once!!
But not for music you can get from You Tube!!
This worked for a machine I had to clean, but needed scanning three times. I strongly recommend killing your currrent Anti-virus, before running this, and downloading the trail from pandasoftware to run and clean.
I use a Mac, but did this on three different machines with success.
(PS. I am a CGEIT, CISM, CISA. IE Certified IT auditor and security Manager.)
I would recommend in future that you buy a second hand Mac G4 and use iTunes!
Double-click *VundoFix.exe* to run it.
Click the *Scan for Vundo* button.
Once it's done scanning, click the *Remove Vundo* button.
You will receive a prompt asking if you want to remove the files, click *YES*
Once you click yes, your desktop will go blank as it starts removing Vundo.
When completed, it will prompt that it will reboot your computer, click *OK*.
Please post the contents of C:\*vundofix.txt* and a new HiJackThis log.
Note: It is possible that VundoFix may encounter a file it cannot remove. In this situation, VundoFix will run on reboot. Simply follow the above instructions starting from "Click the *Scan for Vundo* button" when VundoFix appears at reboot.
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Move over Mansell:
"Racing is life ... everything else is just waiting.", Steve McQueen
Whoa. Sorry to hear that Glenn. I've never used limewire and never will after reading this.
BTW, why are macs considered God's gift to geeks? It seems every time someone has a problem with their pc, someone else has to comment, "buy a mac".
If they are so great, then why do they only comprise a tiny portion of the market? Shouldn't a better product easily put an inferior one out of business? Just wondering what the big deal is.
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3 good Toyo T1Rs / CAGS Defeat / Tint / Soon to be Lowered / DEAD Braille, now --> Walmart Battery / Seat Bolster Mod / HPDE Checklist
Whoa. Sorry to hear that Glenn. I've never used limewire and never will after reading this.
BTW, why are macs considered God's gift to geeks? It seems every time someone has a problem with their pc, someone else has to comment, "buy a mac".
If they are so great, then why do they only comprise a tiny portion of the market? Shouldn't a better product easily put an inferior one out of business? Just wondering what the big deal is.
Last survey that I saw (2002 or 2003 I think) MS Windows workdwide market share was over 97%. So when the numbers of all the remaining operating systems are a fart in the wind. They jump on any flaw that is discussed. All operating systems have flaws and will continue to be that way.
One insight is that Windows NT was about 18mil lines of code, XP was about 30mil and Vista/2008 server is 50 million lines. SO we will always have issues due to increasing complexity of the product and that humans create it.
I consider the other O/S's a little Chihuahua dog, all bark ineffective bite.
If you like Windows use Windows ,if you like Linux/Mac use that.
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Ed Gibson 2001 Black Z06 64 & 68 Corvette verts
1985 BMW K100 m/c