PC Clinic: IE won't stay open and Norton goes crazy!

[scottishtv]

Hi guys.
I know that many of you are pretty able when it comes to PCs, so here's a plea for help. My PC seems to have caught something unsavoury. When I launch IE, it closes after around 1-2 seconds. Then these appear:



I've tried the quarantine options and delete options, but it gets stuck in a cycle with these appearing over and over. I've tried running the Virus Scan, but no joy. I've also tried SpyBot Search and Destroy and a few other wee programs I saw someone on a tech forum mention. I've tried looking a few various forums, but can't find a lot about it.

McAfee's site seems to be one of the few that have the named trojan on it (perhaps it's the name they gave it - is that why i can't find much else about it?), but no removal instructions.

Anyone had a similar problem with something like this? Suggestions welcome.

-PS. I'm using Firefox to post this and am thinking for switching to it as my default browser in the future, but I'd still like to get this fixed before I ditch IE for good. Thanks.

[Fireboy]

No great loss though.

[iSon]

Hi guys.
I know that many of you are pretty able when it comes to PCs, so here's a plea for help. My PC seems to have caught something unsavoury. When I launch IE, it closes after around 1-2 seconds. Then these appear:



I've tried the quarantine options and delete options, but it gets stuck in a cycle with these appearing over and over. I've tried running the Virus Scan, but no joy. I've also tried SpyBot Search and Destroy and a few other wee programs I saw someone on a tech forum mention. I've tried looking a few various forums, but can't find a lot about it.

McAfee's site seems to be one of the few that have the named trojan on it (perhaps it's the name they gave it - is that why i can't find much else about it?), but no removal instructions.

Anyone had a similar problem with something like this? Suggestions welcome.

-PS. I'm using Firefox to post this and am thinking for switching to it as my default browser in the future, but I'd still like to get this fixed before I ditch IE for good. Thanks.

I'm glad my plan worked.

[Neil Jones]

Hi guys.
I know that many of you are pretty able when it comes to PCs, so here's a plea for help. My PC seems to have caught something unsavoury. When I launch IE, it closes after around 1-2 seconds.

Anyone had a similar problem with something like this? Suggestions welcome.

Assuming Windows XP:

Download this:
http://www.sophos.com/tools/sav32sfx.exe

Go to extract it somewhere. Then download this:
http://www.sophos.com/downloads/ide/397_ides.zip

Extract the zip file into the same folder you just extracted SAv32cli.exe.

Now reboot, keep pressing F8, Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

Change to the directory that you put the Sav32cli extracted files in and type:

Code: Select all

sav32cli -remove C:

Assuming C is the drive with your XP installation on.

This'll shift a few things but may not fix the issue. You may need to consider more drastic measures which involve the words Hard Drive, Format, Windows and Reinstall.

-PS. I'm using Firefox to post this and am thinking for switching to it as my default browser in the future, but I'd still like to get this fixed before I ditch IE for good. Thanks.

Not a bad decision.

[scottishtv]

Thanks for all the tips guys.

Unfortunately the virus scan you mentioned didn't work Neil, but I found a bit of software called Ewido security suite which did the trick and found another few nasties on my PC. Thanks for responding though. I appreciate it.

It'll teach me not to browse naughty sites in a crappy browser like IE. Kinda ironic that the site in question was linked from one I came across when Metropol members were posting their favourite sites. I must've been mad... (thumbs dot com...)

[cat]

Out of curiosity, as a Mac user (no, this isn't going to be one of those ''I'm so secure, you're so not'' rants) to what extent is Firefox more secure than IE?

I ask because the parents are just getting a new XP-based laptop, and whilst I was planning to put Firefox on for them anyway, I'm just curious as to what extent it will protect them Vs. a fully-patched Internet Explorer.

Is it THAT much better?

[Pete]

well since SP2 IE has had considerable imporvements on the security side

In theory no browser can ever be totally secure and firefox has it's own problems.
So the advantages of Firefox over IE are
1 - it's not part of windows itself therefore it's more secure. If your clock fell off the wall it would break. If your clock is part of the wall, so will the wall.
2 - It generally gets more updates under the theory that "open source makes it easier to find problems" and from 1.5 onwards these should be downloading automatically in the background.

The ActiveX argument is somewhat redundant as MS clawed stuff like that back with Service Pack 2. But also going from what I've seen of IE7 in screenshots it's still a more pleasant interface and presuming A and B are not that literate the change of UI may be discomforting.

[Neil Jones]

Out of curiosity, as a Mac user (no, this isn't going to be one of those ''I'm so secure, you're so not'' rants) to what extent is Firefox more secure than IE?

I ask because the parents are just getting a new XP-based laptop, and whilst I was planning to put Firefox on for them anyway, I'm just curious as to what extent it will protect them Vs. a fully-patched Internet Explorer.

Is it THAT much better?

Well if your parents open unsolicited attachments then their choice of browser becomes irrelevant.

Firefox does have its own set of security vunerabilities which get patched with each new release (hence why we're on v1.0.6 at the moment) BUT there are a few websites that refuse point blank to work in anything other Internet Explorer. Usually sites that use ActiveX and VBScript.

Some of the sites in question can be fooled with an extension, others can't.

There's no such thing as a fully patched Internet Explorer, if the number of new updates every month on Windows Update is anything to go by.

There's also no such thing as a secure Firefox either if this page is anything to go by:
http://secunia.com/product/4227/

Above all, the most secure option of all is common sense.

[DJGM]

While neither MSIE or Firefox are 100% secure (no browser can be these days) according to current Secunia
reports, it is clear that, despite both having a differing number of unpatched vulns, Firefox is the safer choice:


In summary, as it stands between the two right now . . .

Internet Explorer:
Total of currently unpatched vulns = 20. They range in classification from Not Critical, to Highly Critical.
Vulns with a Partial Fix Issued = 10, Ranging in classification from Not Critical, to Extrememly Critical.

Mozilla Firefox:
Total of currently unpatched vulns = 3 - all of these vulns are classified as Less Critical
Vulns with a Partial Fix Issued = 2 (in one advisory) classified as Moderately Critical.

Make of that what you will . . .