Beware the 'System Check' Trojan!

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Hello!

A friend of mine opened a suspicious email yesterday, and it installed a malware program called 'System Check' on their computer. It's a New Year's gift from some malware programmers in Russia. Once installed, it makes a real mess of everything!

It masquarades as a system diagnosis utility that takes over your PC and moves most of your app selections in the Start Menu into the 'Temp' folder. Once installed, it can be a REAL bear to remove. Paying to buy their program DOESN'T fix it. The program has no antivirus engine in it whatsoever. The longer it stays resident, the more damage it does.

I typed 'System Restore' in the Search Bar and reverted the infected machine to an earlier point, which seemed to remove the infection. At the same time, however, it killed some files Windows 7 needed to install Service Pack 1. At the end of the day, I had to 'nuke the system and start over', and restore the OS from the service partition.

Remember the Eleventh Commandment: "Thou shalt not open suspicious emails."

Has anyone else ran into this booger, and if so, how did YOU handle it?

Have a Great Day!

Rob

I formatted my hard drive and switched to Linux. Not this specific virus, but I got a virus that faked a hard drive failure, so instead of messing with everything, just said "screw this" and switched to Linux so I'd probably not have such a problem again.

I just make sure not to open or download anything from people I don't know.

I run Avira, Firefox (with AdAware), and SpyBot. I haven't seen one of those Trojan ads in almost two years.

These scams have been around for years. A few pointers...

1) * Do not click on ads to download security software. *

2) If "security software" pops up that you did not install, it is probably malicious. These programs do not fix viruses. They ARE the virus. Don't pay them anything!

3) Buy a real anti-virus program. (Avoid Symantec/Norton's. Most of the other commercial ones are effective.)

4) If you can't afford one, download a free scanner such as AVG, Avast, Avira, or Microsoft Essentials.

5) Download and run a free malware scanner, such as MalwareBytes, AdAware, or SpyBot S&D.

6) If you encounter some powerful malicious software that neither your virus scanner nor your malware scanner can remove, download ComboFix from this site.

Note: ComboFix is very powerful. It can remove anything, (even rootkits,) but it can also cause problems. Only use it when other virus/malware scanners have failed.

7) Even the best security software is not impenetrable. Backup important files regularly.

Hello!

Here's a link for downloading ComboFix: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofi ... e-combofix

Thanks to those who responded for the tips! Although this malware helped me make a buck or few tonight, this happened someone I go to church with.

If by, chance, any others on here should run across this malware, here's a link to a number of excellent strategies to deal with the problem:

http://forums.avg.com/us-en/avg-forums? ... &id=188297

Linux virii are out there; you and I just haven't ran into one yet. To be safer than sorry, install ClamAV (and its GUI, if you need it) for peace of mind when it comes to these matters.

What flavor is your Linux, 1000Knives? I run Lubuntu 11.10 from 16GB SD cards (ext2 formatted) on my Windows 7 laptop and netbooks (one Windows 7, the other XP) myself, storing music, video, and other data on the hard drive, which is Windows-only. Redo Backup (Ubuntu 10.04 LiveCD, installed on thumbdrive) handles both my Windows and Linux backup needs, along with a 1 TB 2.5" external hard drive (800 GB Windows, 200 GB Linux).

Not only can you do everything you can do on Windows and more, you can do it for free. Some of the free video and audio production software for Linux is better than Windows programs costing hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.

Have A Great Day!

Rob

Another thing to watch out for are suspicious emails from people you know and trust such as friends and family members! This morning I got one such email. No subject line and the body of the email only had a link to one of those sites that links to another site. No way I'm opening that link despite the email being from a "trusted source".

Recently I've had a few emails from people who's webmail accounts have been hacked. I even got an email from someone who had been dead for a couple of years wanting me to click on a link!

I have Crunchbang, it's a Debian derivative, used to be based on Ubuntu, but Ubuntu started sucking, so... I had regular Ubuntu 10 I think? I didn't like it at all, it was noticeably slower than XP. With Crunchbang, my computer is booted up in like 30 seconds, and the entire OS took 7-8 minutes to install on a fresh formatted hard drive, right out of the box with Chromium and stuff.

As far as how I like Crunchbang, well, I don't have Java working yet, and the clock is always wrong, but...screw it. I turn on my computer, it works, plays music and whatnot, fairly happy. I still pretty much suck at using Linux, but my switch to Linux was more the thought process behind a "get a Mac" commercial. I just wish I could get it working a bit better. Crunchbang isn't bad, but it's not really a good beginner OS, but at the same time, Ubuntu ran like crap on my computer, so Crunchbang it is. If I had to do it over again, I'd have just installed DamnSmallLinux, but c'est la vie.

My main problem with Linux is, the dependencies, complete pain compared to Windows for installing programs. But, some other programs install with the easy "sudo apt-get" so oh well. One day I'll get it all figured out when I stop being lazy.

Yes, it's amazing how easy it is to spoof emails.

Not only this, but it's a good idea to treat email attachments with great suspicion, especially if they're from people you don't know. Also another good idea is to use web based email rather than a POP3 client.

That being said, I've only had two issues with malware when I was running Windows. The first being the 'Whack-a-mole trojan that encountered in 1998 on my Win95 machine, and once again in Oct. 2008 when I had issues with the somewhat infamous 'XP Anti-Spyware' trojan that actually autoinstalled via Firefox.

I was able to get rid of it, and uninstalled SP3 in the process due to the security issue it posed with non IE Browsers. --Other than this, when I ran Windows, I never ran AV software due to the overhead issues that AV software causes.

Install an OS which doesn't let e-mails automatically install programs with admin permissions, any Linux distro is good

1000Knives, have you tried Debian? It's low-power and very solid. It's not exactly a noob OS but it's not really complicated either, you just get a good old classic GNOME desktop to play with

I like Crunchbang enough, it is Debian kerneled, I believe. But, if I were to do it over again, I'd do DamnSmallLinux, which is also Debian based, but since I don't envision this system crashing soon, yeah...

Yeah, I know what you mean. I guess that's the price you pay for having something work right out of the box in almost every installation scenario. The intense pain of trying to make everything work as it ought to is what kept me away from Linux for many years. I'm glad all that is finally over.

What desktop are you using in Crunchbang? Perhaps there are some things that aren't needed or used that could be ditched in Lubuntu/Xubuntu, to ease the pain.

The LXDE desktop, and some less bloated alternatives to what comes with Ubuntu, allow it to fit on less than 3 GB of space, giving Lubuntu distinct speed advantages. No Nautilus File Manager in Lubuntu! It uses something else, instead. As for KDE, I never liked it - even 'back in the day'. To me, it seemed too weird, and way too slow.

Take Ubuntu's Unity desktop, for example. OMG, just WHAT on Earth were these people THINKING? If I WANT a Mac, I'll BUY one.

I have always had a great contempt for all things Apple. Lessee... extremely limited software choices combined with a steadfast refusal to provide any support at all to third-party software developers (although, to an extent, this is changing), oddball CPUs, and ridiculously outrageous hardware and software prices, just to name a few reasons I avoid them like the plague.

There have always been, and are, far more powerful, more versatile, and less expensive alternatives to the 'comfruiters' of the world. To hell with 'hip'; give me 'bang for the buck', and I'll be happy. Besides, I have many other more important things to purchase.

OK. It's time to end my Apple rant for now, I suppose.

As for myself, I might play with Xubuntu next, but I have read some good things about Arch and Mint, too. That's another advantage to putting the OS on an SD card - it makes it a LOT easier to make major wholesale changes - and, if you don't like it, much easier to revert back to what you had before - without wiping the entire hard drive.



No problems whatsoever here with either the clock, or Java and Flash Player, either - even across multiple browsers. I use Midori as my main browser, although it crashes sometimes on one of my machines (64-bit). Maybe the fact that it's a 64-bit machine has something to do with it, as it runs on both my netbooks with no issues whatsoever.



Linux DOES take some getting used to. I may try DSL, also; I'd have more room for everything else. However I like the look of LXDE, and I don't want to give it up, but I suppose I could use LXDE with DSL.

Nonetheless, no matter what Linux flavor suits your fancy, there is still the kernel to contend with (now 3.0.15, IIRC). It seems to getting more and more bloated over time, also.



Fortunately, so far, GDebi Package Installer seems to handle every .deb file I've ever encountered out there.

Dependencies, unfortunately, are a necessary evil that keep people from having to 're-invent the wheel' for every single program. This makes new software much easier to develop, keeping in mind that almost all of the software out there is offered to us out of the goodness of someone else's heart. To a lesser extent, Windows also does this; it just isn't as obvious to the end user as it is in Linux.

Fortunately, through the official software channel, (L)ubuntu takes care of most to all of the dependencies for you automatically, with an exception or few. It's the unofficial stuff, and the PPAs that one forgets to add, that can cause headaches sometimes.

Keep us posted on how it works out for you. Fortunately, there's LOTS of online help out there if you get stuck on something. With Linux, one gets quite a bit for nothing!

Have A Great Day!

Rob

Hello!

I think my friend must have clicked on a link in the email that took her to the System Check malware site, as she uses AOL. After all, they scan emails for viruses, too - just like most everyone else.



Fortunately, AV programs like Comodo (also free) has a 'Game Mode' feature.

My friend's PC still refuses to install Windows 7 SP1, so tonight, I go back over there to figure out why. Arrrrrgh!

Have A Great Day!

Rob

I actually like Apple but even I must admit that Lion has dumbed down OS X far too much. It makes the computer feel like a big iPad. Same with Unity.

Unless you use KDE, MATE is the way forward as far as Linux UIs go IMO. GNOME 3 and Unity are both crap, and Ubuntu is making itself look unattractive to a lot of its users by "simplifying" itself too much.

Crunchbang, or rather more correctly #! Linux uses Openbox WM with Thunar for File management. --To get a feel for it, you should be able to logout of your desktop session in Lubuntu and login running Openbox only. The only real differance that you will experience is that you will be using PCmanFM for file management instead of Thunar.