Red Screen Biohazard

[martin-737]

Hey! My friend's computer is infected with this nastie that installed a big red desktop backgroud with a biohazard symbol and a message of "your privacy could be in ganger" (more or less). Other syptoms include internet browsers opening with offers of virus scaning, speed test and what not.
HijackThis did not get rid of it, neither did spybot. Any suggestions?
:knife:

[CCT]

Access a system restore point from a couple days before the infection appeared.

If it doesn't show, turn system restore off, reboot, and turn it back on and set a new restore point.

You can run a Trend Micro on-line scan or some other BUT the more you play with it the harder it may be to remove.

[slgrieb]

Martin, this is almost certainly another Smitfraud variant. I haven't seen this one yet, but it sure sounds typical of the breed. If you friend IS NOT running Vista, use the instructions in this link: http://wiki.castlecops.com/Malware_Removal:_SpyAxe_Removal

In spite of what the CastleCops page suggests, the SmitfraudFix tool doesn't run under Vista. Otherwise, it is usually effective. If he has the infection on a Vista machine, the trial version of Eset's NOD32 will usually kill it. For-pay solutions that work well are SpySweeper and Spyware Doctor.

[martin-737]

This two threads worked wonders for me,

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=10835&pid=74937&st=0&#entry74937

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=10825&pid=74842&st=0&#entry74842

although in my case the SDfix was enough, and I also had the white desktop symptom.

Thanks a bunch!