Blaster Virus

[Jeromeavast]

  I have been notified by my provider that my computer has been opening an unusually large number of web pages and that I probably have been infected with a Blaster type virus. But I have run AVAST through a thorough scan and come up with nothing. Meanwhile my Firefox program is very slow in starting and my weather reports in the tray sometimes shut down. What do I do?

[FreewheelinFrank]

Hi Jeromeavast,

Try a boot time scan with avast! Right click the scanner screen, select 'schedule a boot time scan' and reboot when requested.

Try the usual free adware/spyware scanners.

Ad-Aware Free
Spybot Search & Destroy
SUPERAntiSpyware Free
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

Download, install and update the programs. Disconnect from the internet (pull the plug) before running scans in Safe Mode if possible.

Always select the option to quarantine any malware found rather than delete it, then you will be able to restore files or registry entries wrongly identified as malware- a rare but not unknown event for any malware scanner.

Try some online scans. (Disable avast! while scanning.)

F-Secure
BitDefender
Trend Micro Housecall
ESET Online Scanner

If still having problems, post a HijackThis! log.

[DavidR]

What Operating System are you using ? is it up to date ?

I would also suggest a visit to this site, when there is some calm in the storm (no pun intended), http://secunia.com/software_inspector/ and insure your system and several other components are fully up to date.

As Blaster is a very old worm and was able to thrive because it was able to exploit vulnerable systems, which when patched with security updates. So if this is a blaster style infection it too could be exploiting security vulnerabilities.

[wyrmrider]

ditto on the scans suggested by freewheeling
be sure and UPDATE
on MBAM put a check mark next to any baddies and then click REMOVE CHECKED- a backup will be made
for now a quick scan in normal mode is ok

on SAS Clean and Quarantine
on Spybot Quarantine
post the logs
on SAS and Spybot edit out cookies

ignore any hits in RESTORE or in files unable to open- we- will deal with later if need be