Keylogger

[victor43]

I believe my system is infected with a keylogger. AVAST has not detected it can someone tell how to go about in cleaning my system of this keylogger ?

Thanks in advance.

[Hermite15]

hi and welcome,

as to your issue, more precisions needed obviously... how did you detect it, what are the signs that you have a keylogger?

[pinnacle]

i would try this free application, http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/ A-Squared Free

[DavidR]

What are the symptoms of your suspicions ?

If you haven't already got this software (freeware), download, install, update and run it and report the findings (it should product a log file).

• 1.  MalwareBytes Anti-Malware, On-Demand only in free version http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/malwarebytes/mbam-setup.exe, right click on the link and select Save As or Save File (As depending on your browser), save it to a location where you can find it easily later.
• 2. SUPERantispyware On-Demand only in free version.

Don't worry about reported tracking cookies they are a minor issue and not one of security, allow SAS to deal with them though. - See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie.

What is your firewall ?
The reason for asking key-loggers to be of use must send the data gathered home and a firewall with outbound protection would be a line of defence.

[victor43]

hi and welcome,

as to your issue, more precisions needed obviously... how did you detect it, what are the signs that you have a keylogger?

Thanks Logos.

I can tell that there is an application monitoring my keystrokes because there is a lag/delay during typing. Not present before but after surfing I seem to notice that it picked up. I have WinPatrol installed and running in the background. Also I don't have any other applications running at the same time when typing.

Please advise and thank to everyone's replies.

[Hermite15]

I'm afraid this doesn't mean you have a keylogger. Keyloggers in general should be able to record instantly your keystokes without you noticing anything. The delay you got comes from something else. Check your keyboard settings   ...if it's not that it's something else that might be broken on your install... malware may  be, did you run a malware scan as suggested (with SAS and/or MAB) ?

[victor43]

I'm afraid this doesn't mean you have a keylogger. Keyloggers in general should be able to record instantly your keystokes without you noticing anything. The delay you got comes from something else. Check your keyboard settings   ...if it's not that it's something else that might be broken on your install... malware may  be, did you run a malware scan as suggested (with SAS and/or MAB) ?

I have noticed that my firewall application has warned me that it discovered that its security file(s) have been tampered with but now restored and that I should run a spyware/antivirus scan. I've seen this waring once now.

Thanks again

[Jtaylor83]

The way to prevent future keyloggers by encrypting your keystrokes is to use KeyScrambler from QFX Software.

[victor43]

What are the symptoms of your suspicions ?

What is your firewall ?
The reason for asking key-loggers to be of use must send the data gathered home and a firewall with outbound protection would be a line of defence.

Many thanks

You will type something fairly quickly and what happens is you will finish typing and the visibilty of the characters show up a split second afterwards. So your ahead of the keystrokes. This happens often now.
My firewall is PC Tools Firewall Plus.

[victor43]

The way to prevent future keyloggers by encrypting your keystrokes is to use KeyScrambler from QFX Software.

Thanks for the reply. I will give that a try. Would you know how to tell if its working once downloaded and installed ? Is there a way to test it out ?

[pinnacle]

type some numbers in address bar and look at the system tray where keyscrambler icon is and it will show it randomizing the numbers in different sequence.

[DavidR]

What is your firewall ?
The reason for asking key-loggers to be of use must send the data gathered home and a firewall with outbound protection would be a line of defence.

Many thanks
<snip>
My firewall is PC Tools Firewall Plus.

That should give reasonable protection against unauthorised outbound connections, making it harder if there were a key-logger on the system to upload captured data.

[victor43]

I'm afraid this doesn't mean you have a keylogger. Keyloggers in general should be able to record instantly your keystokes without you noticing anything. The delay you got comes from something else. Check your keyboard settings   ...if it's not that it's something else that might be broken on your install... malware may  be, did you run a malware scan as suggested (with SAS and/or MAB) ?

Thanks again Logos. Yes I've taken the advice of DavidR and downloaded Malwarebytes and A-Squared and SuperAntiSpyware. Nothing showed up on any of the scans. I honestly feel that this malware has stealth capabilities. Hence another reason for thinking its a keylogger.
 

[Mr.Agent]

Maybe do a hijackthis log for them so they can verify more your pc ?

[victor43]

i would try this free application, http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/ A-Squared Free

Thanks for the tip. I downloaded this program and ran a scan. It found some suspect files which it uploaded. The files were not quarantined or cleaned since they were only suspect.