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Hive: Musings about Crothian

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Heh. I just spent most of the last two days fighting a nasty Trojan and then cleaning up after it. Haxdoor-L. Nasty stuff. Resets your computer when you run virus-scanning software or try to clear your temporary internet files and prevents you from updating some anti-virus programs and Windows.

I learned a lot thanks to it, though. Nothing better than learning by doing, ya know? :)
 


Darkness said:
Resets your computer when you run virus-scanning software or try to clear your temporary internet files and prevents you from updating some anti-virus programs and Windows.
I had a similar virus once, but besides this its primary function was to make my keyboard click on the 16th day of each month. It didn't have any other negative effects.
there are some mighty whimsical hackers out there, along with the maliginent ones.
 


Evilhalfling said:
I had a similar virus once, but besides this its primary function was to make my keyboard click on the 16th day of each month. It didn't have any other negative effects.
there are some mighty whimsical hackers out there, along with the maliginent ones.
Mine installed spyware and such and possibly tried to enable its owner to get into my computer. (Not that he likely could anyway; my firewall is an external, router-based one and its settings can't be affected in any way from my computer. It's set to let nobody in, no matter the circumstances.)
 

Darkness said:
Heh. I just spent most of the last two days fighting a nasty Trojan and then cleaning up after it. Haxdoor-L. Nasty stuff. Resets your computer when you run virus-scanning software or try to clear your temporary internet files and prevents you from updating some anti-virus programs and Windows.

I learned a lot thanks to it, though. Nothing better than learning by doing, ya know? :)
So what'd you end up doing?
 

I kept it off-balance with 4 different anti-virus/spyware programs and then killed it manually. A Google search on an uninfected computer told me what the names of its files are so I could track them down and slaughter them. I also manually deleted contents of the temp internet files folder. I also got a few anti-virus program updates with the help of another computer. At last, my weapons were sufficient to defeat it.

It still left some damages to my OS, though. Turns out it had destroyed the content of the Hosts file. Which is kinda like an address book for computers. Usually, it contains only the localhost address (the same for all computers) but you can also store other IP addresses in it to access the corresponding web sites faster - or block them, depending on exactly what you enter. Haven't tried it yet myself, though, and it's also problematic when the site in question changes its IP address ('cause the browser will of course still look for it under the address you told it).
Windows Update apparently needs it to be intact. A friendly Brit in rpg.net told me that the symptoms I described to him indicated that checking on this file would be a good idea. So I did it.

I also installed Firefox and, when I was done fixing Windows Update, about 40 Windows updates. (And that even though I already installed a lot a few days ago.)
Firefox seems to be a pretty cool browser so far, BTW.
 

I kept it off-balance with 4 different anti-virus/spyware programs and then killed it manually. A Google search on an uninfected computer told me what the names of its files are so I could track them down and slaughter them. I also manually deleted contents of the temp internet files folder. I also got a few anti-virus program updates with the help of another computer. At last, my weapons were sufficient to defeat it.

It still left some damages to my OS, though. Turns out it had destroyed the content of the Hosts file. Which is kinda like an address book for computers. Usually, it contains only the localhost address (the same for all computers) but you can also store site names with their IP addresses in it to access the corresponding web sites faster - or block them, depending on exactly what you enter. Haven't tried it yet myself, though, and it's also problematic when the site in question changes its IP address ('cause the browser will of course still look for it under the address you told it).
Windows Update apparently needs it to be intact. A friendly Brit in rpg.net told me that the symptoms I described to him indicated that checking on this file would be a good idea. So I did it.

I also installed Firefox and, when I was done fixing Windows Update, about 40 Windows updates. (And that even though I already installed a lot a few days ago.)
Firefox seems to be a pretty cool browser so far, BTW.
 

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