GAOBOT: A POS virus that really screwed my system over!

[Dark Fact]

Well everyone, the trouble with my system is finally over.  Here's how it all went down:

-Yesterday evening, I spent a good 2 hours on my computer using homestead housecall to eliminate malware and backdoor intruders on my computer.  However, that didn't seem to stop the massive slowdowns.  On top of all that, I found that the memory from my C drive was getting mysteriously sucked away and I had to clear out my history folder after every use of the internet to retain whatever memory was left.

-This evening, I found out that I couldn't even access my MSN Live Messenger AND my e-mail account! I was getting really pissed as I was able to access my e-mail easily from the university's computer so it had to be something on my system but I didn't know f*cking what! I then decided to check on my Norton security settings and to my shock, I found out that the GAOBOT worm that infected my system earlier didn't go without leaving some lasting damage to my system programs.  The f*cking virus had ALL of Norton security completely disabled leaving room for malware, trojans, and backdoor worms to come crawling into my system.  I immediately tried to go on the internet to find a way to correct this problem but guess what? MY WEB BROWSER WOULDN'T WORK ANYMORE!!! That was the last f*cking straw.  I didn't want to do it but I had no choice.  I had to use system restore to restore the system to what it was before all this shit went down.  But wait, it gets better.

-After system restore completed and windows XP booted up and I was getting my programs reinstalled, I kept getting pop-up messages from my system informing me that I had 55 system errors and every time I clicked OK, the system would keep shutting down and rebooting.  I had to put up with that in addition to rebooting the system every time each of my programs got installed.  Thus, I had to sit on my computer for 3 f*cking hours installing programs, dealing with freeze ups, and rebooting my system until everything finally settled down.  I got my Norton Internet security up to date so I won't be dealing with anymore problems with that piece of shit virus, GAOBOT!

In closing, I want to say that my sister has no chance in HELL of ever using my computer or getting me to install anymore programs on my computer.  I want to thank everyone here for all their help in this endeavor and rest assured, it was most appreciated.

[nodtveidt]

It goes without saying that if Norton was doing its job in the first place, this wouldn't have happened. Truth be told that Norton is a piece of shit.

[Dark Fact]

Actually, to be honest, my free trial offer with Norton expired a long time ago and I didn't bother updating it as I had to pay to renew my subscription.  However, after I restored my system and it re-installed Norton, it gave me another 3 month free trial so now all my virus definitions and security are up to date.

[Necromancer]

Again, let me suggest Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus.  It's updated regularly and it's free forever - not just a three month free trial.  I won't say that it's the best in the world, but it's much better than getting another virus.  There are other free alternatives out there as well, and you have the next 90 days to find one that you like.  Or you can just keep your sister away from your computer = problem solved. 

[Dark Fact]

The funny thing is, my sister has a serious knack for putting viruses on my computer.  The first time she used it, she turned off the firewall so she can buy herself some shoes from some online store that required her to turn off her firewall before going through with the purchase.  Needless to say, I noticed some serious slowdowns on my computer and had to use Norton to deal with it. 

After my sister moved away, I never had any problems with viruses.  Hell, even after my free trial offer to Norton's Internet Security expired, I still never had any viruses or Trojan Horses or any of that other shit.  It was all when my sister had me install LIMEWIRE that upped the risk.  She even assured me that she uses the program on her laptop and never had problems and I believed her!

Again, let me suggest Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus.  It's updated regularly and it's free forever - not just a three month free trial.  I won't say that it's the best in the world, but it's much better than getting another virus.  There are other free alternatives out there as well, and you have the next 90 days to find one that you like.

Got a link?

[m1savage]

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php   (hijackthis)
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php

All are free and quite useful. Surf safe!

[Dark Fact]

Thanks! I'll look into those.

[Necromancer]

Ah - you beat me to it m1savage! 

[TR0N]

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php
All are free and quite useful. Surf safe!

I've used them there good at weeding out spyware etc 

[nodtveidt]

AVG and Ad-Aware are both extremely useful pieces of software.

[Keranu]

Ad-Aware is good stuff. I also like AntiVir.

[akamichi]

Glad to hear you got your computer fixed up Dark Fact.  It's always a pain in the ass to undo what those stupid viruses screw up.  I'll just throw some ideas out there, maybe somebody will find them useful.

When weird stuff starts happening on my PC, I usually run AdAware, HijackThis, Spybot Search and Destroy, etc.  I usually don't have an antivirus program running, but I use ClamAV (free) on my laptop.

Of course prevention is the best defense.  Get a firewall either software like ZoneAlarm or hardware... pretty much every broadband router these days.  Even though XP has the built in firewall, a lot of the viruses are designed to disable it.  Probably the biggest help and biggest PITA (at least on XP) is not logging in as an administrator.  Don't do this unless you understand the consequences. Most likely your accounts already have admin rights so you don't notice a thing, but it's actually a security risk.  I'm just a plain ol' user (basic user rights) on my laptop and there's a lot of things you can't do unless you log off and log back on as an admin or use the "run as" command.  One big thing is that I can't burn CD/DVDs without being an admin.  Also, games usually want admin rights for whatever reason (bad design IMO).  Again, this is an option that hardly anybody does because it's such a pain to use your system.  The benefit is that if some crapware gets on your system, it can't install itself because it doesn't have rights. 

Oh and patch your system. MS puts out patches every month. 

[nodtveidt]

I miss the customisable user rights system that Windows 2000 had. Windows XP really dumbified the whole process. You're either too limited or too wide open to do jack shit either way. I set my account as a normal account (not Limited), and I don't run antivirus...the only thing I've ever gotten was that PurityScan piggyback (likely from one of the Performics sites I visit often) but that's it...and it was ubereasy to dispose of. We have a broadband firewall with VERY specific rules set, and my XP install is tweaked anyways with tons of patches from MS as well as some homebrewed fixes to enhance security. System Restore is disabled, since it tends to cause more problems than it fixes. But most importantly, I don't visit seedy websites, allow ANY sites to install software that I don't know wtf it's installing, I don't open email attachments at ALL (ESPECIALLY from "people I know", these are always the first to kick your ass), and any unusual files I download from eMule or any other p2p app are run inside a VMware virtual machine so they can be tested in an airtight environment to eliminate "real" damage. Furthermore, I make regular backups of the registry manually, so any registry changes can be reverted extremely easily. After 22 years behind a keyboard, I've only been infected by a major virus once, and it affected thousands of people as well (Microsoft patched it up a couple of days later...sure took em long enough, and no antivirus stopped it).

[Dark Fact]

Really appreciate the onslaught of suggestions you guys are pitching. I don't suppose I could ask any of you guys in the future for programming help, could I?

[nodtveidt]

Depends on what kind of programming help.